San Diego Convention Center clients and guests are moving faster than ever down the information highway following a leading-edge technology upgrade by our telecommunications partner, Smart City Networks.

Upgraded to a full gigabit - or a super-speedy one billion bits of information per second – the Convention Center’s enhanced network is now delivering information 1,000 times faster to end users than the previous megabit system. This ultra-fast transmission speed, in addition to greatly improving Internet access and private networking applications for our clients and their attendees, is a tremendous boon to medical shows and other high tech events and their exhibitors because large data and graphic files can be loaded much faster.

“Some high tech shows have been asking for this and we listen to our customers,” said Smart City General Manager Laureen Boykin.

The infrastructure upgrades also included IEEE 802.3af standards-based Power over Ethernet (PoE) availability to all ports on the network, allowing devices such as VoIP (Voice-over Internet Protocol) phones, Wireless Access Points and Wireless Sensors to receive their power directly from the Ethernet cable. As a result of these improvements, the Convention Center now covers all three current standards of WiFi, 802.11A, B and G, each offering our Instant Internet system.

The San Diego Convention Center, as part of its award-winning, five-star service, is committed to providing our clients and guests with the very latest technology available from Cisco Systems, Inc., the leading supplier of networking equipment & network management for the Internet. Our building is a complete Cisco facility, including the new Cisco router, core switch and edge switches that were installed during this most recent infrastructure upgrade.

Also because Smart City is a Cisco partner, our building receives priority service and support directly from Cisco.

“Technology has become so critical to the overall success of an event, it just reinforces how important it is for us to remain ahead of the curve with these leading edge improvements,” said Carol Wallace, President & CEO of the San Diego Convention Center Corporation. “We are totally committed to making our clients’ events the very best they can be.”