May 27, 2015

As spring turns to summer throughout the United States, millions across the nation get excited to go to their local fair. No matter when specifically it is happening, where it is located or what kinds of attractions will be featured, Americans for generations have loved going to the fair or carnival when it is in town.

According to FestivalNet, more than 750,000 people a month attend a fair in North America, and they have over 26,000 events to choose from in a given year. After all, just think of all the state, county and town fairs that happen every year – there are more than 3,100 counties and close to 20,000 municipalities in the U.S, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and National League of Cities respectively. Throw in all of the independent fairs and carnivals that occur throughout the U.S., Canada and other countries every year, and it is very easy to see how widespread and pervasive this phenomenon has become.

The changing face of the local fair
While carnivals and similar events often take on a nostalgic flair, the fairs of today are far different than their predecessors. Gone are the days of paper tickets and hand-cranked games. Now, in this era of ubiquitous mobility, carnival teams rely heavily on digital systems to tally attendance figures and keep everything moving while the fair is in town. For example, Ray Cammack Shows, the largest carnival company in the U.S., uses an e-ticketing system to note how many people are at the fair and on the rides on a given day, and the company’s solution can overall track up to 250,000 transactions daily.

“We’re definitely the only people in our industry with electronic inventory throughout, from the 10,000 square-foot off-site warehouse right down to the game level,” said Bil Lowry, director of IT and marketing technologies at RCS. “An operator scans the toys as they  give out the prizes, and the system updates our inventory in real time.”

Providing a connectivity backbone for fairs and carnivals to support these kinds of efforts is no easy matter. For one, these events can often occur in remotely-populated regions or areas that are sparsely used throughout the year. This means that even if wireless infrastructure already exists there, it is not likely to be able to scale to meet the seasonal demands brought by the carnival and its rush of people. This means that those in charge of running and overseeing the fair must provide their own connectivity, which is far easier said than done if they are always on the road.

“We don’t have the luxuries of brick and mortar IT,” Lowry said.

Firetide to the rescue for nomadic connectivity
Fairs and carnivals in need of a solution to meet their roving connectivity needs can look to RCS as a successful example, and the company has had a quality setup with Firetide mesh networking equipment in place since 2006. Their system consists primarily of a 65-foot tower that has four HotPort® outdoor nodes on it plus a fifth one nearby as backup. RCS also implements nodes throughout the fair, which provides a direct line of connectivity of every booth on site. The solution is easy to install, and signals are not encumbered by metal, competing radio waves or other impediments often found at fairgrounds that can degrade connectivity.

Lowry told Carnival Warehouse that the system cost around $2 million, but it quickly helped them realize major dividends. For starters, the $3,000 to $4,000 a day the company would lose to fraudulent ticket sales in an average day is no longer a problem thanks to their e-ticketing arrangement. Plus, the online network helps RCS better track assets, which significantly deters employee theft and insider fraud. Throw in all the money they save by not having to purchase, print and distribute paper tickets, and the wireless mesh network quickly pays for itself.

“Firetide has demonstrated that it can perform exceptionally well under the huge range of conditions we encounter from place to place,” said Lowry. “We can’t afford any delays or [downtime]. We need a network we can rely on under any circumstances.”

As summer approaches, carnivals and fairs need to be ready. Increasingly, that means having a reliable and robust wireless solution in place to support endeavors like e-ticketing to keep operations running smoothly and to keep patrons happy. To find out more about your options, be sure to contact a Firetide representative today.