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"Small puff of smoke" at Farnborough: delegates well cooked

Does WiFi need aircon? Maybe... this week, when NewsWireless was trying to do a live report from the Farnborough Airshow, our reporters were more interested in the wireless LAN technology than the planes.

Specifically, the WiFi network was the bait that dragged NewsWireless down there - the prospect of an exhibition with a fully working, professionally installed WiFi campus network.

It failed. Apparently, it was the heat... At least, that's the best guess that Graeme Powell, EMEA boss of iBAHN, could come up with by Tuesday  after a night of forensics.

"Quite a few of the chalets used by private exhibitors around the site had no problems at all," Powell reported after the embarrassing (and expensive! - paying punters were offered money back) crash. "But in the main exhibition areas, it just died."

Investigations uncovered some errors, possibly caused by using unfamiliar equipment, possibly just programmer pen slips. "But we think the main problem was quite probably the heat; we think that the wireless nodes were overheating, closing down, getting cool enough to restart, restarting, and then overheating..." Powell said.

And the heat? Well, yes, everybody knew it was going to be hot. But there was an aircon unit designed to reduce the oppressive temperatures inside the exhibition tents, and (to quote the official bulletin) "a puff of smoke was seen, and the air conditioning unit was accordingly closed down."

The site was hot again yesterday - maybe hotter, and according to Powell, the WiFi network worked just fine. So the forensics continue...

 Footnote: anybody who knows just how hot it was during Farnborough week, will perhaps understand how the early edition of this story referred to Graham Palmer, rather than Graham Powell. A full forensic investigation would be tedious, because we know what happened: the Editor lost his marble...

Tags: Farnborough Airshow, WiFi