Posts Tagged ‘Wi-Fi’

« Older Entries

A Video Tour of Our New Wi-Fi Corridor

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

A couple of months ago, I once again had the fortune of climbing up to the roof of another building in Lower Manhattan, this time at 84 William Street. The plan was to place Wi-Fi access points on the top of the roof pointing down. But when we got up there, it was clear that wasn’t going to work because the building is so steep that no one would be able to use the Wi-Fi on the ground.

Plan B involved working with Taz, the retailer on the building’s ground floor; they were very happy to work with us, fortunately. This means we are proud to announce the creation of three more spaces where you can enjoy Wi-Fi in our neighborhood: Louise Nevelson Plaza (the little island between William Street, Maiden Lane and Liberty Street),  59 Maiden Lane (in front of Zeytuna’s and catty-corner to Louise Nevelson), and at the Churchyard at Trinity Church on Broadway.

But that’s not all we’ve done!

We’ve created the first Wi-Fi corridor in Lower Manhattan! At 168,000 square feet, it runs from the top of the British Memorial Garden all the way down Stone Street and into the plaza area south of Stone Street. It even covers some of Coenties Slip to Water Street, extending to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza across the street.

Check out my guided tour (though, it was really windy, so don’t turn your volume up too high).

I’m sure given our warmer weather this winter you’d like to head outside already. In a few short months, it will be warm all the time and we will have several new areas to enjoy free Wi-Fi outside in the great district of Lower Manhattan.

If you want more details on the WiFi program, click here.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in LM Meandering | No Comments »

Wi-Fi Meandering Part III

Monday, August 15th, 2011

Downtown Alliance Free Wi-Fi Network
This is the third and final part of my Wi-Fi meandering to check out the status of our Wi-Fi hotspots and to make sure they were all in good shape.

We parted ways last time while I was readying to leave City Hall Park. The next stop was 7 World Trade Center (AKA Vesey Park) near the World Trade Center site. My team and I exited the park on the west side and walked along Murray Street, turned left onto Church Street and passed the Walking Men 99, one of our most popular Re:Construction projects that recently welcomed 24 new images.

Then we made a right onto Barclay Street until reaching Vesey Park from the north. Vesey Park has a sculpture called Balloon Flower (red) by Jeff Koons. Check out this interesting description of it to learn more, but suffice to say it is another beautiful Lower Manhattan piece of public art.

Also at Vesey Park is a visitor kiosk. This may not surprise you, but the Downtown Alliance runs that kiosk. It may also not surprise you that since I don’t get out enough, this was the first time that I have seen our recently refurbished kiosk, complete with new wrapping. Frankly, it looks great. (Fun fact of the day: 1.2 million visitors were helped at our three kiosks last year.) The kiosk now has a huge map to help you find your way, QR codes for you to snap with your iPads and iPhones and other devices to get information about Lower Manhattan and updates on the World Trade Center site.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned how much I am fascinated by construction sites, and as I turned to leave Vesey Park for the World Financial Center Winter Garden, I was amazed by the progress at the World Trade Center site.

I really do need to get out more.

It was amazing to walk from Vesey Park past the enormous construction work being done at the site, through the walkway over West Street and down the steps…where I bumped into a good friend of mine from my neighborhood (yes, my neighborhood in Long Island, folks) and we chatted for a bit.

Eight million people, millions of more visitors, and I bump into him. How many people do we know and pass by without ever seeing?

Anyway, we entered the gorgeous Winter Garden and captured even more views of the World Trade Center site and the ability to see the progress from a distance with a little perspective.

The Wi-Fi there was working fine. I snapped some pictures and then used the Wi-Fi to figure out where my next stop was located, a few blocks away. I’d only been to Charlotte’s Place once and only through an adjacent building, not through the front door.

We weaved our way through the World Financial Center, crossed over West Street again via the pedestrian bridge just south of the World Trade Center site and then walked down West Street until we hit Carlisle Street and turned left. That took us to Greenwich Street and almost directly in front of Charlotte’s Place.

The last time I’d been there it was under construction. I had no idea what to expect. Charlotte’s Place is managed by Trinity Church (which sponsors the Wi-Fi at this location) and it’s a community center for everyone to be able to use for free.

