Smart City Networks [1], a leading provider of technology services for the convention industry, recently began the installation of one of the largest wireless networks ever deployed in a convention center in North America at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) [2], in Orlando, Florida.
Jessie Allen, the Interim Executive Director at the OCCC told us “These technology updates focus on enhancing the experience of our attendees,” statedWith all of the other campus improvements that we have made over the past year, Smart City’s massive network upgrade will keep us ahead of our competition for years to come.”
Over 3,100 of the latest generation of Cisco access points will be installed, all having 802.11AC Wave 2 capability, meaning increased speeds for more users. Device capacity will increase by 50,000 to allow up to 64,000 concurrent devices online. With the support of its sister company, Smart City Telecom based in Orlando, the upgraded bandwidth capabilities will far exceed industry standards with a fully redundant network backbone operating at 20Gigabits as well as 40Gigabits of fully redundant internet connections.
With more than one million linear feet of Category 6 cable needing to be installed, the project will take a crew of 26 technicians working full-time for a year. There will be scheduling logistics around the OCCC’s jam-packed show calendar, so we are told that the installers will be working plenty of nights. This is not unusual for Smart City since they have done 20 major network upgrades, of both Wi-Fi and Distributed Antenna Systems, over the last four years, including a new network at the Hawaii Convention Center completed in just 27 days.
The award-winning Orange County Convention Center is one of our own personal favourites in North America. It is the second largest convention facility in the United States and each year the OCCC attracts more than 230 events to the Central Florida area. As a result, roughly 1.4 million attendees contribute approximately $2.4 billion to the area’s economy each year.