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[Steve Litcher]

I've had good result using Engenius ENH500. 5GHz, 13 dBi directional antenna beam. I've tried several different flavors of 2.4 & 5GHz home devices when I first started using tablets (PC tablets - Motion Computing; before the iPAD craze). As you noted, most of the home variety only put out 3-5dBi and usually OMI-directional.

+1 to getting it up high.

Regards,
Cory

So, sort of a dumb, theoretical question here... let's say you needed to use WiFi in a large venue, like a typical arena. Would using two Mesh APs (ENH500 or Ubiquiti) with say 13dbi or 20dbm to serve as the "tether" between FOH mix position and stage area offer a relatively stable connection?

I'm assuming it would be better than relying on a single AP at stage position and then hoping the tablet could communicate with it from FOH mix position (or vice versa).

[Tim McCulloch]

So, sort of a dumb, theoretical question here... let's say you needed to use WiFi in a large venue, like a typical arena. Would using two Mesh APs (ENH500 or Ubiquiti) with say 13dbi or 20dbm to serve as the "tether" between FOH mix position and stage area offer a relatively stable connection?

I'm assuming it would be better than relying on a single AP at stage position and then hoping the tablet could communicate with it from FOH mix position (or vice versa).

Do what you want... but in an arena at showtime?  Real console with faders and knobs and buttons (oh my!) and a physical connection to the mix engine/remote i/o rack.

Our arena downtown upgraded WiFi for series of basketball games the 3rd month of the year - and now little else works reliably once the public is in the building.  No crowd?  No problem.

[dave briar]

So, sort of a dumb, theoretical question here... let's say you needed to use WiFi in a large venue, like a typical arena. Would using two Mesh APs (ENH500 or Ubiquiti) with say 13dbi or 20dbm to serve as the "tether" between FOH mix position and stage area offer a relatively stable connection?

I'm assuming it would be better than relying on a single AP at stage position and then hoping the tablet could communicate with it from FOH mix position (or vice versa).

In “theory” I would have to assume that two high-gain directional mesh units pointed at each other would provide a more robust seamless/meshed coverage of the audience area than a single AP from stage.  Just musing like yourself, it really wouldn’t cost more than about $100 to clamp a preconfigured mesh unit on the front of the mix booth pointed at the stage even for a medium sized festival — I don’t do stadiums or arenas.  It doesn’t seem worth the trouble but should provide more robust coverage

[Geert Friedhof]

Do what you want... but in an arena at showtime?  Real console with faders and knobs and buttons (oh my!) and a physical connection to the mix engine/remote i/o rack.

Our arena downtown upgraded WiFi for series of basketball games the 3rd month of the year - and now little else works reliably once the public is in the building.  No crowd?  No problem.

^^This, and towncenters, malls, fairs etc. Everywhere where more than let's say 1500 people are present. And that is with good equipment. With consumer stuff the fun begins with as little as 100 people.

[Geert Friedhof]

The problem is often not only with the signal strenght, but also with the processing power of the AP's and the way clients and AP's can receive and send packets. Wifi is NOT a duplex protocol.

If your SSID is visible EVERY phone in the room tries to connect to your AP, and will keep trying until it finds a network that accepts it. So while you are trying to mix, your AP is handling all the denies to the phones, which all cost packet slots. When the SSID is hidden the phones still probe the ether on all channels regularly to find wifi networks.

It's the ultimate legitimate DDOS attack.

[Steve Litcher]

Thanks guys - yeah. Was just curious.

I've had really good results (so far) with Apple AirPort Express at small festivals (1500-1800 people). Recently upgraded that rig to Ubiquiti Mesh with EdgeRouter. Was just curious how big things could go before there are problems.

[Geert Friedhof]

Btw: every hop in a mesh network HALVES your maximum throughput!

[Cory Chenoweth]

Hide or not hide SSID. Web search will find several reason why and why not to. I'm on the side not to.

This article is a couple of years old, but worth the read.

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28653/debunking-myths-is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure/

[dave briar]

The problem is often not only with the signal strenght, but also with the processing power of the AP's and the way clients and AP's can receive and send packets. Wifi is NOT a duplex protocol.

If your SSID is visible EVERY phone in the room tries to connect to your AP, and will keep trying until it finds a network that accepts it. So while you are trying to mix, your AP is handling all the denies to the phones, which all cost packet slots. When the SSID is hidden the phones still probe the ether on all channels regularly to find wifi networks.

It's the ultimate legitimate DDOS attack.

Point well taken.  To that end, turning off your 2.4 GHz radio should more than double the capacity of your router/AP to handle the scans of large(r) crowds —yes?  Fair enough.  By the way I am by no means disagreeing with you, Tim, and many others here that trusting wireless for large “cannot fail” events is a fools errand. I defer totally there.

That said, wireless works very reliably for me and many others day-in-and-day-out doing events of many hundreds and understanding just how maximize the robustness of my system was the impetus of my original questions.  Maybe in retrospect I could have stated my question more generically as “Given most advancements in prosumer wireless products seem to be aimed at increasing bandwidth/throughput, do those same advancements do anything to increase the reliability of the connection between my AP and the tablet in my hands”?  Thanks for your input.

[dave briar]

Hide or not hide SSID. Web search will find several reason why and why not to. I'm on the side not to.

This article is a couple of years old, but worth the read.

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/28653/debunking-myths-is-hiding-your-wireless-ssid-really-more-secure/

Yes, but to a different point I believe. The article as I read it focuses on whether hiding the SSID increases security or not. What appears to be more relevant here is whether hiding the SSID reduces the number of scans it will encounter by other devices or not.  I remember reading (probably in this forum?) the contention that hiding the SSID will actually increase the workload due to other devices repeatedly “trying harder” to identify a source that won’t identify itself.  Either way, I’ve left mine exposed.

[ProSoundWeb Community]