I imagined a cafeteria-like set-up so people could do whatever they need to, like eat, read or use a Wi-Fi-enabled device. Instead, it looked nice and cozy, with bright colors and open space with small tables of four chairs. It’s not a large facility, but certainly more than enough room to hang out for a while and get some work (or some playing) done.

Again, the Wi-Fi was, fortunately, working just fine, and so I parted ways with our Sky-Packets guys and headed back to my office.

As usual, I cut through the Trinity Church cemetery via the entrance on Trinity Place, and imagined a day when this entire area of Lower Manhattan would be lit up with Wi-Fi.

Hopefully, that will one day be another meandering.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in LM Meandering, RECon | No Comments »

A Carousolar Meandering

Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

GE Carousolar South Street Seaport
“Hey Jeremy,” Mike, our very own Owen for Business
(try saying that 432 times fast!), called to me. “I got an idea for your next meandering. There’s a merry-go-round at the South Street Seaport and I think it is solar-powered.”

As that was the best idea for a meandering I’ve had in a long time, I decided to make it happen.

I walked out of our building on the Nassau Street side, crossed the street and walked through Chase Manhattan Plaza. Every time I walk through there I wonder what it would be like to have Wi-Fi there (what can I say, whenever I am outside, I think about great places for Wi-Fi). I took a few minutes to enjoy the water fountain that is actually one level below (easy viewing for Chase customers and employees). It is called the Sunken Garden and was created by Isamu Noguchi. I also made sure to step over the plaque for David Rockefeller and under the sculpture, called the Group of Four Trees (have you ever seen pictures in the subway entrance to the 2/3 in the Chase building of when they were putting it together?). David Rockefeller himself asked the sculptor, Jean Dubuffet, to design a sculpture. It is made of “synthetic plastic over an aluminum frame, with a steel armature holding the whole piece together” according to the New York Public Art Curriculum site.

I exited down the steps from the plaza and made a left onto William Street and then a right onto Liberty and walked past Louise Nevelson Plaza (which I’ve written about before and wonder what it would be like to have Wi-Fi there) and followed Liberty to where it joins (and becomes) Maiden. As I walked I passed the Hot Clay Oven, Indian Fusion Grill, which I had never seen before. I love me some Indian food and will have to check that place out (it turns out they were mentioned previously on our blog).

At Water Street, I made a left and started walking uptown for a couple of blocks until I got to John Street. At the corner of John and Water I saw the cool chairs that make it easy to have a conversation with someone, and those big numbers on the side of 200 Water Street. It was created by Rudolph de Harak and it is a digital clock. Can you tell what time it is in the picture I took? Put your answers in the comment section below.

Numbers at John and Water

After that I headed toward the water on John and passed by the packed Imagination Playground (and some kids were playing with HUGE blue construction pieces) and a long line at the TKTS booth (remember that meandering?). The view from the playground, with the tall masts towering over the FDR overpass, is wonderful and makes it hard to believe you are standing in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world.

I crossed crazy South Street and heard the thumping of cars passing overhead as I walked into the South Street Seaport area. If I had a GPS it would have informed me,

You have arrived at your destination.

There in front of me was a white Merry-Go-Round — excuse me. It is not a Merry-Go-Round or even a Carousel; it is a Carousolar. The first solar-powered Carousel in the United States. It was created and built by General Electric (in the interests of full disclosure, this author owns shares of GE, but that in no way played a role in writing this meandering, except to be able to say, “in the interests of full disclosure.”)

It is not your typical Carousolar. First of all, there were six large solar powered arrays with six panels on each one around half of the 1936 model Carousel. Obviously, this is what powers the Carousolar. They also charge the Solar Charging Stations (which I tested and found wasn’t working until they turned it on for me), allowing tourists (and anyone else) to charge their phones.

Second, every horse and pole and bench and even the tent overhead is all white.

I learned many things, but didn’t feel in good conscience, after doing my due diligence and learning about the Carousel, I could give you a true portrayal of the experience without getting on for a ride myself.

So I got on line and found that I was not the only adult curious to check it out. In my professional experience, I found if you didn’t know it was solar-powered, you would never be able to tell. Of course, the emcee kept telling us interesting nuggets of information about solar power and the Carousolar so there was no way to forget it was solar-powered, but you catch my drift, right?

