A Floating Stage, 7,000 Fans, and Four Gates to Get Them In

A live concert compresses an entire day's footfall into a two-hour window. More than 7,000 people had to pass through just three narrow entrances before the show started — and every one of them had to have their ticket scanned and validated over WiFi at the gate. If the scanners lag, the queue backs up onto the street and the show starts late.

The venue made it harder. The stage was a purpose-built floating structure on the water opposite The Pointe Mall, with the performer and crew working from the barge behind it. Backstage needed its own reliable managed WiFi, physically separated from everything the public and the operations teams were using.

And the money could not stop. The box office was selling tickets live on the door, so its terminals needed guaranteed, uncontended bandwidth of their own — a slow box office at a sold-out concert is lost revenue and an angry crowd.

• 7,000+ arrivals through three narrow entrances in roughly two hours
• Ticket validation at four scanner gates, all over WiFi
• A floating stage with backstage crew needing isolated, reliable connectivity
• Live box-office sales needing guaranteed, uncontended bandwidth
• A temporary build on an open waterfront, live for a single night

We split the requirement into three isolated networks so that nothing could interfere with anything else, then placed outdoor access points where each job actually happened: three at the backstage barge, three across the ticket-scanner gates, and one dedicated to the box office. A parallel network was run alongside The Pointe Mall's own infrastructure to carry the scanners and box office without touching the mall's systems.

Each function got its own broadcast so devices could never wander onto the wrong one. The scanners connected to a dedicated ticketing SSID, the box office to its own, and access control to a third — with the network secured so only authorised devices could join each.

The backstage setup ran on a managed event platform — gateway, load balancing and switching — installed on temporary tripod-mounted access points and secured with a shared key, giving the crew on the barge a private, reliable network of their own.

The detail that decided this event happened in testing, not on the night. Pre-event testing established that each ticket scanner needed a full 10 Mbps to validate at speed — not the lower allocation first assumed. The network was reconfigured to guarantee 10 Mbps per scanner and per box-office device, then every gate was re-tested until all of them passed. Finding that in a test rather than in a queue of 7,000 people is the entire point of testing.

On the night, EZELINK put four people on site: two engineers and two support staff, positioned at the backstage, the box office and the scanner gates. Every location was patrolled and checked continuously through the event, so any issue would be met by someone already standing there rather than a phone call after the fact.

• Pre-event testing set and verified 10 Mbps per scanner and box-office device
• Every gate re-tested to a positive result before doors opened
• Two engineers and two support staff on site through the night
• Backstage, box office and gates patrolled continuously during the show

The scanners validated tickets at the gates as designed and were monitored throughout without issue. The box office ran on its guaranteed high-speed connection for the whole event. Backstage, where EZELINK had only limited access, the setup ran exactly as configured with nothing reported.

For a temporary network on an open waterfront, live for a single night, that is the whole job: 7,000 people in through three gates, the money taken, the crew connected, and the show starting on time.

• 7,000+ attendees scanned in through three entrances
• Ticket validation held at every gate, monitored throughout
• Box office ran uninterrupted on its dedicated high-speed link
• Backstage network ran as configured, with no issues reported