“I did a site recon with the client, the location and the venue’s hardline had a No IP error (so I wasn’t going to rely on it), it all just made sense to reach out to PopUp WiFi for a reliable internet connection that could handle the job.

If the internet didn’t work (which could have been the case), for an event like this, it would have been a domino effect, no internet, no stream, MAJOR refund to the client.

The crew rocked up to site and did their own speed test on their phones and it was like the odd were going to be against us. oOne stated 800kbps, the other stated 100kbps download. So, upload, we weren’t even holding our breath. It wasn’t going to work, especially as we were using cellular internet for the event. We also use Google Drive for any last-minute content updates to the crew on the ground, so that goes out the window at those kinds of speeds.

The team was stressed, but my first words were, “Have you turned on the Pop Up?”
Thankfully, “not yet” was the answer.

I hung up and prepared myself for a phone call to the client that no one wants to make. You know, the “we can’t deliver your event” call.

While waiting for the team to call me back, I jumped on the Telstra and Optus coverage sites to see if there were any outages and coverage maps; there were none.

The crew lead calls me back and says we are good, the PopUp WiFi was receiving 50/25, far beyond the speeds I was hearing and enough for the stream as that was its sole purpose.

I’d tell anyone in the industry that PopUp WiFi is a no-brainer. You need a backup, hot failover, a dedicated network/wifi, or your location isn’t ideal. Get a Pop-up. It’s stable, and it lowers the risk of failure.”

– Michael Hatcher, Technical Event Manager, Scene Change