Ya gotta connect with the audience

We've created a prototype game that reflects a couple of the things we're planning for the show - but does it work? Only one way to find out, so we're popping off tomorrow to try our first little group test with actual real people - way out in Perth. No, not that Perth, the original Perth on the banks of the Tay(*).

As I keep saying - more on that later. We're at the beginning of the Big Data Show, so there's a lot of laters to come. But something that's already come up is how do we actually get the audience connected? They'll be interacting through their phones or geegaws throughout the show, so how do we make this reliable?

Trusting mobile coverage is out from the start. WIth any luck, we'll have a reasonably sized audience, and they'll be deep inside a theatre. That's a harsh environment for mobile signals, even in the heart of big cities, and while Scotland has many unique delights, saturation coverage of fast mobile connectivity isn't one of them. I have to use a femtocell in my Edinburgh flat.

So, it has to be wifi. Again, trusting to each venue's own wifi isn't really on: it might be huge and easy to use and secure and all those things, or it might be none of them - and making sure beforehand is going to be difficult, as you can't import a large audience to make sure.

There's only one workable solution, and that's to bring our own wifi with us.

The idea is to have a 4G bridge at a point in or on the venue that gets good connectivity - we think that everywhere will have some 3G or 4G, and we're not that worried about traffic into and out of the Internet itself, although we'll need some. That has a wired connection to a big, beefy hotspot or two in the venue that we set up alongside the lighting and audio, and we manage the lot from the same system that's back-ending the game mechanics. (ooops, bit of jargon there - translation: whatever computer we use to orchestrate the way the audience's games interact. And I'm not saying any more about that, because digital magic hates spoilers).

And managing our own connectivity means we - well, I - have to think about reliability and security. What do we do if someone starts mishehaving with their mobile, or has some nasty spready malware? What if we can't get 3G/4G? What if something goes phut? Things always go phut.

I've asked people who know about such things because they actually do them, rather than just blather on about them, and had a couple of recommendations for a company called Xirrus. I've opened hailing channels, and let's see if they have good answers - and meanwhile, if you've got suggestions or experience in wirelessing up a travelling show, do let me know.

Whatever, you'd better believe I'm keeping a diary. War stories ahoy!


(*) Which reminds me of an old anecdote about The Scotsman newspaper - the sports editor had a scoop on a Formula 1 story, so shouted out across the office to the picture desk for 'A picture of Ayrton Senna'. 'Right-ho!' said the picture editor. The next day, the story appeared splashed across the back page, with a picture of Ayr Town Centre.

Ayrton Senna

Ayr Town Centre (no relation)

(picture credits - Ayrton Senna, Wikipedia/CC; Ayr Town Centre, Geograph.co.uk /CC)