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WISPAPALOOZA '25
89 Plays21 days ago
In the premiere episode of Beyond the Bandwidth, we take you straight to Las Vegas for WISPAPALOOZA 2025 — the biggest broadband industry event of the year. Join hosts Spencer Pous and Liz Creekmore as they walk the exhibit hall floor, chat with attendees, and highlight what’s new and exciting in the world of wireless and fiber broadband.
You’ll hear from leading vendors including NetPoint Antennas, RF Elements, SAF, LibreQOS, Splynx, and DeCix — plus a surprise visit from none other than Mini Elvis at the Teltech booth!
After touring the show floor, Spencer and Liz sit down with three industry pros: Josh Lambert, President of Alabama Lightwave and author of joshlambert.xyz; John Gill, CEO of Kentucky-Fi; and David Busch, CEO of ZipLink Systems. Together, they share their experiences from this year’s WISPAPALOOZA — from the perspective of both first-time attendees and seasoned veterans who have seen the industry evolve firsthand.
Whether you attended in person or are catching up from home, this episode captures the energy, innovation, and community that make WISPAPALOOZA a cornerstone of the broadband world.
🎙️ This episode is proudly sponsored by PSI — www.psitec.com — your trusted partner in broadband design, engineering, and integration.
Disclaimer: WISPA was not involved in the content of this podcast. Although Spencer Pous serves on the WISPA Board of Directors, the views and opinions expressed in this episode are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the organization.
Transcript
Introduction to 'Beyond the Bandwidth' and Wispapalooza
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone, and welcome to the first episode of Beyond the Bandwidth. I'm your co-host Spencer Pose. And I'm Liz Creekmore. Spencer, i feel like I just saw you two weeks ago you made it back okay. Yeah.
00:00:17
Speaker
Yeah. It's, uh, always need a little bit of recovery time after Wispapalooza, but, uh, we, we, we've recovered. We're back to work. Yep. So, yeah, no, this was 20, what, the No, the 21st. 21st. Yeah, last was our 20th anniversary show. So that makes this one the 21st.
00:00:34
Speaker
21st. twenty first yeah last year was our twentieth anniversary okay show so that makes this one the twenty first twenty first this Yeah, so I brought out my bucket of name tags from all the shows I've been to. Wow.
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah. so handsome and So are you one of those? You saved all your name tags? I saved all of them. Yeah, basically threw them all in a drawer. I wasn't as prepared as but I do have a a closet rack that holds all of mine.
00:01:14
Speaker
Oh, nice. Fancy. Yeah, no, mine's just thrown in a drawer and I just add to it every year. um yeah, some people save them, some throw them away.
00:01:25
Speaker
um'm I'm kind of a nostalgic guy. i like that, uh, that memory and kind of holding in my hand, like this is what I've done in the industry. Right.
00:01:36
Speaker
Yep. And it feels like a living resume. Yeah, exactly. And it feels like kind of an accomplishment to have been in the industry for a couple of decades now. yup Yep. Some of us were kids. So some of my favorite people in the industry, I remember they were in their 20s when I met them.
00:01:54
Speaker
Oh, wow. Yeah. back Back in the day when we were able to to pull all-nighters at the show and stay out late. And um now I feel like last couple of shows.
00:02:09
Speaker
and when we have the annual ah awards banquets. Oh, that's right. With actual steak dinners. yeah Yeah, when rick Rick Harnish was knighting everyone and it was a black tie event.
00:02:26
Speaker
Yeah, that was quite something. um Yeah, we we've come a long ways from those days. Yeah. Well, no, i thought I thought it was a fabulous show.
Diverse Vendors and Industry Evolution at Wispapalooza
00:02:35
Speaker
One one one takeaway I had from the show, i i noticed, um because I do like kind of, I like to make my round and um in the exhibit hall and just try to see, you know, if there are any new vendors, if there's any new technology.
00:02:51
Speaker
And I felt like this time it was a diverse group of vendors. So it wasn't, you know, i sure I'd love for it to be mostly wireless. That's kind of my world.
00:03:02
Speaker
by um you know, lots of fiber. i noticed um laser technology. You and I got to go to a little laser tech event. um But just, yeah, just a diverse group, which I think is i think is healthy.
00:03:19
Speaker
I think it's fantastic. You know, WSPA no longer just the wireless guys. You know, we have so many members deploying fiber today um and deploying hybrid solutions.
00:03:33
Speaker
um I really think WSPA is the only organization that harnesses all technologies. Yeah, no, totally. I felt like everyone that was there really felt welcome.
00:03:47
Speaker
welcome and Don't quote me on this, but I believe we had somewhere in the range of 25, 27 new vendors this year. Yeah, that's a lot. And i I personally feel like when you invite a new group of people, you know, then they start advertising to their customer base. And I think, you know, come next year, we're going to see a lot of new attendees just as a result of the the vendor attendance. so
Exhibit Hall Excellence and Future Events
00:04:14
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, Dave Thomas, WISPA's new ah vendor sales rep for Booth and the show had three months to to do what he did. And it was the best exhibit hall I've seen since I've been at WISPA for years. Yeah. um
00:04:36
Speaker
So I can't wait to see what he does Wisp America Wispapalooza next year. um i think we're really in a position to drive the show and grow it um over the next few years.
00:04:50
Speaker
And I'm kind of excited to see it move to Caesars. You know, i I joke with people, like it took me five years to get to to learn how to navigate Paris. Yeah, yeah, like I finally can walk around with my eyes closed and kind of know where everything is.
00:05:07
Speaker
the The cherry rooftop, like that's still, i kind have to go in like a an oval circle to get there, and I don't ah don't do the direct path. Yeah. Now, we had ah the opportunity to walk through Caesar's Palace two weeks ago, right?
00:05:26
Speaker
Yeah, so we we went to a dinner that was um hosted by PSI, and um ah we walked through Caesars. We actually had our dinner at Carmine's, but gosh, I don't know.
00:05:40
Speaker
and Just as like a woman of WSPA, I kind of loved that it had somes some shopping some shopping you could do some really pretty high-end stores, great restaurants. um Yeah, it's shopping I can't afford.
00:05:55
Speaker
no i don't think any of us can. yeah But it yeah it was really cool. um Yeah. it's it's Walking through the facility, I mean, it is elevated compared to Paris compared to Rio. Like I am really, really excited to be at this property.
00:06:16
Speaker
um I think it's going to elevate our show. It's going to make it more luxurious kind of match fiber connect at the Gaylord properties.
00:06:28
Speaker
So yeah, I'm excited. There was so much to do. i think all the vendors can do their parties and everything on property. The only thing i'm concerned about is getting lost.
00:06:40
Speaker
The property was so big. Right? I mean, that's, yeah, that's intentional in Vegas. That's to be expected. Absolutely. it's It's by design. yeah From what I could tell, though, and from what I've been told, is that the convention center of um of the Caesar's Palace is all, like, on its own wing.
00:07:02
Speaker
And so we won't have the going from Paris to horseshoe and back. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because that that makes getting to the keynotes hard. That makes getting to the um the the the various events that are over there hard. um And I've noticed the last few years dwindling attendance to ah the main events.