The Carousolar will be at the South Street Seaport through September 6 every day from 10 AM-9 PM and the ride is free.

After I dismounted, I left to walk up Fulton Street through the plaza, but when I crossed Water I saw this very strange sight (fishing anyone?). Once I had continued I then stopped off at Midtown Comics to pick up a couple of books for my kids.

I turned left on William Street and crossed through the plaza in front of Zeytunas and 59 Maiden Lane (wouldn’t Wi-Fi be nice here?) and then made a right onto Maiden Lane and a left onto Nassau until I returned to my building feeling a bit like a kid having ridden my first solar-powered horse and carrying two superhero comics.

You can see all of the photos I took on my meandering by visiting us on Flickr.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Green, LM Meandering | No Comments »

Lower Manhattan Takes Off

Monday, August 1st, 2011

Sponsored by the Downtown Alliance and Featuring Introduction by Mayor Bloomberg, Promotional Video Highlights Lower Manhattan as World-Class Destination


New York, NY (August 1, 2011) – Lower Manhattan is showcased this month in “Delta Destinations,” an exclusive in-flight video series promoting the top destinations around the world in five-minute video features.

The piece, introduced by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, features Lower Manhattan as a prime destination for visitors and a top location to live and do business. The feature takes passengers on a virtual tour of Lower Manhattan’s history, heritage and culture while promoting top area businesses and unparalleled neighborhood amenities.

“We are thrilled to share our growing, world-class community with people from around the globe” said Elizabeth H. Berger, President of the Alliance for Downtown New York. “Whether you are travelling for business or pleasure, Lower Manhattan has everything you are looking for in one square mile.”

“Lower Manhattan is a world-class destination, with stunning water vistas, monumental architecture, museums, parks, world-class shopping and dining – all set among the most famous historic attractions in America,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “With so much to see and do, it’s a great place to visit, and we’re grateful to Delta and the Downtown Alliance for helping to showcase it.”

Starting August 1st, the segment will air on more than 17,000 Delta domestic and international flights arriving at New York metro area airports, reaching more than 2.6 million passengers. The spot also air this month and next in Virgin America’s RedHOT in-flight video program, reaching an additional 1 million passengers.

The promotional spot will air on Delta aircraft main screens and personal seatback screens. The episode will receive preferred placement of first segment in video programming line up and will be promoted in Delta’s Sky Magazine. The Delta fleet is equipped with Wi-Fi and passengers will be able to log on to www.downtownNY.com/delta using their laptops or smart phones, creating the opportunity for immediate trip planning and booking.

Renowned Graphic Designer, Andy Jacobson [http://andyjacobsonstudio.com], a Lower Manhattan resident, served as a pro bono Creative Consultant for the video.

“We wanted the spot to focus on the array of opportunities in Lower Manhattan, said Andy. “With its dramatic growth over the last decade Lower Manhattan, in addition to its reputation as the business capital of the world, has gained a reputation for its cultural offerings, as well as its vibrant 24/7 community.”

The Downtown Alliance reports that last year alone more than 9 million people visited Lower Manhattan, one million more than the previous year, and that millions more are expected to visit Lower Manhattan after the opening of the National September 11 Memorial in September this year.

Lower Manhattan also is home to more than 56,000 residents – more than double a decade ago – and more than 306,000 workers. Visitors can stay at one of 18 Lower Manhattan hotels, triple that number in the area 10 years ago, or visit more than a dozen museums and other cultural attractions.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Downtown Alliance Updates | No Comments »

Wi-Fi Meandering Part II

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

Downtown Alliance Free Wi-Fi Network
This is the second part of my Wi-Fi meandering to check out the status of our Wi-Fi hotspots and to make sure they were all in good shape. Feel free to check out the Flickr set I created

When you last saw me meandering (not wandering as some people thought!), we were at the Elevated Acre at 55 Water Street.

After confirming that the signal was working great at the spot (which is being sent from our access points on the 14th floor), we went down the escalators onto Water Street, crossed the block, and cut under 7 Hanover Square (I really enjoy getting the chance to walk through buildings like that) just north of Coenties Slip, and emerged on Pearl Street.

