Oprah’s “The Life You Want Weekend”

In 2014, Oprah Winfrey went on an eight city, motivational speaking tour. Proventure Networks, on behalf of Divergent Dynamics, designed, installed and supported a high density, temporary wireless network for each tour location. Each venue ranged in size from 17,000 to just over 24,000 seats.

For each site, technicians arrived on Wednesday afternoon and stayed through Sunday morning. They were required to survey, design, install and test the wireless network prior to the start of the event on Friday afternoon; monitor the two-day event; and then remove, box and load equipment onto the trucks within a few hours after the completion of the show on Saturday night.

In addition to the arena, there were two areas that required wireless access for Point-Of-Sale applications as well as a sponsor created application for attendees to interact with the sponsors during the breaks. The outdoor event space that housed the majority of the sponsors, a music stage, and a few merchandise booths was known as O-Town. There was also coverage needed in the concourse area of the arenas for additional merchandise booths.

TEach location provided a multitude of obstacles in relation to the design, installation and optimization of the wireless network. Each venue was different in respect to the size, layout and accessibility of locations that the equipment was permitted to be installed. Even with all of the issues and tight time lines, the networks were established, providing the high capacity coverage required.

Loews Royal Pacific Hotel

Client requested Proventure Networks to complete a network installation and testing for Lowe’s Royal Pacific Hotel in Orlando, Fl. Initial scope of work requested three technicians to complete installation of 74 Ruckus access points, 55 HP switches, and 15 Linksys wireless bridges.

At the property, technicians completed the installation of all access points, switches and wireless bridges. They also configured the switches for guest wired access, adding both wireless and wired port testing for all 1005 rooms and 85,000 square feet of meeting space.

However, since there was no initial site survey completed of this property, the design that was supplied was for a one-to-one swap of existing wireless access points. After completing and analyzing the post-installation survey, Proventure Networks made recommendations on the areas that required additional coverage.

The final completion time was 22 days. The job was, however, done correctly and efficiently, even though the site had not been surveyed initially in addition to equipment delivery delays. Immediately following the completion of the installation, Proventure Networks was requested to assist in troubleshooting of another Loews property located in the area.

Inn at the Ball Park

IT Hospitality hired Proventure Networks to provide cabling and networking solutions for Inn at the Ball Park in Houston, Tx. The install team was tasked to network 12 floors, 200 guest rooms, and 5,800 square feet of meeting space at the property. The scope-of-work included installation of 40 CAT6 cables, 40 Cisco access points, and 17 Cisco switches. It was scheduled for two technicians to complete in seven days.

The technicians faced some cabling issues because the property wanted to control the number of ceiling-access hatches. The technicians had to work at a slower pace to accommodate this change in the scope-of-work. In addition, the property had drywall ceilings with multiple firewalls; making it difficult to get around corners to install cables. After installation of these cables, however, technicians were able to certify all the cables with no issue.

Fortunately, there were no issues in getting the network up after the cabling portion of the project was completed. The installation was completed in the allotted time given for this assignment.

Marriott Marquis

Proventure Networks was tasked by a client to install 333 Ruckus access points, 37 HP switches, and 75 Ruckus wireless bridges at the Marriott Marquis, San Francisco, Ca. This property has 41 floors, 1499 guest rooms, and over 117,000 square feet of meeting space.

Initial issues at the property included equipment delivery delays and cabling (which was assigned to a third-party company) that was not completed as scheduled. The layout of the cables also differed from the schematics we were given as the layouts for the access points. Our technicians had to analyze the layout to ensure there would still be proper coverage of the network at the new access point locations. Despite these obstacles, Proventure Networks was able to complete the install and configuration of the access points, switches and wireless bridges within the scheduled timeline.

The ISP (internet service provider), however, was a week late getting the circuit turned on, which meant a delay in turning up the network and configuring the servers. A technician from Proventure Networks returned to the site for another four days to complete additional configuration and testing of the installation at the property.

Fernbank Museum

Proventure Networks provided cabling and networking installation for a 160,000 square foot natural history museum, located in Atlanta, Ga. The scope-of-work included pulling CAT6a cables to 69 Cisco access points and installing seven Cisco switches. The project was given 42 days to complete with four technicians on site.

Initial challenges include working after hours from 10PM to 7AM to accommodate the museum’s operating schedule. The access points installed were used in conjunction with a Real Time Location tracking system by Cisco. The access points had to be in specific locations to triangulate guests using the application; so many access points could not be installed on the ceilings. Proventure Networks designed a mount that could be dropped down from the ceiling in order for the tracking system to work properly. In addition, the property wanted all equipment to blend in with the surroundings. Outside of the scope-of-work, the technicians painted the access points (property was advised that this would void the warranty), poles, mounts and cabling in order to meet this criterion.

The project was completed ahead of schedule in 28 days. This was the first network install to include Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences Solution, a network-based location, location analytics, and billboard system.