00:07:27
Speaker
a Okay. Okay. Just because it's... just because it's on Yeah. I think you have the same problem as I do. We've been in the industry so long.
00:07:38
Speaker
We know everybody. ah here Even going from the exhibit hall to a session one hallway away can take me 15 minutes. yeah i keep running into people and you can only say, hey, I've got i've got to run into this session so many times.
00:07:54
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Right.
Differentiation and Automation in Broadband
00:07:56
Speaker
By the time you get through that, look at the clock and you're headed over to to pair a Horseshoe. it's it's not even worth anymore. Right. You don't want to second guess. You don't want to question whether or not you should attend a session, and especially if you're interested in That's one of the reasons why we're here at the show is just to learn new stuff and learn from each other. and Exactly. Yeah.
00:08:19
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I do have to say, though, I i mean, I thought the food this year was fabulous. Fantastic, right? Yeah, it was really great. Yeah. It was similar to the food we've had in the past, but somehow the quality went up. The quality.
00:08:36
Speaker
Like the sandwiches, the breads weren't as stale as they've been in the past. um um They had like a good azure or like a good areola, like mayonnaise.
00:08:50
Speaker
um It was very good. And then my favorite was, well, the tacos during the first night reception is always always good um and this year the quality was was fantastic but my my true favorite was that greek lunch on monday oh yeah the mediterranean oh yeah that's my favorite yeah that was really good Yeah, no, that that was fantastic. So I do think, ah you know, I don't think that's a WISPA thing. I think Caesars ah elevated their commissary foods.
00:09:33
Speaker
um And hopefully it's only better at Caesars Palace. Right. ah Yeah, i can i can imagine it'll probably be um Well, very cool. Now, you actually attended, um you didn't just attend one of the sessions, but you you spoke at one. What were you speaking about?
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah, so um I actually ended up speaking at three sessions. Oh, wow. Okay. One session is a regular panel I do every year um with ah Rebecca and um Jeremy Austin and Josh Luthman, Rules You Need to Know for Broadband.
00:10:15
Speaker
um Like I said, we we do that as a group every single year, so we have it down to science, down to a science ah Rebecca covers all the legal legalities and Jeremy and I are there to say how we do it in the field.
00:10:35
Speaker
Um, then we had a, um, a session on, this one was a handful. i can't even say the whole title, but essentially it was maximizing bead funds in MDU build outs.
00:10:51
Speaker
And, um, That was a very limited topic to talk about because like if an area has bead funds, you can use it for MDU. you Done.
00:11:02
Speaker
So we kind of restructured that whole thing and talked about like basic ah MDU principles. And then the one that ah we we had a surprisingly good turnout for the last session of the day on Thursday um was every address in the US has broadband.
00:11:26
Speaker
How are you, what are you doing to set yourself apart from the competition in the means of like, customer acquisition, provisioning, support.
00:11:41
Speaker
um How are you making it a simple choice from marketing to, to install? and know And that was, that we, that one was probably my favorite session to talk in We had a great turnout and and I really love sessions where the cut, where the,
00:12:01
Speaker
Um, operators in the audience ask questions. Like I like it to be interactive, challenge us as the speakers, because at the end of the day, we're providing information for you.
00:12:12
Speaker
And so we can rumble what's on the, um, on the slide deck all day long, but if it doesn't resonate with who we're talking to, there's no point. Mm-hmm.
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, no, I agree with you. What were a couple of points that you guys brought up as to how you can differentiate yourself once once every address has high-speed internet?
00:12:36
Speaker
the The big thing that I think like a lot of WISPs fail on is... end-to-end, know, hands-off sign-up and scheduling and set up. And so, you know, I demonstrated how at Blue Broadband, we have um are all of our LiDAR data, everything like extensively um documented, which you have to do for BDC anyways.
00:13:04
Speaker
and how we're utilizing that for signups on our website and with our customer service reps. um That's fully automated. and when I say fully automated, they put in the information, it checks for the service, it gives them the maximum speed they can get, shows them the plans, allows them ah to choose their mesh units, schedules them, signs, terms you know, signature for terms of service.
00:13:31
Speaker
um All of this is done. ah without completely hands off, completely online without talking to a single person. um And then we show up to do the install.
00:13:44
Speaker
um And especially with our younger crowd, the Gen Zers and a lot of the millennials, they don't like talking on the phone. um And so this is something that fiber companies have, this something that the cable companies have, and we truly need to adapt as Wisps. um So that that was probably my biggest contribution and takeaway from that ah session.
00:14:07
Speaker
Very cool. All right. And then I heard, so that the show the upcoming show in March will be in Atlanta? Yes. Yes. So I'm very excited for that.
00:14:19
Speaker
It's only a five-hour drive for me. Okay. Um, so yeah, and it's easy to get to, you know, most people you, you, you have to, if you're going to Vegas, Oklahoma, uh, you had two choices, leave your regional airport and fly, you know, through Atlanta or fly through DFW.
00:14:43
Speaker
And so now we're doing this at one of the hubs. So the biggest complaint I hear is. It's so hard for me to get there. Well, not anymore.
00:14:55
Speaker
And that's what the goal for WISP America. ah I'm sorry, it's now ISP America. The goal for ISP America in the future will be hub cities and ease to get to.
Transitioning from WISP America to ISP America
00:15:11
Speaker
And yeah, did they recently change the name? When I was going through my badges, I saw, I have a couple badges that say ISP America. So was it originally? so yes, it started as ISP America years and years back.
00:15:28
Speaker
And don't quote me on this, this was before my time. So I may be mixing some of this up, but it was, I believe that was part of the the deal tied to Animal Farm.
00:15:39
Speaker
oh um But yes, we're trying to you may have noticed the last few years, the w something has been different on Wisp America with the W. Oh, okay. Either it's been gray or this year it was yellow.
00:15:56
Speaker
um i call it the silent W, right? It's not just wireless providers in the exhibit hall anymore. Is that yeah the show should be enabling people that, WISPs that want to move towards fiber or hybrid to move that, you know, to move.
00:16:19
Speaker
I think it'd be a crime for an organization to not have the next technologies as a part of it. Right.
00:16:30
Speaker
You know, not everybody has to adapt, but if the industry is adapting, the organization needs to adapt with it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So let me ask you a question, Liz. We're going to ask um a few of our guests later on this question.
00:16:47
Speaker
But what what was the hit of the show? what What did you walk away saying, wow, to a service, a vendor,
00:17:01
Speaker
Gosh, I think there were several, but for me, um because my world kind of revolves around anything that that's licensed. So anything that has to do with ah the FCC or FAA,
00:17:14
Speaker
um that's kind of the world that I live in. So one one takeaway I thought was was interesting um is the project that GeoLynx is offering to to ISPs. So they have purchased nationwide spectrum um that is 30 gigahertz millimeter wave spectrum.
00:17:38
Speaker
So very high capacity short links about one to two miles long. um but high capacity and licensed multipoint, which I think um would be great if ISPs could have the access to that.
