Find out if there is a local company that can (1) provide a fat Internet pipe to the hotel for use by FUDCon Tempe 2011 and (2) work cooperatively with the hotel to get the equipment in place.
I talked to a friend of mine, who is partners with a company that brings in wireless access for these types of events. They'd need to climb on the hotel roof to make sure they have line-of-sight to their tower, but they think they can bring in a 45-megabit connection.
Their normal cost is roughly $2500 for this. I'm working with them to see if we can get the price down, possibly by giving them some advertising as a sponsor of the conference. I'll update the ticket as I know more.
not that it matters for this hotel for this conference, but... I sat next to a guy on a plane this week who contracts to Hilton Hotels. Apparently all Hilton properties are moving from each hotel offering their own wireless/internet, to Hilton central I/T offering this. This means the connectivity at each property will be more predictable, and capable of ramping up and down capacity as needed. Not all properties have been converted yet, but if they have, it should be a win for us.
I'm going to fire off a mail at Zach Giles, one of the ASULUG folks who helped us pick location, etc... He runs a company which does this sort of thing, and we may be able to cut a really nice deal with him.
@jsmith, @rrix -- Great. Please pursue the possibilities (that's a lot of alliteration), and keep this ticket updated with information as you go.
I mentioned this to the Marriott sales fellow who said he was pretty sure that Marriott itself could scale up their bandwidth, for a cost of course. I asked him to send me the options along with the accommodations package.
I'm still exploring this with the Marriott folks. We've separated this out from the contract for now, so we can get lodging reservations underway. They understand we're willing to pay for bandwidth and it comes down to what they can provide, and what we can afford. Will report back here and on the list when there's more details available.
I spoke with my friend again. They're staying with a firm $2500 cost for 45mbit service. If/when we decide we're ready to move forward, they'll send a technician to the hotel to verify that they can get signal to the roof of the hotel. Because this is licensed-spectrum wireless, they'll need to know our final decision at least a month before the conference.
FAIIIIL at trac.
23:34 ( rrix) Zach says ~4000$ between hardware, install and bandwidth if we decide to have it wired in... Seems prohibitively high
23:35 ( rrix) However, if he can get a contract to provide them internet year round, say 20mbit, it would be very easy for us to bump that to 30 or 50mbit for the few days we need
23:35 ( rrix) Hence us putting him in contact with Marriot
23:35 ( rrix) The other option that he suggested, which may or may not work out, is bringing the wireless to the Marriot using Microwave from the brickyard building
23:36 ( rrix) That entails us having roof access to the main brickyard biulding (not the Artisan building where we have rooms reserved), and running cable between the two biuldings, as well as probably installing more APs to accomodate us at the Marriot
23:36 ( rrix) It also means that we'd have to get approval from ASU IT, which may be a bit weary of us shipping their net off campus, even if we are on a segregated network
23:38 ( rrix) So, if we can't get the microwave option, or he can't get a long-term contract with the Marriot, I'm thinking that we should go with jsmith's contact
Next action is for Paul to find out if the CY Tempe will let someone have access to the roof to put up equipment.
Following that, Jared will talk to his contacts to schedule an on-site survey.
I gave the contact into to my contact. My contact will try to setup an on-site survey to double-check signal strength, etc.
The responsible facilities manager is Juan Rivera, who can be contacted through the front desk of the hotel. This is in progress and we'll see next week if an on-site survey has been completed.
Ryan's going to tickle Zach about this, and Jared can do the same with his buddy. The site survey will tell us more about expected costs and whether this will work at all.
I'm going to split off a separate ticket for Ryan, so that you guys can keep status updated more easily.
Jared, can you check in with your guy in AZ to see whether he's scheduled or done the site survey? Thanks.
Have spoken to Juan.
He believes there are 2 roof hatches on the south side of the building. One appears to be in the red box
That being the case, a "peak mount" may work if there is LOS from the green diamond.
I need to find somebody to get up on the roof, and I will call him back to schedule a time. Probably next week.
I talked with my contact Carlos again.
They can't get an antenna on the roof of the hotel. Too peaked, very little access. Just not possible. They tried to see if we could shoot through a window, but the windows were too low. One option is to put an antenna on a man lift or scissor, and leave it there for the duration. The cost goes up, however, to pay for the rental of the lift.
He also mentioned an internet provider very close to the hotel (Desert Internet? He said it was just across Mill Ave), and that they might be able to quote us something as well.
How much does the cost go up for the lift?
Still haven't received a quote on the lift rental, but I've been in contact with Qwest, Cox, and Copper State to get quotes on wired internet access. Qwest's quote came back and was way too high, and I'm still waiting for further details from the others.
Qwest is a no-go -- they have no facilities in the building, and wouldn't want to bring in facilities just for a temporary conference.
Cox is a no-go, for the same reason.
Copper State is getting me a quote from another wireless provider who has done many other installations for Marriott hotels around the Phoenix area. This may be our best hope, depending on whether they can get line-of-sight to their towers.
I'll update the ticket w/ more details once I learn more.
Couldn't find a suitable provider who had infrastructure to be able to bring in additional bandwidth at a reasonable cost. Tried many alternatives, but in the end it just wasn't feasible.
Milestone Tempe 2011: Hotel logistics complete deleted
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