Manchester Central Convention Complex

The challenge

Manchester Central is an award-winning venue with the capacity to handle intimate corporate functions and large-scale conferences or exhibitions. The historic architecture and state-of-the-art facilities provide the perfect venue for some of the world’s leading events and its vaulted arches and station clock have made Manchester Central an iconic city feature for over 130 years.

Facilities include the purpose-built 804-seat Exchange Auditorium; the 1800m² exhibition, conference and 10,000-capacity theatre space Exchange Halls.

Many event venues experience similar issues when it comes to connectivity and striving to provide a reliable internet connection for visitors, and Manchester Central were no exception.

Common problems with WiFi at event venues include drop-outs and speed issues across WiFi networks and with a variety of devices. Manchester Central were experiencing similar frustrations and were seeking a specialist who could solve these problems so that the venue could continue to deliver a positive visitor experience, allowing guests to stream, post, capture and share from their devices during their time at the popular venue.

Manchester Central contacted Performance Networks and sought advice on where to begin. Following an initial meeting, Performance Networks were commissioned to conduct a wireless site survey covering the Manchester venue.

The existing hardware used onsite was enterprise grade dual-band Ruckus Access Points (APs), with an onsite controller.

Survey results

Performance Networks used Ekahau Site survey/Spectrum Analysis & Wireshark captures to determine what was happening at the venue.

What did this show?

Signal strength was good in all areas, in fact, it was too strong, which was causing interference

Heavy WiFi interference was recorded. The 2.4GHz band was very congested as usual, but so was the 5GHz band due to sub-optimal configuration

Sub-optimal placement and mounting of Access Points. This meant the Access Points weren’t always covering the areas they were meant to and contributing to excessive Co-Channel interference. This was shown using coverage maps per AP

• Roaming issues – clients “hanging on” & not roaming to the correct AP
• Low data rates and old standards being supported
• Too many clients using the 2.4GHz range

The Main Hall could not support the number of people and devices that were required for their large conference/events

The solution

Performance Networks made multiple recommendations off the back of the initial survey and were commissioned to provide a new design for the main hall. Working alongside Manchester Central’s on-site IT team, the solution was implemented.