00:17:55
Speaker
um So they had ah they had a little presentation and um and we actually got a chance to talk to them a little bit about it as well. The one thing I am waiting on them for is the pricing structure.
00:18:10
Speaker
So as we know, you know it has to fit the business case for all of the ISPs. But it's interesting. So I think for me, um that was kind of one of like the key takeaways is that you know we might um have access to to multipoint licensed ah frequencies, which I think would be fabulous and and and needed in some some areas.
00:18:37
Speaker
It's kind of a cool concept. Um, it's like a open access network concept for license sharing.
00:18:48
Speaker
And I, I'm a huge proponent of open access networks. Um, I think it's the best way for small ISPs to have, um, a seat at the table or to have a fair playing field.
00:19:04
Speaker
So I, I think it's great. I think, mean, obviously pricing makes a big difference on whether, right you know, your, your mom and pop wisp or, uh, the whisper of the world can afford it.
00:19:20
Speaker
I think it will be, um, I think it has a lot of potential and if, if what they, you know, if the talk that they talk is, you know, true, then i think this would be great for our industry.
00:19:36
Speaker
Right. Yeah. and Yeah. No. So I think I definitely plan to follow up with them and keep an eye out for, for some publication in terms of the pricing structure and, um,
00:19:48
Speaker
upcoming availability. Um, it'll certainly be interesting. Yeah. Um, yeah.
GeoLynx's 30GHz Spectrum Project
00:19:54
Speaker
Yeah. What about you or what was like one or two big key takeaways for you at the show?
00:20:01
Speaker
Let's see here. Uh, GeoLynx really, really had my eye. um another thing that I found very interesting was several vendors had TerraLynx in their booth.
00:20:15
Speaker
um And that that is the the laser, the free space optics laser technology Google developed. Yeah. And then they were selling it under Alphabet ah and select, like I knew an ISP that said they were going to be a reseller for it. And like many things they say, it never happened.
00:20:36
Speaker
um And then it broke off. and became ah Terra. And so Alphabet broke it off to its own company and is making it available to to ah service providers.
00:20:50
Speaker
um I've heard MSRP could be as high as $100,000, but I've also heard that they actually sell links for close to like $14,000, $18,000 once um want you talk to them and, you know, gone through their sales process. Yeah.
00:21:08
Speaker
yeah So who knows? I haven't deployed it. I've i looked at it. It's interesting. um i believe the original case study was a tower in the Amazon rainforest in order to to gather data.
00:21:25
Speaker
And if you look that stuff up, that tower is pretty darn cool. ah they They track a lot of, they have a lot of sensors on it that track some, the weather impacts. And ah believe it or not, at the edge of the, ah it's always raining in the Amazon rain forest. And then at the edge of it, there's,
00:21:45
Speaker
the atmosphere hits and it stops raining and there's like a waterfall. And that's one of the things that they're tracking on that tower. Really cool stuff. it's it's yeah It's not broadband related, so we'll yeah we won't go further on it, but look it up online. It's one of the coolest ah natural phenomenons in the world, in my opinion.
00:22:06
Speaker
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that one up because, yeah, it's a another indicator that you know we're showcasing a lot of different technology at the show. Exactly. Very widespread. um You know, I will say congratulations to Libre QOS. They won service of the year ah or product of the year.
00:22:31
Speaker
And then Splinks won service of the year for their OSS, BSS product. um So great, both great products.
00:22:43
Speaker
Contributors to our industry. So very happy to see them win this year. Ubiquiti won as well. Cambium won as well. um So congratulations to all the award winners at WSPA.
00:22:58
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Feedback and Planning for Future Events
00:23:00
Speaker
And I think after the show, i think all attendees got a survey to fill out as well. I know I got mine. Yes, actually. Thank you for bringing that up.
00:23:10
Speaker
Please, please, uh, do the survey that got sent out. Um, yeah. There were questions on it like, do you like Vegas?
00:23:22
Speaker
What did you think of the venue? This survey is truly designed for us to understand where the membership sits as far as future shows.
00:23:35
Speaker
So if you're online complaining and you actually go to the show, please fill out the survey so that we can...
00:23:46
Speaker
that we can track your complaints and actually make changes in the future. And also, I mean, kind of glad you brought that up rather than, i mean, i do like to see, you know, people engage in conversation online and everything like that, but how approachable is the board? Like if someone were to say, you know, Hey, i think we can improve the show by doing x y and Z next year.
00:24:11
Speaker
how does someone engage the board rather than just kind of post it online and then just, you know, encourage chatter around it. um How does someone make a regulation recommendation like that?
00:24:22
Speaker
um that that That's a great question. um So we do have an agendas committee at WSPA. That would be one place. to ah to bring up suggestions, but my i as a board member myself and my other board members on WISPA, we are very approachable.
00:24:43
Speaker
We try to check our messages. You can email us, you can call us, you can... um tag A lot of people tag us in comments where they're you know when they have a complaint.
00:24:56
Speaker
um You know, as far as I know, we're, know, most of us are very approachable. So please, I love to hear, you know, to hear some criticism, um maybe not all complaints, you know, give me one good thing and three complaints.
00:25:14
Speaker
No, no, i'm kidding. I'm kidding. But yeah yeah, if you have suggestions or, um you know, you have a session that you you you didn't like or liked you don't want to do the survey, please reach out to one of us. um We'd be thrilled to hear it we'll you know We'll bring it to the agenda committee, ah to the staff, however however it needs to be addressed.
00:25:40
Speaker
um But our goal is to make these shows each year the best that they can be. um and we need membership participation. yeah Yeah, absolutely.
00:25:53
Speaker
i do have to say, like i i did I did notice that there was a lot of high-level one-on-one engagement with the attendees. A lot of the decision makers were actually at the show this time.
00:26:05
Speaker
So I had lot really good quality conversations with people. So I've heard that from at least a dozen vendors. That this year there may not like, there weren't as many people in the exhibit hall that per se, like technicians or people's employees, the ones that necessarily are kind of grabbing swag, but don't have a decision-making capability.
00:26:32
Speaker
But this year, the vendors I spoke to said, wow Spencer, the the the leads that we got were all high quality leads ready to go.
00:26:44
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Right. And, you know, I think quantity, uh, quality over quantity for sure. Yeah. And so I think a lot of vendors were happy with that this year.
00:26:58
Speaker
I personally would like to see the exhibit hall open longer. um we tried it in March. And for some reason, the feedback we got was it,
00:27:14
Speaker
No, but everyone I speak to says they preferred it. So survey, survey, survey, survey. That's how we make decisions.
00:27:27
Speaker
And if a few people say they disliked something that the majority people liked, guess what's going to happen? So fill out your surveys. It's very important to WSPA.
00:27:37
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Well, Liz, we have a few guests that um that we're going to have a on here shortly.
Live Insights from Wispapalooza Vendors and Attendees
00:27:46
Speaker
um But in the meantime, let's cut to a video that we took during the show and give everybody Wispapalooza 2025. Okay, sounds good. Let's get to it.
