The Project:
U-Live is a concert and festival promoter with a unique portfolio of both established and new-to-market event brands. U-Live works at the heart of global youth and entertainment culture to springboard event concepts in to the mainstream.
The global family of events include Nocturne (live at Blenheim Palace), The Long Road (country music), Sundown (bass and pop music), Love Supreme Jazz Festival and Camp Elwood, a pop-up campground on the Norfolk coast. U-Live, through LWE, has also initiated major live and virtual events in the electronic music sphere, including Junction 2, a virtual electronic music festival, Tobacco Dock Virtual, that offers concerts and other events in a 3D environment replicating the famous London venue, and Elrow Town, which sees the famous party brand bring its shenanigans to London, taking over the capital’s Trent Park for a day of madness soundtracked by some of house music’s finest DJs.
U-Live also launched a totally new concept last year with the Kite Festival, a festival bringing together ideas and music during three days, in Oxfordshire in June 2022.
Our Solution:
U-Live selected Noba as part of a tender process to work with them and their connectivity consultant Paul Nicholls from NVents across all the summer festivals.
Noba provided Internet services at each site, site-wide connectivity for production, bars, rate cards for traders and sponsors, and CCTV and VoIP solutions.
Round-the-clock show support was provided to ensure each show went without interruption on the network.
Challenges:
Internet connectivity is always the trickiest regarding greenfield sites, and providing large networks supporting thousands of users is always challenging. In addition, the Noba team had to work with tight budgets and timelines, meaning there were limited options when it came to Internet options.
We combined various Internet solutions such as Starlink (low latency high speed satellite service) and long-range 4/5G using directional antennas to connect to less congested cell towers. This meant we were able to provide a lower cost solution than a traditional fibre leased line, but with enough bandwidth and reliability to service each of the festival sites.
The chaos of a greenfield festival site, such as weather, layout changes, and build delays, always adds to the fun of getting these festival sites live in time, but the Noba team always rises to the challenge.