We turned left, then right, and landed on Stone Street. Not to toot our own horn, but according to Wikipedia, “a joint partnership between the Landmarks Commission and other city agencies, the Alliance for Downtown New York and Stone Street owners has transformed Stone Street from a derelict back alley into one of Downtown’s liveliest scenes.”

Pat on the back, please!

Currently, one of the retailers on Stone Street has allowed us to transmit a Wi-Fi signal from one of its second-floor windows. We’d love to extend Wi-Fi further onto Coenties Alley, the area south of Stone and across from Coenties Slip, and we’re exploring ways to do that, and are reaching out to neighboring businesses.

Otherwise, Stone Street’s Wi-Fi was in good shape. So we headed north to the nearby British Garden at Hanover Square, which was a tranquil spot newly gleaming just after a hosing down. I’ve lunched there a couple of times in the past two weeks, and it’s just so lovely. (If you didn’t know, the garden was created to honor the 67 British subjects who died on September 11th.)

Wi-Fi was working wonderfully here, as well (it’s transmitted from one of the retailers bordering the park), so we ventured east to the South Street Seaport. We walked up to Wall Street, turned right, walked up South Street (which was called South Street not because it was on the east side, but because when our ancestors first settled on this island, this is the spot where the ships came in from which they perceived was the south, or bottom, of the island.)

The Seaport is probably the largest Wi-Fi hotspot we have because it’s both indoors – with access points in the food court area – as well as outdoors; our equipment is positioned outside, sending the signal from the food court all the way to South Street.

While testing it, we grabbed lunch in the food court and then readied to move onto 60 Wall Street, known as the Atrium. We walked along Fulton Street (I’ve always wanted to get Wi-Fi in that enormous shopping plaza area, an idea for the future), down Pearl Street, and turned right onto Pine Street until we reached the 60 Wall Atrium.

As always there were quite a few people there, snacking away, hunched over their smartphones, iPads, and laptops, working away. It was obvious the Wi-Fi was working – and our testing backed that up (although that is one of our most frustrating hotspots because the Verizon line there is often subpar).

Essentially, we actually installed a device (you can’t see it, but it’s with our access points, which are hidden at each end of the Atrium) that can tell when the line has gone bad and reboot the router to try and find the signal again so that the intermittent service we receive via Verizon doesn’t too negatively affect our Wi-Fi users.

Instead of experiencing a hotspot that is completely down, some of our users end up experiencing up and down service, not as reliable as we expect from our hotspots. We are working with Verizon to replace some of the bad equipment installed there, and hopefully that will make a difference.

After 60 Wall, we headed to City Hall via Broadway, passing construction of the new Fulton Street Transit Center, which is expected to be an incredible transportation hub, beautifying the area and allowing light into the some of the underground tunnels, but also combining (or what they call a “rationalization” of) the 84,000 subway stations in Lower Manhattan. Okay, maybe it’s not 84,000, but it is a lot.

These days, the first thing that greets you as you enter City Hall Park from the south is “Splotch,” a sculpture by Sol LeWitt.

Personally, while I am no art expert (though I am married to one), I think it is beautiful because the color is vibrant and exciting, making this really cool park even more beautiful. There are other sculptures around as well, but this one really grabbed my attention, and I had a hard time resisting the urge to linger any longer.

But back to our mission. So, in the past, we’ve had some Wi-Fi performance issues at City Hall Park because we’re actually shooting the signal from atop one of the nearby buildings, and in the Summer, the trees become so thick that the leaves actually block the signal (that is definitely not an indoor problem!). Fortunately, it was working just fine during our site visit.

And I will stop here, maybe to just check out that sculpture again, and fill you in on the final three hotspots in my next installment.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in LM Meandering | No Comments »

Meet Our Staff: Jeremy Schneider

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

MEET OUR STAFF

Jeremy Schneider
AVP Technology and Online Communications

How long have you worked at the Downtown Alliance?
I started here about four months before my kids were born, so that’s easy. More than 8.5 years ago.

How did you land here?
Funny story. I had met a woman when I was still at the company I used to work for (an Internet company named, seriously, NAME) and she was working here and when I submitted my resume it landed on her desk and she remembered me and that got my foot in the door.

What’s your role at the Downtown Alliance?
I’ve been here so long, I’ve had many different roles. I started as the Research Director, moved to managing the database, then headed our MIS department and now oversee all things technology including Wi-Fi and the website.