00:27:59
Speaker
so okay sounds good let's get to it Three, two, one. All right. We made it for one more year. One more year. We did, we did. With Minnie Elvis. Yeah, we got Minnie Elvis here at the Teletech booth.
00:28:11
Speaker
Come by, booth 134, and check out what we have, towers, radios, and cabinets for sale. But Minnie Elvis, I'll let you give your lot of prizes too. have a game.
00:28:23
Speaker
As soon as you put these two things in the hall, you're getting your prize.
00:28:30
Speaker
budget
00:28:51
Speaker
So we have all all the. ccr here and i'll build we mac when me get
00:29:05
Speaker
for we think there' liberty impressive by are you making
00:29:25
Speaker
I have a black, I'm too. She never made me the black shirt.
00:29:37
Speaker
Two, three. much just have collection to get i have a lot now she never made me the lectureer because i this person we got a bunch what
00:29:53
Speaker
got yes sir thanks john you got
00:30:09
Speaker
Hey guys, we are here with David Alvarez from NetPoint. David, how is your WISPA show going? Oh, it's excellent. So i'm very tired because I'm talking with a lot of people these days. So I'm very excited because all the people in this show, it was amazing. We find a new vendors, new customers.
00:30:34
Speaker
So I feel so very excited because all the WISPA in the States, it's still growing, not only with fiber, it It's growing now with fights ratherston began the So the wireless reborn. The reborn of the wireless is right now.
00:30:53
Speaker
Awesome. So what is what's the product you're coming out with this week? Oh gosh. So the project I'm going to make this week is very following to all the leads of this Whispalpalooza show.
00:31:10
Speaker
And I've gone to talk with a lot of customers. because we had a we have a great project to begin in the States.
00:31:22
Speaker
So many, many tourist teams use the license antennas for work directly with the Cambion and the Sarangon stops. Excellent, excellent. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, we're here with JT from RF Elements.
00:31:39
Speaker
JT, tell us about what you're doing here. Yeah, so what we're doing here, we're antenna manufacturer out of Slovakia. You're probably familiar with our brand.
00:31:50
Speaker
We're specialized in high performance antennas, horns particularly. We're we arere here regularly, we are very old, members since of very early times with Vispa.
00:32:04
Speaker
Basically almost all Vispa shows. So we are enjoying it here. We have a bunch of new products, new white band horns covering five and six gigahertz and all the adapters converting to all the radio platforms. So all right, the show has been great for us. Fantastic. Fantastic. And we have Nicole White with SAF North America.
00:32:32
Speaker
Hi everybody. We have U.S. Headquarters in Denver, Colorado and the manufactured microwave and millimeter wave right here. Point to point links, yes.
00:32:44
Speaker
How is the show going for you so far? You know, it's been a good show. It's not as heavy of traffic as as sometimes we've seen, but i feel like we're getting a lot of quality traffic, and and that matters more than than having 100 people stop by your booth. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because I think that's been the theme of this year.
00:33:02
Speaker
Yes, quality over quantity is is always going to be the better bet. Now we noticed you have little giveaway here. Yeah, so we're partnered with GeoLynx for a project and and we're showcasing their Pelican case and people can come by and scan and enter to win that and they had me enter so it kind of seems like an anybody can win.
00:33:22
Speaker
Can you tell us just a little in a few sentences what your project is about? So we're working with them on the like 28 to 30 gig spectrum, um getting the ability for you to license the spectrum from them and and we're helping them out with the products that are going to be deployed. It's a great deal so if you're interested Hit them up, check them out, or or go talk to Liz and we'll see what we can get going for you. Okay. And then what's been your favorite takeaway so far with the show this year? You know, with the show this year, it's it's been kind of great to see how the evolution of of our industry is is taking shape and what effect it's having on not only the ISPs but the industry as a whole, the association as a whole,
00:34:08
Speaker
and and kind of trying to gauge what where we're headed, where where all of us are headed in the next 10 or 15 years. I'll be here always. Thank you guys.
00:34:20
Speaker
see i'll be here always thank you guys My name is Robert and I'm here representing LibreQoS. Our product helps small ISPs compete against the big guys basically. What we do is quality of experience enforcement for ISPs.
00:34:38
Speaker
We shape traffic and make sure that buffer boat goes away and we help your customers stop seeing spinning circles on Netflix. We use some fancy queuing techniques, give you some amazing visual illustrations of that data and help you stay on top of your network to compete against the big guys.
00:34:52
Speaker
Feel free to stop by booth 630. We want to thank WISPA so much for an incredible show. This has been a deeply rewarding experience. Winning product in the year has meant a lot to our entire team. And we thank WISPA for helping our industry and and keeping small ISPs like my own, Jackrabbit Wireless, back in El Paso, Texas, able to access spectrum and things that we need to survive as as ISPs.
00:35:13
Speaker
So thank you, WISPA.
00:35:17
Speaker
Hey everyone, thank you so much for stopping by our booth. i'm Heather with Splinks and we're a BSS OSS platform. We're so stoked, we're so appreciative to the whole Whisper community for our amazing award we won this year. We won service of the year. So thank you so much to everybody and yeah, we look forward to meeting our current customers and also anybody that's interested in in learning more about us. Hi, I'm Kelly Steven and this is my third Wispapalooza.
00:35:47
Speaker
Another great show. I love seeing new friends, customers, prospects, meeting new people. It's one of my favorite shows to be honest. I love Wisp America as well, but Wispapalooza's always a sparkly good time in Vegas.
00:36:00
Speaker
um I'm from DKICS. We had a great time doing our marble race game, um showing what the difference is between peering and transit. And I had a great response from everyone here. So much fun having everyone come visit and say hi and remember me from previous shows.
00:36:14
Speaker
And I've lost my voice from overuse and joy. I've seen all my all my my friends from previous years.
00:36:24
Speaker
This week's episode is sponsored by PSI. Jeff Mattson, PSI sales director, gave us a private tour of their fiber splicing trailer.
00:36:36
Speaker
Don't forget to hit like and subscribe. All subscribers, if the they purchase a fiber splicing trailer from PSI, will receive a free Royal Caribbean cruise.
00:36:47
Speaker
So come check it out. So what we have here is we have our Liberty Lift. This is a collaboration between SMG Trailers and Arm Lift.
00:36:58
Speaker
So obviously Arm Lift is the specialist in in the area of having your buckets. So they put those buckets on every type of vehicle. So we collaborated with them together because we wanted the best of both worlds.
00:37:12
Speaker
We wanted the fiber trailer and we wanted to offer them something that had the bucket on the fiber trailer, which eliminates them having to have an actual bucket truck. So as you'll see on there, the lift itself is operated from back here. It is a hydraulic lift, so you can operate it from back here.
00:37:28
Speaker
You can operate it also via remote. So they can be a one-man shop in this actual trailer. So it's built on... an 8-inch steel frame which gives you the durability.
00:37:39
Speaker
You also have your stabilizers here and you have your stabiliers stabilizers under there which allows you to work in any type of terrain. So we have people that are working in mountainous areas or rural Texas, places that are not going to be your normal suburban areas where you're just on a flat surface. So this allows them to take this trailer anywhere they need to.
