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The Pinnacle Q1 2019
Center Updates
San Antonio
technicians and two managers delivering services. Thanks to proper planning and a lot of pre-work, the team was able to hit the floor running, and get this event installed ahead of the carpet crews, and stay on top of new orders and trouble tickets.
Providing Peace of Mind at TCEA
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OR 38 years, the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) has lived and held court at the Austin Convention Center. In 2019 they branched out for the first time and went to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio. It was a learning experience, and one Smart City will get to repeat when TCEA heads to Dallas in 2021.
In addition to all of this, the team got to try out the new Connected Moblie Experience (CMX) system. It was still in the early stages, but it shows to have some amazing features! The CMX system allows Smart City to track the effectiveness of guest wireless infrastructure by measuring Wi-Fi analytics and adoption to find better solutions for the future. Because as we know customers define quality, and in the case of TCEA, the bar was set high.
The team went into the event with next to no information from Austin and had no idea the number or complexity of the exhibitors coming in. Smart City provided a facility-wide wireless system, with interactive sessions in several rooms, and live workstation labs which peaked at nearly 5,000 concurrent users connected on Wi-Fi. The team installed a custom Apple caching server with a 10Gb uplink and tied the wireless buyout to it–saving us several terabytes of throughput, and a lot of outbound bandwidth. The server was Apple directly as a courte-
Los Angeles AEG Celebrates 5 Years at the LACC
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HE Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC), owned by the City of Los Angeles, recently celebrated five years of successful operations by AEG Facilities Management. The public-private partnership has exceeded expectations and established the LACC as an integral centerpiece of convention and special event development in Downtown LA. When AEG Facilities was awarded the management contract in 2013, the privately-owned company set out to increase the number of events, increase revenues, reduce expenses as well as make capital improvements to the aging facility. With nearly 250 events and 2.5 million visitors per year, the LACC
sy to TCEA. More than 100 exhibitor booths required services. In total, the Smart City team installed 94 cabled internet drops and ten wireless hotspots in addition to the buyout. The biggest lesson reiterated in this event is, you can never prepare too much. The Smart City team managed to get all this installed with only three
is now generating approximately $781 million per year in economic impact for the City of LA and has built an operational profit of $35.6 million in five years, much of which has been reinvested in the convention center.
“The team was wonderful to partner with. They were able to help pre-event and onsite to make sure all ran smoothly. The Smart City San Antonio team exceeded our expectations. I came in with a preconceived notion that things would be awful, based on previous experiences, but they made it all work and were an extension of our team onsite. It was apparent they wanted us to succeed as much as we did.” Kristy Breaux, TCEA Show Management
The Smart City LA team would like to congratulate AEG on their five-year anniversary and look forward to maintaining a strong relationship with them for years to come!
