A new rockstar is born!

Running a big festival like Zwarte Cross means you need a decent support. And not just the one on stage, but throughout the entire festival grounds. We’re talking here about a secure and robust wireless connectivity – an essential part of the experience, both for the attendees and the event’s staff, supporting key operations and back-of-house systems, such as mobile ticketing & signing systems, ATMs or security cameras.

Anyone attending a music festival expects a high quality network connection that will support and enhance their experiences. Alas, enabling seamless connectivity for hundreds of thousands of users gathered in one place – often using bandwidth-hungry applications such as YouTube, Facebook or Skype – is not an easy task. The challenge can be met with a good combination of 5G and Wi-Fi, to offload the existing cellular networks.

Considering the high-density outdoor environment and the ever-growing demands in terms of speed, capacity and bandwidth, the organizer of Zwarte Cross 2024 decided to take things to the next level…

As The Who sang about their generation in the 1960s, the young of today who visited Zwarte Cross in 2024 also got to experience a generational shift… the advent of Wi-Fi 7, a.k.a. the new generation of wireless networks.

Extreme Networks, joined again by Indicium B.V. – our long-standing integrator partner for Wireless, LAN and Mobile computing technologies in the Benelux – improved on the wireless setup used in previous years by rolling out AP5020, the brand-new model of Wi-Fi 7 tri-radio access point. Designed to support bandwidth-intensive and latency-sensitive applications in super traffic-heavy areas, such as the festival’s main stage and the Megatent, the solution delivered superior user experiences and operational efficiency.

To make the wireless experience even more seamless, the OpenRoaming functionality was enabled again, after its successful pilot implementation in the 2023. Leveraging advanced encryption technology, festivalgoers once again were able to instantly connect to the secure public Wi-Fi, without having to go through a multi-step process of activating profiles on their devices .

With more users, devices, and applications straining the network, Extreme solutions turned out to be a true rockstar, allowing the team on site to deploy a high speed and highly secure Wi-Fi that enabled seamless social media sharing, instant updates, and personalized content – just take a look at these numbers!

When organizing a large event like Zwarte Cross, it is essential to have a thorough understanding of the users’ activity in the network and ensure its optimal performance. For that purpose, ExtremeCloud IQ – the industry-leading cloud-management platform – was used again to enable a comprehensive view of the performance, health, and security of every user and device on the network.

With the single quality index scores for each wired and wireless client experience, as well as proactive insights and recommendations from Explainable ML, the solution simplified the process for the technical team to track, identify, and troubleshoot connectivity issues and optimize network performance throughout the whole festival.

ExtremeCloud IQ also enabled the provisioning of customized services based on visitor behavior. By integrating it with ExtremeAnalytics, network administrators gained better insights into operational efficiencies and attendee preferences that will pay off in the future, allowing for a better customization and improvement of the festival experience in 2025.

Apart from the Wi-Fi, Zwarte Cross also needed a dependable, flexible, and secure network solution for the back office to manage key aspects of the event, as well as securely connect all staff devices, IoT equipment and services. The challenge? Tight schedule, limited power availability in the open fields, and a shortage of highly skilled personnel on-site.

Zwarte Cross required a network that would be flexible, easy, and cost-effective to set up, manage, and operate. For that end, the Extreme Fabric Connect solution provided a secure and scalable network, enabling the deployment and operation of around 100 IP cameras, among other things. With fewer touch points and the automation of many manual processes, not only did this expedite the deployment of services and applications, but also minimized the risk of human error, enhancing network stability and resilience.

With Fabric Connect, all mission-critical services and applications were fully secure. Combined with the advanced, ML-powered firewalls delivered by our partners from Palo Alto, the solution enabled the technical team on site to deploy a fully segmented, Zero Trust network across the entire infrastructure, ensuring a superior and secure connectivity for all users.

A scent of petrol in your nostrils, some catchy guitar riffs in your ears, and a super-fast Wi-Fi 7 to share this all in real time with your loved ones… Following this year’s motto, “Make Schik, Not War” (Eng. “Make Fun, Not War”), Zwarte Cross once again invited everyone to take a break and enjoy its unique, laid-back atmosphere – an experience that can be only enhanced with an advanced and robust technology running in the background.

Indicium B.V. was founded in 1999 in Barendrecht, the Netherlands. The company is proud of its broad portfolio built up over the years. The knowledge, which has always been needed in every project, makes Indicium today a very reliable company in the field of Enterprise Mobility.

Indicium distinguishes itself in the market through its broad knowledge and expertise in the field of diverse wireless networks. For example, the company proudly received the ‘Motorola Most Innovative Wireless Solution’ award in 2012. Indicium's specialized designers design the most efficient and effective solutions, where functionality and flexibility are central.

Palo Alto Networks, the global cybersecurity leader, is shaping the cloud-centric future with technology that is transforming the way people and organizations operate. The company’s mission is to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.

Palo Alto Networks helps address the world's greatest security challenges with continuous innovation that seizes the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, analytics, automation, and orchestration. By delivering an integrated platform and empowering a growing ecosystem of partners, the company is at the forefront of protecting tens of thousands of organizations across clouds, networks, and mobile devices. Palo Alto’s vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before.