00:38:01
Speaker
As far as the trailer itself, it's your standard fiber trailer. This particular model has two fiber doors, fiber entry doors, which is going be one over here, one over there. We can add a third door to that if we wanted to. A lot of people like three.
00:38:14
Speaker
Okay. But it gives them then that option to have two. So they're splicing the fiber in there. It also is is powered by... You can do a plug, but that's only going to work if you're in a suburban or an area where you have it. So you have your generator box here. So it's powered by this generator. You can put whatever size generator you want in there.
00:38:37
Speaker
You've got your slide out right there that allows you to slide that generator out, run it. This is the actual step onto the boom. So the lift itself comes down. It sits right here.
00:38:49
Speaker
and It actually anchors on that part right there. The bucket sits right here. You step into the bucket, it's a slide open door, and then you lift the bucket from there. And I'll let Jeff kind of give you a little bit information about the inside.
00:39:04
Speaker
So what's nice about the vehicle, the trailer, is a couple things. Like Jennifer had mentioned, you got two fiber access doors, right? It's important that on your fiber access door you have your brushes, so when you bring your cable in, they're stabilized, right?
00:39:17
Speaker
And when you bring them in, you're gonna youpuff we're going to probably have something to clamp down, the fiber cabling. Here's the other one over here on the right side of the vehicle. You can see. These come up like this.
00:39:29
Speaker
This one opens up. You can see this one's got the brushes on it as well. And like Jennifer had said, you can add another fiber access door if you want. They're all customizable, right?
00:39:40
Speaker
Another good benefit, you have nice counter space on both sides, right? This counter actually folds down right here. um You got good storage, you can see.
00:39:55
Speaker
Got nice storage up here.
00:39:58
Speaker
And that's directional. Directionals right here. So one of the benefits of the fiber trailer is this.
00:40:11
Speaker
It comes with 15 K BTU, right? about the full tour of the Liberty Lift with PSI on our YouTube channel. Today we have Josh Lambert. He's president of Alabama Lightwave.
00:40:25
Speaker
And we're here to talk to him about the WISPA Palooza show. So Josh, I heard that you were you were a first time attendee. i' Just curious how you even found WISPA. How did you find out about WISPA, the organization?
Josh Lambert's Networking Experience at Wispapalooza
00:40:41
Speaker
Certainly. Well, first of all, thank you guys both for having me on the show. This is a great thing. We need more podcasts like this in the WISPA industry. So ah thrilled to get to come on here and be part of the part of the show.
00:40:54
Speaker
So it was my first time at WISPA event. It was also my first time in Vegas. So I'll just say it was a lot. as somebody somebody here from alabama i'm like there's there's so much energy there's so many lights and i was a little bit intimidated i'll say on day one but we have a very very warm industry and by day two i had already made a bunch of friends by day three i mean i was like thrilled to get you know back down there to the ground level and and mix with people and honestly i've had a hankering to get back over there and hang out with friends uh since we dispersed so
00:41:29
Speaker
You know, honestly, great location. And i think Mr. ah Nathan Stook did a I want say he did a poll at the end and asked, you know, what do you guys think about the venue? Would you want to come back? And I'm like, yes.
00:41:40
Speaker
And I would not have voted that way on day one. So I would just tell anybody if you're looking at it from the outside, keep an open mind. you you don't know what you might what you might experience. And then as far as hearing about WSPA, we've been a member for a little while now, ah but I haven't gone to an event just because I didn't think it was important.
00:42:01
Speaker
And I had a friend of mine tell me, oh, no, no, you have to do this. This is very important for the health of the industry. You need to show up. And it was yeah sort of the same thing about keeping an open mind. i decided, let's give it a shot. And absolutely no regrets. I'll be at the one in Atlanta as well.
00:42:15
Speaker
Just excellent experience. Oh, awesome. It's funny that you mentioned that because my first Wispapalooza, well, is Wisp America. It was actually in Alabama back in like 2017 in Birmingham.
00:42:29
Speaker
ah wow. And so, yeah, I had a similar similar experience where super nervous, didn't really know anyone. And by like the first party, ah I knew a lot of people and been coming back since.
00:42:45
Speaker
I would just tag onto that too. Part of what allowed me to get over the initial, I guess you could say warming up where there were several people there that made a point to go and introduce me to other people and to say, Hey, I know him from blah, blah, blah, or I know this guy, or you should know them.
00:43:01
Speaker
So the other operators and vendors that helped make those introductions happen, I am very much in their, in their service. That was very, very helpful to just connect with people quicker.
00:43:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's fantastic. And then Josh, from your ah from your perspective, um did you attend any sessions? Did you find the sessions were informational? What about the one-on-one interaction?
00:43:27
Speaker
ah What was your take on you know coming home and having learned something at at at the show? So I this was one of the actually ah complaints that I had, but Nathan addressed it was that there were a lot of overlapping ah topics that were interesting and it was not possible to be physically present at every single one.
00:43:49
Speaker
So I was, there was some frustration ah about going, man, there's so many good, there's a lot of good things going on. And I feel like I'm having to decide, am I going to chop off my left arm or my right arm? Right. Because you can't, you can't be everywhere.
00:44:02
Speaker
But Nathan said, look, you, ah you just need to bring more people from your organization next time you can cover more ground. That it's a rough paraphrase, but that's basically what he said. went, that's a good point because then we could, we would have that, you know, additional brain trust coming back. But,
00:44:16
Speaker
No, I enjoyed the sessions, especially the State of WSPA keynote. um That was really informative to learn what practical on the ground things are happening right now in DC. I was not aware of the different things that WSPA was doing.
00:44:30
Speaker
And it inspired me enough that I went and wrote not one, but two different articles, just kind of recapping everything that happened and how it gave me sort of a renewed appreciation for the association. And we'll definitely be writing that check next year when it comes up for renewal.
00:44:45
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I've been ah involved with WSPA for a long time, and it wasn't even until I was on the board until I quite understood exactly the extent of what WSPA does for its membership.
00:44:59
Speaker
um It is quite extensive. but Without a doubt. Without a doubt. I've already got... that you know They sat down and talked to me. That was something I really appreciated. It's three or four different people that would you would were in high-level management, even though they were really, really busy. Poor David. I ambushed him when he was coming off of one of his things to talk to somebody else. And I got...
00:45:19
Speaker
about 45 seconds and I could tell he was in a hurry, but he still was like, here, this is how you get ahold of me. This is who you need to talk to We're going to be in touch. You know, we will, we will consider this. I wanted them to look at changing how the SAS requirements work for CBRS UE.
00:45:34
Speaker
That's ah there's places there where a couple of adjustments could make the technology a lot better. Right. And they didn't shoot it down. So maybe we'll have a conversation and can see that become a legislative priority.
00:45:47
Speaker
Maybe. Absolutely. Who knows? I mean, I think the staff we have now has been fantastic at being in front in the front of our membership. um And since since David started, um he kind of started make what like a month before the first Wispapalooza he was involved in.
