Wifi Bandwidth Issues: Sound Rig/Lighting Rig/Tour Rig

[Chris Chapman]

Ran into an interesting issue this weekend on a tour that used my venue, and my background on wireless connectivity has me scratching my head:

They were running the Prosonus Wireless iPad App for FOH mising, instead of running a Console out into the house. The had their own wireless routers inline for communication to their mixer, which was backstage right. I first thought this was just the monitor mix, and the A1 set me straight that it was the monitor and FOH mixer.

Our FOH also has a wireless router to run StageMix, this is dedicated with no InterNet connection.
Our ION also has a wireless router to run iRFR apps, this is also dedicated with no InterNet connection.
The space has wifi, broadcasting 3 network access points to the internet as well.

The tour kept dropping their connections to their console, until I unplugged ALL of our routers. Then they had the bandwidth to maintain connections for the show with no drops.

The A1 mentioned they had run into this issue at other venues as well, and when other spaces killed the routers to mixers and light boards the connectivity issue went away.

The tour router, and the house routers are all Linksys E-Series routers. Is it because these are the low end/consumer brand routers and not pro-gear that we're running into this issue? Should I add this to my road show prep to just take them all offline from now on when a road show comes in?

So how many routers can you have in one performing arts space at a time? How do I test my signal strength/bandwidth room? All my devices (laptops, tablets) are always showing full bars for connection as well.

 

[cbrandt]

You might consider just changing what channel your routers are broadcasting on. There can be a lot of noise and interference if there are several strong sources all broadcasting on the same or similar channels.

 

[DuckJordan]

Exactly what the above said, they are likely running their router on a fairly common channel. If you know someone who has a Droid smart phone try a WiFi scanner Ap to see what else is in the area, it should give you an idea as to what you should have them set their WiFi to. And yes the consumer grade equipment does make a difference

 

[Chris15]

There's like 11 "channels" in 2.4 gig WiFi.
But you can only use 3 of them concurrently, they all overlap.

In this instance, I suspect it's a case of powerful AP on the same channel, though having that many APs on the one channel alone will cause a bucnh of collision issues...

The simple solution?
RUN A FREAKING CABLE.
Nothing show critical should run on WiFi, ever...
All it takes is someone with a personal hotspot on their phone and you've got interference...

 

[ruinexplorer]

For wireless that is show critical for me, I use an Airaya bridge running on a different frequency than consumer gear. The only issue I have ever run into is when there is a TV crew with wireless cameras (similar bandwidth).

 

[zmb]

HME headsets and Bluetooth are also in the 2.4 ghz band, but I think those a frequency-hopping systems.

 

[wakkoroti]

A good wifi sniffing program for mac (so that you can see what channel other routers are using) is KisMac.