But you’re a therapist by trade. This is an interesting move.
Yes, my master’s is in Marriage and Family Therapy. It’s really a good foundation to have especially when you think of the workplace as one large family. If you’re looking for a therapist, I’m your guy heh heh.

You’re responsible for Lower Manhattan’s free Wi-Fi network, and now it covers a half million square feet in Lower Manhattan. What’s the response been?
It has been extraordinary, one of the most fun projects I have ever worked on. In 2010, we had over 100,000 connections to our Lower Manhattan Wi-Fi Network – a 96% increase from 2009. Already in April and May, we had our best months ever with over 18,100 devices connected in each month, so I have a hunch this is going to be another pretty good year.

What’s in store?
We just unveiled a new hotspot at Trinity Church’s Charlotte’s Place and we’re working with Trinity on another one at their Courtyard. We are also looking at other partners and sponsors who may be interested in having their own Wi-Fi hotspots like Trinity.

Is it true you are meandering around the district to help people get to know the area better?
Actually, I’m meandering to help me get to know the district better. If it helps others as well, all the better. Even though I have worked in Lower Manhattan for more than a decade, I don’t get out of the office enough and need to learn all of the things have been changing over the past few years. So I walk around, exploring the area and reporting on what I see and my experiences.

What’s your favorite place to eat in Lower Manhattan?
Two of my favorite places are Bobby Van’s down on Broad Street (the Grill) and when I have a craving for Indian, I always go to Baluchi’s on Greenwich between Warren and Murray. My mouth waters just thinking about it. Can we go after this?

You have twins. What’s easier: managing twins or setting up Wi-Fi on 55 Water Street?
Oh, setting up Wi-Fi. Hands down. I’m always looking for new hotspots, but I’m pretty happy with the children I have.

Tags: ,
Posted in Meet Our Staff | No Comments »

A Wi-Fi Meandering

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

49086
Now that the weather has gotten warmer it was once again time to do my spring check-up on the Downtown Alliance’s Wi-Fi equipment and hotspots. I created my checklist, asking: How is the bandwidth at each location? How much coverage is still accessible at each spot? Has anything changed I should know about?

The reality is that I was pretty sure there were no problems with our hotspots for a couple of reasons. First, the Downtown Alliance only receives only one or two complaints each month. Second, in April we had the most successful month since we launched free Wi-Fi hotspots 8 years ago.

The Downtown Alliance experienced more than 18,500 connections to our Lower Manhattan Wi-Fi Network that month, and in May, we had more than 18,000 connections again.

But, my mantra is: better safe than sorry.

I met a team from Sky-Packets, our Wi-Fi vendor, at the Hive at 55, the Downtown Alliance’s co-working facility at 55 Broad Street, which Sky-Packets helps to sponsor. We walked down Broad to Beaver Street, turned right, and meandered up to the front of Bowling Green Park to start our testing.

(In addition to the testing, I wanted to snap pictures of each hotspot [check out the Downtown Alliance’s updated Wi-Fi page]).

8229
Everything was working at Bowling Green pretty well, so we moved further south to Peter Minuit plaza, where Broadway turns into Whitehall, for reasons unclear to me (even after a Google search!), and turns east angling to the river. Peter Minuit is the newly redesigned plaza in front of the Staten Island Ferry terminal and it is beautiful, unique-looking chairs, and has a visitor kiosk (staffed by the Downtown Alliance!) like almost nothing you’ve seen before. Seen from above it resembles a windmill, but since you probably won’t get that perspective you can check out this image from our local news source The Broadsheet.

Unfortunately, the Verizon DSL line was down and there was no service there or across the street at the Whitehall-Water Street Pedestrian Plaza. One Sky-Packets staffer stayed behind to address the problem. When we set the hotspot up, we installed what’s called an iBoot, that can check when the line is bad and reboot our Wi-Fi to see if it can get a better level of service. It worked like it was supposed and did provide some stability every time the line went down, but it wasn’t fixed until Verizon was able to solve their problem in the neighborhood (which fortunately happened that same day).

Meanwhile, I continued with the rest of the team, walking up Water Street to 55 Water (where I saw the falcons last month) and the Vietnam Memorial Plaza and Elevated Acre.