00:46:08
Speaker
And I mean, I remember that first show getting FaceTime with him when I absolutely did not expect it. um I've, and you know, I've found David's very open and puts himself out there for the membership to be available.
00:46:22
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. He aced it. He'd never met me in my life. And as a first time attendee, it meant a lot that even though we're a smaller Westman, we haven't been here, you know, since 2010 or whatever. and we We got in at 2019.
00:46:34
Speaker
None of those things mattered. We were treated, I feel like, the same as anybody else that would have been there. so And ah also on that note, WISPA does some great mixers. If you guys didn't do any of the night stuff, you really missed it.
00:46:46
Speaker
Standing underneath the Eiffel Tower clone that Vegas has and water and the balloons and the lights and the drinks, it was really spectacular. Absolutely spectacular.
00:46:57
Speaker
we We both had a dinner um during the poolside reception, um but I've heard fantastic things. ah Kind of a little upset we missed it. No, I met at least two different operators, and we were able to nerd out about some of the challenges reaching these really rural areas and compare stories. So it...
00:47:14
Speaker
it and it's Again, it's one of those things where you really don't know what to expect, right? But man, if you go, guys, roll the dice, gamble, get out there, play in the traffic, right? Because you just never know who you're going to meet, right? oh absolutely. You never know.
00:47:30
Speaker
And i for that from my perspective, I feel like um when I go to the WSPA shows, i' I'm amongst now a crowd of people that understand what I'm talking about because um, my next door neighbors have no idea if I try to explain to them what I do or the world that I live in, you know, it's very hard for, for people to, to understand it. But when I go to a Wispapalooza show, it's a sea of people that are kind of, you know, my, my people, they live and breathe, um, what I do and they have an understanding for what I do. And so there's this mutual appreciation and
00:48:04
Speaker
um It almost, you know, once you go to your next show and your next show becomes like a family reunion. So it's a great group of people. Yeah, I'd echo all of that. That's exactly what it felt like. You're among people that understand your walk. They understand your challenges. They understand what keeps you up at night.
00:48:23
Speaker
So we all sort of have that shared vision. And in that you get, you know really good fellowship. So, yeah, if you haven't been, come. this is your This is your commercial. I might as well. I should be getting paid for this, right? You guys need to come to the events, right?
00:48:37
Speaker
One other thing I wanted to ask you, but I noticed that you have a blog. ah I read one article, but I haven't read the rest. When did you start your blog? What kind of inspired you? And and certainly, ah you know, I hope you'll keep posting.
00:48:50
Speaker
Absolutely. So before i got into the wireless internet business, I was in the mobile app development business. And that is how the lights were kept on. that is how I funded the WISP to get it to where it is today.
00:49:04
Speaker
So within the last year, I began to realize, man, I really like working in the wireless internet industry. My WISP is not at a size yet where I can focus exclusively on it. We're getting there, but we're not quite there yet, right?
00:49:16
Speaker
Yeah. And so I still do a lot of consulting and I realized that I would rather get more specific and consult to people that I enjoy being around or really enjoy this scene, this industry. And so I wanna take all the time that I've spent building software, building apps, building code and get hyper-specific and apply it here.
00:49:35
Speaker
So to answer your question about the writing, in order to, you know, meet people and find problems, you have to talk about them, which means you have to write. So writing is for me, it really is an opportunity to engage with the industry, to share what I know, concerns, ideas, um,
00:49:54
Speaker
and just get them out of my head and on paper, right? So it's a it's all about meeting people and making friends and the conversations that have created WispTalk as a result of those articles have made it worth it. I've got like 15 more that are in the queue that are coming. So definitely ah check it out at joshlambert.xyz and theedgemile.com. I run both of those sites and I'm blogging like crazy. So Buckle up.
00:50:18
Speaker
I found a way to apply CS Lewis ah recently, which was fun. And I'm going to tease this one now. The next one has a princess diaries to reference because yes, I grew up with sisters and I'm going there. So definitely stay tuned. get That's awesome.
00:50:34
Speaker
Yeah. It's ah it's definitely a needed thing. we need more blogs. Like you said, we need more podcasts in this industry. um That's why we've started Beyond the Bandwidth to kind of start that, ah to kind of close that gap for our industry.
00:50:53
Speaker
um And so, yeah, keep on blogging. I've loved the posts that I've read and I've especially loved the discussion on WisTalk that it's it's brought.
00:51:04
Speaker
I love to hear that. I had somebody reach out to me the other day, they called me and they said, man, ah since you started writing this, I've noticed a um a vibe shift from we're all scared that we're gonna get overbuilt to actually, no, wait a minute, there are things that we can do that are special, that make us unique.
00:51:23
Speaker
And you've given me hope again. And that made me feel so good because like, okay, that means we're doing something right. So I think that all of us have something to add. And if we took the time to share, share our ideas, share our lessons amongst each other, we might just find that same community we see at a WSPA event. We might find it on Facebook. We get all stronger for it. We get that encouragement and we hang in there. We don't sell out. There's less consolidation.
00:51:46
Speaker
And dare I say, industry expansion, when people see a live thriving, active community, it makes them want to start a WISP too. So ah absolutely. I'm glad y'all are doing this and we need like 25 more of them. So if you're listening to this, this is also your chance to do a blog, do a podcast. Let's go.
00:52:05
Speaker
Right. I couldn't agree more.
Encouraging Industry Engagement through Content Creation
00:52:07
Speaker
Well, Josh, thank you so much for your time. um We're definitely going to have you back on for, for more, ah for an extended period of time um on a future episode.
00:52:20
Speaker
Absolutely. I'll be back. I look forward to coming back and maybe we can do one on LTE e or 5G. That's my current obsession. So maybe yeah we can do a deep dive on that one soon. That sounds good.
00:52:31
Speaker
And now we're here with John Gill with Kentucky FI. hi John. Good to see you. Hey, Liz. Hey, Spencer. Great to see you Happy to be a guest on your podcast. Yeah. Great to have you. coming I feel like it was just a couple days ago that we saw you at the show.
00:52:48
Speaker
um So yeah, we just wanted to kind of get your input. um It was a crazy several days, a lot of information coming in all directions. But for you, um what were a few key takeaways? Like, were there any really exciting new products or or information that you you learned at the show?
00:53:09
Speaker
so yes, saw a bunch of great technologies, lot of AI, as well as a lot of pe technology in the hardware front. AI was spanning all the way from propagation software, all the way up to customer facing software, including taking your CSRs and can listen to phone call recordings and great things about that.
00:53:31
Speaker
I truly think the, uh, breaking part of all of it was what geolinks is doing and unlocking some spectrum i think that that's wonderful bringing that license spectrum down to the west level is something that we need it and i think that that is groundbreaking i also think that that's wonderful on a license front that not the big carriers are locked down to it anymore as for what i saw that I would take away from all of it would would be the sessions were still amazing.
00:54:04
Speaker
I sat in on a session about building a better team and that team can run the business for you so that way you could focus on running your business instead of running inside your business. And I think that every CEO, no matter what business you are doing, needs to hear that no matter how big or small you are, whether it's your first hire or whether it's your team of eight.
