Representative deployment · Trade-show / conference producer
Situation. A corporate event production company runs a 10-show annual calendar: user conferences, dealer meetings, and product launches in convention centers and hotel ballrooms. Every show carries a 3-camera keynote stream, a registration system, a press room, and 15–20 payment/lead-capture devices. For their flagship 4-day conference, the venue’s exclusive internet provider quoted $35,000 for 25 Mbps of dedicated bandwidth — plus $2,500 per hardline drop for the stream position, with orders due 35 days out and a 30% late fee after the deadline.
Old-way cost. $35,000 for bandwidth a phone outperforms, $7,500 in drops (three positions), one wired path as a single point of failure, and a rate card that reset to zero at the next city. Annualized across 10 shows at even a conservative average of $35k/show all-in: ~$300,000 a year, rented, owning nothing.
Solution. West Networks proposed the Production Kit:
– Peplink MAX HD4 MBX — quad 5G modems, SIMs from three carriers plus a spare slot
– SpeedFusion bonding with hot-failover + WAN smoothing for the keynote stream
– SIM Injector so SIMs are managed centrally across the whole show calendar
– Pre-staged, pre-configured, and remotely monitored by West Networks via InControl2
Total: ~$15,000 hardware, one-time + ~$250 per event in service and data. Deployed on load-in morning: power, antennas, online in under an hour. No order form, no deadline, no late fee.
Results.
– 180–320 Mbps aggregate delivered across the show days — roughly 10× the venue’s quoted 25 Mbps
– 100% uptime through all 4 days, including a mid-keynote carrier slowdown that WAN smoothing absorbed without a visible stutter
– Event one: $35,000 venue fee avoided against $15,250 spent — the kit fully paid for itself by day 2
– Every later show: ~$250 vs ~$35,000 → ~$34,750 kept per event
– 10-show year: ~$297,500 saved (~$290k+ net of the hardware) — connectivity went from the budget’s ugliest line to a rounding error
– Producer now quotes connectivity as an owned capability in client pitches instead of a pass-through risk