Location: Barbican Centre
High-density WiFi services
The Barbican is a leading performing arts venue in London – the largest of its kind in Europe.
It hosts musical and theatre performances in addition to other large-scale art events, and its Concert Hall is home to both the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
The Brief
Having previously worked at the Barbican installing temporary WiFi networks for large scale commercial events, Max WiFi were awarded a 3-year contract (issued by the City of London Corporation) in 2019 to provide the Barbican Centre with high-density WiFi services to support their commercial clients.
The project includes exclusively managing, supporting, developing and delivering a quality, reliable, scalable and resilient WiFi solution for the Barbican’s commercial clients, large-scale commercial events, staff and the visiting public.
The Challenge
The entire venue had WiFi coverage both internally and externally, ranging from small meeting rooms to the concert hall with a capacity of 3,000 pax. The main feedback from the client was that the WiFi network was in need of upgrading both for staff and commercial event attendees. They needed a supplier with good response times and a solid plan on how to improve and upgrade the WiFi networks.
Barbican required a clear migration plan involving a full wired infrastructure swap out and the installation of on-premises resilient wireless controllers – to all be carried out over a single weekend.
The Solution
The Max WiFi team conducted several Ekahau Radio Frequency (RF) surveys across the venue to provide immediate recommendations which would improve their existing in-house Ruckus WiFi network, and also allow us to understand the RF environment and to identify potential sources of interference. As a result, we were able to understand the optimal position of both the existing Access Points and the 50+ additional Wireless Access Points we would need to source, configure and install.
To upgrade the switching infrastructure, we deployed a large number of Cisco switches across the estate after securing the most competitive price point.
We have to-date installed approximately 40 additional Ruckus Wireless Access Points into the estate, varying from 2×2 radios better matched to mobile devices to 3×3 and 4×4 radios adapted to service the highest data rates for heavier use by laptops and tablets in high density spaces. We also took on the existing wireless deployment to ensure the budget is used effectively and areas are improved when necessary. Working within a Grade II listed building meant that our installations had to adhere to building regulations whilst being sympathetic to the fabric of the building.
Working under strict service level agreements, we provide the Barbican with an online and phone help desk with appropriate escalation channels if required. No subcontractors have been used to supply the services – network monitoring and management is provided remotely over a site-to-site VPN, providing us with real time insight to identify cabling faults and points of congestion in the previous installation.
As a result of our work, the Barbican have since recommended us to several new clients such as the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Their experience working with us
What the Barbican had to say
“We had been impressed with the level of technical expertise demonstrated by the management of the WiFi for previous events and desired that level of competence to be made available continuously across our operation.
“The size of the team mattered too, where experience of working with giant corporate delivery teams has hindered development, we feel we receive a personal customer service, good knowledge sharing, and we’re taken seriously.”
Dominic Smith, Barbican IT Director
