Hi all

Just letting you know that there is a poll up and running the the LAN-DING site in relation to an idea that Luke From LAN-DING had.

Its about a Giant LAN

Before anyone considers organizing an event of this size we would like to know if you would attend such an event.

What would happen at the LAN:

* Gaming on PC, Play Station, Xbox and what ever other gaming device you might have.
* Inter-LAN Gaming: i.e: LAN-DING group playing against Dark Media
* Competitions: Prizes could include -
Lucky Door Prize
Free Food and Drink Vouchers
Networking Equipment: 10/100/1000 NIC, 10/100/1000 8 port Switch
* PC Games

How long would the event run for? Between 24 and 36 Hours

To Vote In The Poll Please Click On The Link Below:

http://www.lan-ding.net/index.php?topic=21.0

A large lan sounds good, but whats the cost? normally larger lans cost a lot. If it's $20 etc I personally wouldn't be interested.

Thats why we want to know how many would be interested in such an event, if we get the numbers then we can go ahead and look for a venue, sponsors and so on and work out an entry fee. Apparently Luke has mentioned the idea to the organizers of one of the other big LANs and they seem quite interested.

Shouldn't be too hard to garner some interest, but be wary of what you are getting into.

Dark-Media events have been known to run with up to 60+ attendees

Assuming you pull the Dark-Media guys, Lan-Ding, OWL and The other randoms that were supporters of LAN groups gone by, you could be looking at 150 + people

Your going to need to band together admins from all around, and find a location capable of holding that many people for the chosen time period.

Nexus LAN in Launceston used to be the largest annual event in tassie, with bus loads of people heading up for it, i never actually got numbers on their events (nor attended).

I might sit down and do the math on getting it running, but i cannot think of any venues off the top of my head, that would allow for an event of that size. I have never scouted the location where DM Lans run, I know that the location of the OWLs could certainly hold the numbers, Though i have no idea about power distribution. I also know they do not have the tabling, nor would most places.

Library is out, Moonah community centre is out aswell (i have seen it struggle to provide power for 50 people), I can think of some great locations that could take it easily, but no idea on cost, such as:
Hobart Town hall
Grand Pavilion at Royal Hobart Show ground

I might have a look into the loads, networking equipment required, and general setup costs.

I for one would be up for it, but i cannot forsee it coming around until sometime next year. And definitely not without some sponsors

I'd be in, if it occurs when I'm in a position to tell work I'll be unavailable on XX date etc.
The Hobart Salvo's would be like the One Way church in capacity/power with more tables/parking, but other groups do use the building during much of the week.
Anyone know if DM ever maxed CityGate out capacity/grid load wise?

Also keep in mind that the titles being played, would have to be licensed to the gamers.
None of this lan group distribution stuff.

Big lans draw attention, and you don't want bad rep, or fines and such.
A waiver to be signed that releases the hosting party from copyright infringements should be looked into.

thats not a bad idea, did not think about getting some sort of waiver signed.

There's been a number of good suggestions, I'm interested in hearing what Luke has to say about some of the items mentioned above.
e.g. Tables, Location, Power, Licences, etc.

I've talked to a few people and a large lan sounds interesting to them too, they're interested in where it's going to be held and how it's going to be funded.


Greg, side note, do you know of any places the weather can be copied from?, Would like to display the weather on a site but haven't been able to find any place where they offer weather readings for free.

Hi

If you are a member of www.weatherzone.com.au they offer this http://www.weatherzone.com.au/about/freeweather.jsp

Or you can get stickers like the one in the link below from www.weatherunderground.com
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/stickers.asp?ID=I90581014&freq=10.0&units=both&lang=EN

As an appendage to MiZUs note (which i for one love, mainly because dedicated server installers are normally free whether you own the game or not) You should also include a public liability disclaimer / waiver with that.

OWLs are covered for personal injury (AFAIK).. but NOT for equipment damages (though that should be clear) .. Large public events are also meant to have a public event license (not sure how that applies to a LAN as such).
Gavin's LAN-DING group got around this by running it as part of a youth group in association with the Library, This is the same principal the OWLs are side stepping the matter on as well, We are essentially a youth group meeting of the Church (Nify that, aint it) We also funnel entry fees into the church bank, which clears us on running an un-registered business (No confirmation, however i would hazard a guess that the DM guys are getting by on this in a similar way)

I am off work sick for 2 days, so if i feel upto it tomorrow, I will look into getting network infrastructure, cabling and server requirements (Will price it based on 100, 150 and 200 attendees, as that seems to be probably numbers).
So that should cover:
Switches
Network Cabling
Servers + Loads
Network Layouts (backbones / server locations and physical spaces for people)

(oddly enough, this is all of the kinds of planning i wanted to do for the OWLs, but they just tend to be slap up events, i always figured if an event was organized properly it would be a lot better.)

Oh, and the awesome thing is, I could finally put that TassieLANS site i built to work, lol .. put some spit and polish on it, then use it as the primary registration system

I think as far as the whole thing goes, i would be willing to give input, and the use of any equipment i own (Perhaps extending to purchasing something i have always wanted to own, and using it at the event, such as switches) however, i do not forsee such an event running at a Profit its first time out.. I am personally getting a little tired of the LAN a month format, and a decent event each year would possibly serve me a lot better.

Dark-media venue - City gate, 3 large rooms you could probally fit 250+ people

But would the power distribution cope?

I still think the best place so far would be the The pavilion at the Royal Hobart showgrounds (Where the main food court area is held at the Show, underneath the grandstand for the Main Arena)

Considering all of the food heaters it powers during the show, I guess it would have the grunt to handle the computers and such.

our venue wouldnt house the people you are looking at getting, chris mentioned the idea of the DEC lol, $2000 a day kinda blows that away, but anyway good luck on getting this up and running, DM isnt interested sorry guys we just wanna stay the way we are.

plus our venue is quite expensive.on a side note also next DM lan is coming up be sure to pre-register and come along its gonna be the biggest yet, over 20 competitions spread out over consoles and PC so get those rego's in and come have a good time.

Heh, We aren't talking about running a regular event, Just a one off big bash. A chance to try and put LANning on the map in tassie, and get heaps of people to have one massive great time, and then hopefully start going out and supporting the smaller events (Such as DM) throughout the rest of the year.

i know what your trying to do, im just saying that DM isnt interested because we are planning on running 5-6 lans a year and dont have time to help organise another one.