Topic: WiFi Stabilty during Venue | Allen & Heath Digital Community

WiFi Stabilty during Venue

This topic contains 9 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by martijn 12 years, 10 months ago.

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

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2011/05/30 at 10:28 am #22807

rreuscher
Participant

Hi all,

After successful testing with TP-Link Wifi Router at home ( worked for hours with IPad2, and Ilive Editor connected ). I tried I last weekend in a venue. I use The Ilive also for my own band, I’m the keyboard player and use the Ipad to control the IEM Mixes for the rest of my bandmembers. During setup everything works fine, connection is ok. During soundcheck still everything works.
But when we start the show and all the lights/strobos/FOH is Pumping comes in, the Wifi gets lost.
Its not that the application crashes, but the Ipad cannot find the Wifi Router anymore ( distance to router 7 feet ! ).
The router is placed in the IDR48 rack, and the antennas are outside of the rack. I thought maybe there is an temperature issue and ripped the router outside the rack, to see if it made any difference.
After switching the router off/on, i got my connection back, but it lasted only for a few minutes, then it comes up randomly, and breaks down again.
In the end I ended up connecting my MacBook again hardwired to the Mixrack, controling the IEM Mixes with the Editor.
Our Guitarplayer bought especially an Ipad2 + MaxPAd to control his own IEM, so he was not that happy….

Does anyone know what could be the issue. I guess interference from Dimmerpacks / Strobos / PowerAmps… But this should not cause a Wifi interference. Maybe it causes interference on the power-supply of the router. The Router is not connected via a UPS/Net-Filter. When its Net-distortion, this might help.

Best Regards,

Rene

T112-IDR48
MacBook, IPad

Nothing is completly true, and even that’s not true.

2011/05/30 at 1:31 pm #28454

woutert
Participant

Try with a stronger antenna. Maybe consider directional antennas.

Wouter

PS this is also the reason why I want a wired alternative next to Mixpad. Editor “Touch de luxe” expansion pack

2011/05/30 at 1:32 pm #28455

ceejay
Participant

I have had the problem many times in venues.
My TP-Link is outside the rack, for placement at a high point around the stage area.
I have a wifi scanner on my laptop, and my connection issues occur when the 2.4 spectrum is crowded with other routers.

Also, not sure of the type of venue or club where you experienced the issue, but many venues and clubs are installing wifi digital jukeboxes. They provide wifi access. Check with the venue operator and negotiate with them to turn off the wireless radio on the router they are using.

CRJ
Oswego, IL

T112 & iDR48
Sony F 1.73GHZ I7 8 Core
Win 7 Pro 500GB HD 8G RAM
TP-Link WR1043ND
Airport Extreme & Express
Dante May?

2011/05/30 at 3:10 pm #28456

Mr-B
Participant

I may be barking up the wrong tree here but what if there are lots of WiFi enabled smartphones in the venue all looking for a bit of the 2.4Ghz band would this be enough interference to cause problems?
Just a thought.

2011/05/30 at 5:49 pm #28457

Joe90
Participant

This WiFi issue is quite concerning especially as WiFi devices are becoming more popular by the day. Its great using editor wireless but maybe consumer level wireless in live sound where 1 minute of problems feels like 1 hour is not the way to go. This Apple youtube clip makes me want to sell my router and go back to cable and the reason why I’ve held off from purchasing an iPad!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znxQOPFg2mo

Is there a more robust professional wireless option for us?

Gary.

iDR-32
Motion Computing LE1700
iPad – sometime soon

2011/05/30 at 6:52 pm #28459

rreuscher
Participant

Hi Wouter,

I already connected 3 external antennas with higher power then the standard ones ( they are not directional though ). The venue was in a big festival tent, but there were now other WiFi access points ( at least I could not see them ) I checked with the venue operator, and they assured me there was no other Wifi gear.
I will check later Tonight the log-files of the router to check if they give an explanation. I keep thinking that it might have something todo with power supply voltage drop or net-distortion caused by Lighting/Strobos etc.etc. I will try this this weekend by putting a UPS with netfilter in between.

Anayway it would be very nice when ther would be some kind of adapter cable for the Ipad to connect it directly to a ethernet cable.

Rene

Nothing is completly true, and even that’s not true.

2011/05/31 at 8:29 am #28464

Albin
Participant

I had often problems with my wifi connection – but as i changed the network to 5GHZ then the problems was gone.
I guess u just have to much traffic in your frequency range.
Try to change to 5GHZ with your router.
Oh, forgot – do the ipad know 5ghz or only 2.4?

2011/05/31 at 9:33 am #28465

woutert
Participant

quote:

Originally posted by albin

… do the ipad know 5ghz or only 2.4?

Ipads can deal with both 2,4GHz and 5GHz.

2011/05/31 at 9:38 am #28466

woutert
Participant

quote:

Originally posted by rreuscher

…adapter cable for the Ipad to connect it directly to a ethernet cable…

Yep, I checked that too, doesn’t exist. Hence why I’m still waiting for a touch implementation for Windows and Mac.

2011/05/31 at 5:47 pm #28469

martijn
Participant

When the venue is filling up, a lot of mobile devices are searching for WiFi points.
Your acces point is very busy handling the request of the mobile device’s.
Turn off the SSID broadcast of your acces point and have security by MAC adress.
Most Acces points have a small proccesor wich goes to max load only by proccesing external devices (this can cause an stop/stutter of your TC/IP traffic)

Dimmers, strobes, Microwave ovens!!! cause a lot of interferance.
Some time it is even better to use a longer cable between you antenna<>acces point.
Antenna’s with an higher gain can also cause distortion (same as you Mic Pre) or amplify the frequency’s that is causing you trouble!

An other thing you can try is to set your antenna’s to the same angle as your ipad/laptop antenna.
In this way you make sure the wave’s are in phase (same as with radio mics)
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