Case Study: Friedrichstadt-Palast achieves reliable, centralized Wi‑Fi and improved guest connectivity with Cisco Meraki

Providing theatre goers and employees with secure and reliable Wifi access

Friedrichstadt-Palast, the world’s largest theatre palace in Berlin that draws nearly 700,000 visitors annually, faced fragmented, individually managed networks that left offices with limited connectivity, no consistent guest access, and little visibility or control. IT Director Andreas Kahlenbach chose Cisco Meraki to provide a centrally managed wireless and switching solution to meet evolving staff and visitor needs.

Cisco Meraki extended the existing switch fabric and deployed mixed 802.11n/802.11ac access points in a five-floor star topology, configured three SSIDs (RADIUS for staff, pre-shared for some guests, and Facebook WiFi for the main guest network), and used the Meraki dashboard, automatic RF optimization, VLAN tagging, security radio and Layer 7 firewall rules. The solution supports about 2,000 simultaneous guests and employees, delivers reliable venue-wide WiFi, isolates guest traffic from corporate systems, provides 24x7 threat scanning and bandwidth controls, and improved guest sign-on and staff roaming — measurable outcomes attributed to Cisco Meraki.

Friedrichstadt-Palast

Andreas Kahlenbach

IT Director