City Event Technology Planning and Execution

The Situation

The City was preparing for a large public event featuring vendors, food trucks, live music, a drone show, and a firework finale. With thousands expected to attend, the City wanted to ensure that its technology infrastructure could support both the event production team and the public, especially given the challenges experienced the previous year.

How LRA Stepped In

An LRA project management consultant was brought in to lead the technology planning and testing effort. The consultant worked closely with the City’s internal departments and technology partners to identify, address, and test three key areas: network reliability under heavy traffic, continuous power supply to the technology cabinet, and clear, uninterrupted communication between the production team and field staff.

The Breakthrough

To address the network capacity issue, the consultant reviewed data from the previous year, which showed an estimated crowd of 4,000 to 5,000 people had overwhelmed the local infrastructure. This caused severe broadcast disruptions due to network lag and connection failures. In partnership with a major telecom provider, a multi-layered connectivity solution was implemented. It included millimeter wave, ethernet, and broadband access points, all tested extensively. Speed test results confirmed that the park's network was now capable of supporting high user volume while maintaining a stable broadcast stream.

For the power supply issue, the consultant focused on the park’s technology cabinet, which had unexpectedly shut down during last year’s show when general park lighting was powered off. Although the cabinet was on a separate circuit, the switchover to backup power caused a delay that brought the stream offline temporarily. Multiple failover simulations were conducted to ensure power remained uninterrupted. As a second layer of protection, a dedicated generator was added on-site to serve as a backup power source in the event of an emergency.

To resolve the communication breakdown experienced during last year’s event, the consultant worked with the telecom partner to deploy a dedicated communications channel on the public network. This ensured uninterrupted voice communication between the production team and field staff, even during periods of high network activity.

Real-time communication units were secured and preprogrammed with two distinct channels—one for general operations and one specifically for event production. Each unit was registered for network priority to guarantee reliable performance throughout the event. The production team was trained in advance, and on-site support was scheduled to assist with any real-time troubleshooting needs.

The Outcome

The event site was fully optimized for network performance, with the ability to support more than 5,000 attendees using mobile services and livestreaming. Communication tools were tested and confirmed to perform reliably, and all critical infrastructure was backed by redundancies to protect against interruptions. The City and its partners reported full confidence in the systems in place, and the production team was well-prepared to manage the event efficiently.

What It Means

By addressing past challenges with strategic planning, layered solutions, and proactive testing, the City was able to create a stronger, more resilient technology foundation for this large-scale event. The LRA project management consultant helped turn last year’s pain points into this year’s best practices, setting a new standard not just for this event, but for all major City-hosted events moving forward.