Our access points are on the 14th floor and it turned out that someone decided to put a large flood light right in front of one of our access points, but it still worked pretty well, and the other one worked great. While there were definitely some people taking advantage of our free Wi-Fi on the plaza, there was a class of high school students who were actually using pen and paper to work on something. It was strange seeing 20-30 kids, all with papers in front of them and not a single technological device in sight.

ElevatedAcre4
We left that behind and walked up the steps to the Elevated Acre, one of my favorite places in Lower Manhattan, because you really forget you’re in the city and can enjoy a little bit of nature and the excitement of boats whizzing by.

Really not a bad way to spend a morning in Lower Manhattan. I’ll cover the other sites in my next meandering.

Tags:
Posted in Green, LM Meandering | No Comments »

A New Year’s Toast for Lower Manhattan

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

DSC_0003_B

Downtown Alliance staffers make daily life better 24/7

By Liz Berger

New Year’s is a time to consider the past and make resolutions for the future, a time of reflection and dreaming, reckoning and optimism.  I’ve resolved to finish the books on my nightstand, learn how to make pie crust, and work out (this has been at the top of my list for too many years but this time I’m serious).

I also spent time as the new year approached reflecting on the past, present and future of Lower Manhattan—and when the clock struck 12 on New Year’s Eve, I raised a glass to all of us who live Downtown and made a simple toast: We’ve arrived.

When the Downtown Alliance opened its doors in 1995, commercial vacancy rates approached 20 percent, companies that had been downtown for 100 years were leaving, and the streets were getting dark, dirty and empty at night.

Today Lower Manhattan’s 55,000 residents have joined the more than 300,000 people who work here every day and nearly six million annual visitors to create a new kind of central business district, a thriving, round-the-clock neighborhood with 1,050 restaurants and retailers, eight museums, and nine public schools—with one more on the way.

For 16 years, our job has been to advance Lower Manhattan—through programs, service, research and advocacy—as a global destination of choice for companies, workers, residents and visitors.

Here is how we do it:

We make daily life better now. The Downtown Alliance provides Lower Manhattan with supplemental sanitation, public safety, transportation, and homeless outreach. We started a public art program that turns construction sites into canvases and launched a co-working facility that offers affordable workspace to freelancers, entrepreneurs and startup companies. Today the neighborhood is one of the city’s cleanest and safest. Our sanitation staffers bag trash at all hours in all kinds of weather. Our public safety officers are the district’s eyes and ears, continually patrolling the streets, checking in with businesses, and providing friendly assistance.

We support Lower Manhattan’s businesses, employees and residents. We brand, market and position Lower Manhattan to investors, commercial tenants, shoppers, visitors and people who live and work here. We promote local retailers and restaurants all year long in print and on the web, with special emphasis on holiday shopping and summer cultural activity. Our research department produces business reports, market research documents and special publications such as our 2010 Survey of Lower Manhattan Residents. In addition, every year, we produce and distribute two million tourist, WiFi, and Downtown Connection maps, shopping and dining guides, residential living and retail investor brochures, and other printed materials.

We think about the future of  Lower Manhattan. A half-century ago, David Rockefeller and his contemporaries proposed the creation of Battery Park City, the World Trade Center, the South Street Seaport, and countless other public/private partnerships, as strategies to sustain Lower Manhattan as a globally competitive central business district by encouraging the growth of a vibrant, mixed-use community. His legacy of business activism through visionary planning has inspired our work to keep Lower Manhattan a destination of choice for many years to come.

Lower Manhattan has been an active, vital and innovative center of urban life for more than 400 years. Our resolution is to keep it that way for (at least) 400 more!

—Liz Berger is President of the Downtown Alliance

Tags:
Posted in Events, Hive at 55, My LM, RECon | No Comments »

Bringing Wi-Fi to the Elevated Acre

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

Movie Nights at the Elevated Acre

Movie Nights at the Elevated Acre

A crowd gathered beneath us, about 14 stories below, wondering what we were doing. However, after we mounted the Wi-Fi radio, they happily realized what was taking place: Wi-Fi was coming to the Elevated Acre at 55 Water Street.

My name is Henry Quintin, President of Sky-Packets, the Wi-Fi provider that has been working with the Downtown Alliance to provide free Wi-Fi hot spots in Lower Manhattan.

