Case Study: Barcelona International Convention Centre achieves 3x faster event Wi‑Fi setup with Riverbed Xirrus

Barcelona International Convention Center - Customer Case Study

Barcelona International Convention Center (CCIB), the largest convention center in Southern Europe (100,000 m², 45 meeting rooms, 3,200‑seat forum), faced an outdated Wi‑Fi system built in 2004 that couldn’t support modern, high‑density events—about 125 events a year with roughly 90% international attendees who expect fast, reliable wireless and streaming. CCIB needed a flexible, fast-to-deploy network to remain competitive and accommodate thousands of simultaneous users.

CCIB deployed a Xirrus Managed Wi‑Fi solution featuring multi‑radio access points and a central Xirrus Management System (XMS). The new setup cut event Wi‑Fi provisioning time by 66% (ready by noon, roughly one‑third the previous time), supports up to 3,000 concurrent connections, and lets staff assign application priority and per‑user bandwidth with a few clicks. Software‑programmable radios enable 2.4→5GHz and 802.11ac upgrades without replacing hardware, lowering upgrade costs and helping CCIB win more business.

Barcelona International Convention Centre

Joan Chaler

Operations Director