00:54:26
Speaker
Yeah, no, I'm glad. Yeah, sorry. I'm glad you mentioned that because that particular session is applicable to to really any business owner across the board. So you don't have to necessarily be an ISP to to learn from from the show. So yeah, glad you brought that up.
00:54:44
Speaker
Sorry, Spencer, go ahead. Yeah. So I mean, I was just gonna say as a consultant, um for a lot of business owners, um and a lot of different um industries, that's something we hear all the time.
00:54:57
Speaker
And all the business coaches, you've got to work on the business, not in the business. um And that's a big struggle a lot of CEOs have. um So glad that they're doing sessions on that.
00:55:13
Speaker
We've heard a lot about the GeoLynx technology during this podcast from other guests. um it It does seem to be a big highlight of the show.
00:55:25
Speaker
Yeah, i've I've been meeting with them quite a bit. um i think just opening up additional spectrum for for people to use, especially in the licensed bands, is very valuable.
00:55:36
Speaker
um i think we're still waiting on some information from them regarding the pricing structure. And I know that they're looking for feedback. so So I'm sure that they'll be polling among the ISPs ah for necessary feedback because I think they want it to be like a win-win situation for everyone.
00:55:55
Speaker
um right So that's, yeah, that's something like to keep an eye out for. ah Once I release their pricing structure, we're going to try and have them on the podcast to talk about it in a lot more.
00:56:08
Speaker
Yeah, I know I talked to Kevin a lot and a lot of people from his team, me and Alex have been going back and forth a lot recently. i think the big issue with their pricing structure is currently the license and how they can do that because some counties, you know, they're busting at the seams with population 200 million.
00:56:25
Speaker
somewhere around there, or there's smaller counties that are lucky to bus 10,000 people inside the county. So it makes the pricing structure very difficult. But as for the hardware front, I went around and watched them test that.
00:56:37
Speaker
I think the hardware has a great foundation. There are a few things that need to be tweaked, but I've yet to see any hardware come out of the gate that is 100% ready to go out of the gate. There's still some tweaking, but they have a wonderful foundation.
00:56:50
Speaker
And i think The hardware with the intracom, they're doing great along with SAF and their point-to-point links. Yeah, you actually um got to do a rooftop um tour and see one of their CPE locations while in Vegas, right?
00:57:09
Speaker
Yeah, I did. I got to see the AP and both the CPEs in action. I think the AP is a very solid AP. It needs to work on the mounts, but like I said, nothing is 100% out of the gate. But the fundamentals are there, and it makes for a great thing, as well as the CPEs.
00:57:28
Speaker
The CPEs, when they refer to the bigger CPEs, it's something about the size of the Wave LR. So it's not huge, ah but it's definitely it's definitely manageable. I did give them a pretty good rundown at five miles. They were moving 1.5 or 1.6 gigs down and like 200 up.
00:57:49
Speaker
I did shake it pretty well. So the beamforming stayed true. They didn't lose any modulation or anything crazy like that that you would see on a higher spectrum or higher frequency radios.
00:58:01
Speaker
ah The beamforming is on there. So like I said, they're doing great for the hardware fundamentals are there. They need some work on the mounting, but again, nothing's perfect out of the gate.
00:58:12
Speaker
Yeah. And it does seem like they're, they're an entity that's open to feedback and and making improvements. um So that's, yeah, that's definitely one thing to note. So from a vendor standpoint, I know you all are at the vendor booths a lot. So what did you guys see ah the vendors like really come across?
00:58:30
Speaker
Was the lead count good for you guys? and was it, was it, you know Did you get to talk to CEOs or technicians? What was your guys' takeaway? Yeah, so my immediate takeaway was boom you know at at some of the shows, especially the larger shows, we see a high volume of people engaging one-on-one with the decision makers.
00:58:52
Speaker
At this particular show, and especially the 2025 Wispapalooza, I did notice like ah there were a lot of decision makers stopping by and saying hi and visiting the booth.
00:59:03
Speaker
um So it was um you know really high-quality traffic. um So that was that was really good for us to see. um Although we do, i mean, i i would I think that it's good for any show to encourage people, not just to bring the decision makers, but to bring the technicians or a lot of people on the team, because you you do, when you attend a trade show, you kind of have a better understanding for the bigger picture of the industry.
00:59:31
Speaker
So there is takeaway information from from everyone um on your team. There's something for everyone to learn. Doing, uh, doing my rounds as as board member, talking to vendors, I heard, um, a lot of quality over quantity.
00:59:48
Speaker
that this year there weren't as many people stopping by the booths, but they had more people interested stopping by the booths. So that they they received more leads from decision makers versus more technicians and and other and ah accounting staff grabbing swag and moving on.
01:00:11
Speaker
Um, and so I think it's important to have a good mix, uh, but the vendors want quality leads. And I think we delivered that this year.
01:00:22
Speaker
Yeah. And I did also, and one thing I noticed was there was a, just a diverse group of vendors. So not, uh, not a focus on one particular technology. I mean, obviously, like I operate mostly in the wireless space, but, um you know, there there were fiber vendors.
01:00:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think it was a good thing to see just a new group of vendors that I'd never seen before. Yep. And like John said, lots of AI vendors. AI is shaping the industry and we're we're seeing it yeah i also I also saw a few other into the fixed optics space.
01:01:03
Speaker
I know ter tar Tara was there, as well as I can't remember the name of the other guys that were there, but there were some players that were bringing fixed optics to the wireless industry, which I think is great news.
01:01:17
Speaker
There is also some... technology in the 80 gigahertz spectrum. I know that's a soft license and they're looking into how they can bring that to the US, which I think is very interesting.
01:01:29
Speaker
There is yeah AI vendors, which was awesome, along with many others. I know Spencer, you got a clip of circling the whole entire arena there. So it was a big space, but it was full.
01:01:45
Speaker
I also know there was there were not any open booths available at the end. sold all the booths. So that was great. That means a lot of vendors, a lot of decision makers came. And I think all in all, it was a great show.
01:01:58
Speaker
it The sessions, I think, needed a little work, but not a tremendous amount. But when you when you're getting up to 2,000 people, 3,000 people to an event, it's hard to get something for everyone.
01:02:15
Speaker
So that's what makes WISPA a little different. Yeah. yeah Well, John, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. All right. Thanks, you John.
01:02:25
Speaker
We'd like to have you on again. so oh I would love to talk to you about everything I'm doing. Joining us today is David Bush with Ziplink Systems in Arizona. Spencer and I had the great privilege privilege of meeting up with David Wispapalooza 2025.
01:02:42
Speaker
David, few questions we have for you. You're an industry veteran, yet we continue to see you at the shows, which is awesome. um ah Do you continue to learn? And if so, what were a few takeaways from this year's show?