As we wrapped up our 10th hotspot, I wanted to describe what it takes to provide this cool amenity.

First, we needed to select an area to provide Wi-Fi.

In this case, we chose the Elevated Acre, which was a pretty easy decision because it’s a great place to get away from the noise and every day hustle and bustle New Yorkers deal with everyday. It’s a quiet retreat – even if only for a lunch or a quick view of the East River and the landing helicopters.

What also made it an appealing choice was the fact that the Downtown Alliance – as part of the River To River Festival – hosts movie nights during the summer (In fact, there’s another one this Thursday, Auntie Mame.) I’ve seen the crowds on those nights, and so it only made sense to get Wi-Fi up and running before this summer’s first showing last week.

Second,  we needed to come up with a way to shoot a Wi-Fi signal to the Acre and cover as much area as possible, so that no matter where you find a little haven you can have a strong enough signal to Tweet, post a status update on Facebook, or just surf the web.

We already had an existing internet connection because of the Wi-Fi we already provided at the adjacent Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Plaza, but worried that by adding this new coverage area that we would decrease the effectiveness of both hotspots.

Fortunately, the Downtown Alliance stepped in to help so we could triple the bandwidth – making sure both sides of the Elevated Acre are appropriately covered.

Third was the installation. The existing lines at the adjacent hotspot weren’t enough, so we needed to find the right view of the Elevated Acre from the building at 55 Water Street. This proved challenging.

That was how we ended up standing 14 stories up on a narrow ledge testing signals.

It worked. We were able to mount the Wi-Fi radio and aim in downward to cover a wide portion of the Elevated Acre. And, just to be sure we covered every nook and cranny, we mounted another unit at ground level.

Thankfully, despite the high-wire act, no one was injured in the creation of this Wi-Fi hotspot.

With all of the above accomplished, we walked around with our handhelds, checking to make sure that a “good” to “excellent” signal was available at all spots on the Elevated Acre.

But there’s one more task. That’s for you to go out and try it out during your lunch break or a visit downtown. How are you going to use the Wi-Fi at the Elevated Acre?

However you end up using it, Happy Surfing!!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Downtown Alliance Updates | No Comments »

WiFi Upgrade 9.0: Six Up, Three to Go!

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

After my first post on this subject, I was worried. After all, we were having serious issues with our Internet provider. For example, instead of sending one technician to work with Sky-Packets, our WiFi provider, to visit all of the sites, our Internet provider sent several. Suddenly, I found myself running out of the office to meet them at various sites, making sure we wouldn’t have to reschedule again — and probably not for several weeks. (I was so busy that I hardly had time to chill at my favorite Downtown hangout.) I imagined our provider having addresses that didn’t make any sense that were blocks away from the actual hotspot, or were in buildings that didn’t exist. I began to wonder if it would be possible to pull it all together in time for New Years, let alone Thanksgiving.

Fortunately, Sky-Packets has done this kind of thing before. Plus, once a site had Internet access, it often took Sky-Packets less than a day to set it up.

And, despite my fears that our users would forget about us during the lag in service, they came back right away in droves.

Before we go any further, here are the sites that are live:

Bowling Green
Stone Street
British Memorial Garden
60 Wall Street Atrium
55 Water – Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial Plaza
City Hall Park

We’re still working on 7 World Trade Center, the Winter Garden at the World Financial Center, and the South Street Seaport, and hope to have those up within another week. But it all depends upon our Internet provider.

And If you go to the live sites, you’ill find greatly expanded service.

But that’s not all!

When we did finally get Internet service at the site, we were able to increase the bandwidth – often two or three times (in one case, 7 WTC, it will be almost 20 times). This means when you’re online at these hotspots, you’ll be able to do more, see more, watch more — and more quickly than before.

We’ve also created a new WiFi portal page for you to make it easier to find what you want Downtown.

The Downtown Alliance has been hosting these free WiFi hotspots for more than six years, though this is our first major upgrade in almost three. Please let us know what you think. If you have any comments or suggestions about our free WiFi program, send me an email at jschneider@downtownny.com.

I hope you get a chance to get out and log on.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Downtown Alliance Updates | No Comments »

« Older Entries