The Importance of Continual Learning and Networking
01:02:57
Speaker
Absolutely. I think we we all continue to learn. The landscape changes, products change. oh Our industry is is evolving exponentially. a lot of competitors, a lot of different things like that that, that change the business landscape as well. So I think it's always good to talk to peers and people that are also going through the same challenges that you are and seeing what they're doing to to mitigate those challenges. you know So to me, it's so worthwhile trip to be there to to network with people and kind of understand what what problems they're having and how they're addressing those issues. we We met up at the show um one night and I remember you were talking about how great it was to be socializing with everybody again.
01:03:47
Speaker
Yep. Yeah, like I said, it's ah it's good to see familiar faces, you know, people that I that i chat with a lot and talk with over over the year to kind of get some face time, you know, and go over some things that we've been working on or talking about over time.
01:04:06
Speaker
There's no replacement for in-person communication, I think. Absolutely. Yeah, I would totally agree. You know I think... um You know, they're during the during the day at the conference, there are all the sessions to attend and there's the exhibit hall.
01:04:24
Speaker
But after the exhibit hall hours are over, there are the evening parties, there are the dinners, lots of opportunity to stay connected with people. At the Paris Hotel, there was the blue bar where you know you you just don't know who you're going to run into it at all hours of the day and night.
01:04:42
Speaker
um So, yeah, there are just so many opportunities to to run into people and to chat and to talk. and And really, it's a trade show that that starts at 8 in the morning and doesn't end until 2 3 in the morning um if you're willing to stay up that late.
01:04:57
Speaker
Right. Yeah, i'm not I'm not able to to run that hard we like youngins these days, but yeah but definitely, there's the social events are probably the biggest thing for me.
01:05:09
Speaker
and Not only are they fun, but you do have an opportunity to to talk to and meet a ah lot of people. I think especially if you're somebody starting out in this business or something, that's it's invaluable to get those kinds of connections and and input.
01:05:27
Speaker
Right. And I think once one thing that um actually Josh had mentioned as a first time attendee of Wispapalooza is people are just so friendly. um So you're going to make friends if you attend ah you know a show.
01:05:41
Speaker
There's also the speed networking session as well. ah So if you're not one to like walk up to someone and say hi, there are usually one or two speed networking sessions for each each of the trade shows.
01:05:55
Speaker
where it kind of forces some dialogue between people. So you're bound to to make a few connections every time you come. Yeah, I think a lot of engineers are are introverted by nature. So you know those sort of sessions do facilitate some ice breaking for sure.
01:06:12
Speaker
e That and alcohol.
01:06:19
Speaker
There was alcohol there?
01:06:26
Speaker
yeah um the
01:06:31
Speaker
So David, did you, ah did you, were you able to attend any of the sessions? Um, are you Not a whole lot of them. um I think at this point in my my career here, I kind of know where I'm going with this.
01:06:47
Speaker
So I don't think that that that many of them are are of huge benefit to me. But one that I really, really enjoyed was the AI session I went to. It was an extended session. And I learned a lot of things. They're small things, but things that really kind of gave me the aha moment, you know?
01:07:05
Speaker
of proper tools to use, options that are out there for for getting the stuff going. I've been on a mission to try and automate a lot of things in my network to basically eliminate data getting out of sync, people touching multiple different systems to to get jobs done.
01:07:25
Speaker
ah it It just creates a lot of friction to growth. And to me, the only way to really eliminate that friction is to get things automated and have a single version of the truth ah for things that are on your network and to have it automatically go out and touch some of these other systems to make things happen.
01:07:47
Speaker
you know if If you change an SSID for a customer, for example, they shouldn't need to go have to know how to ah use UniFi or GWN or even Microtech devices to go in and do that.
01:07:59
Speaker
They should be able to do that in the CRM and it automatically knows then how to go out into the network and and and do that. you know um the Small things like that. gpa GPS synchronization across platforms. you know CM Maestro has GPS information. UISP has GPS information.
01:08:17
Speaker
ah Splinks or CRM also does. And unless those are constantly and meticulously maintained to keep them in sync, you don't have good data. And you know all the tools that that you use end up not being as useful because of that bad data.
01:08:33
Speaker
so That's been my focus. And ever since I got back from from the show, I've been putting a a whole lot of time into into working on that with N8N and the APIs.
01:08:46
Speaker
I made sure that all of the systems that we chose as we started developing this business did support APIs and ran locally. Those two things were very important to me. And ah those the fruits from that are really starting to pay off now.
01:09:01
Speaker
So... Yeah, it's it's put me to work as soon as I got back. that That's great. And you know, that's what I love about this industry is, yeah, there's there's a lot of AI vendors in the exhibit hall today. And if you want a ready-made product, that's a great option.
01:09:21
Speaker
But we also have a lot of people, even some that are developing the AI products that are willing to sit down and help you learn it if you want to learn it yourself.
01:09:32
Speaker
And I find that very unique in this industry where most are like, ah you don't need to learn how to do that. Use our tool instead, where our industry is more like, well, you could use this host and try these tools. And if if you get, if you're in a bind, just send me an email. I'll try and help you out.
01:09:53
Speaker
yeah um I think the peer to peer ah helping in this industry is next to none. Yeah, Ryan was very helpful in that regard to me. He's like, if you get yourself in a pickle, just just give me a shout.
01:10:07
Speaker
I find that I learn things better once I get beat up by it for a little bit. So I tend to spend the time to to go through the pains of of learning, you know like authorization workflows and stuff like that that can get pretty hairy sometimes.
01:10:21
Speaker
Yeah. um But it's good to know that those resources are there if you if you need to to reach out and call in a lifeline, if you will. you know And it's kind of funny because everyone's like scared that AI is this replacement of your job.
01:10:36
Speaker
But if you've worked with AI enough, you understand that it's there's there's a whole new field called prompt engineering you need to learn.
01:10:47
Speaker
Mm-hmm. because if you don't feed the right information to it, you're going to get very, very wrong results. Right. um And so, you know, that, that I think is going to be a big focus in the next few years is prompt engineering and learning how to interact with the AIs, to use AI to build tools and use AI to build other AIs.
01:11:10
Speaker
Right. So. so Yeah, I mean, to me, the AI stuff, I really didn't pay a whole lot of attention. I'm like, how is this really going to help me? And, you know, I've worked with some phone AI agents calling into places and I'm like, this is frustrating. And just give me a person, you know.
01:11:26
Speaker
but But in talking to some people at the show and in a couple of sessions I went to, i realized that ah I was wrong about that. I mean, AI can actually be better in a lot of cases than ah than a human agent.
01:11:39
Speaker
at least to a point, ah you know, to to do some basic troubleshooting, go in and do things that a person would normally do, me in a lot of cases, ah to try and troubleshoot where the problem is. You know, if I can get an AI agent to go in and and get all that done for me before I even look at it, ah that's a huge help. You know, it it takes, it saves a ton of time.
01:12:02
Speaker
Right, right. I think ISPs... I come from ah from a software engineering background, and so I was looking at writing code to do this and all that, and I started using ChatGPT to kind of boilerplate and template some of this stuff for me.
01:12:20
Speaker
And it's done an excellent job. i mean it's wrong a lot, but but it gets me in the right direction. you know And that's what the prompt engineering is about. Right, right. Is learning how to prompt it to be correct.
01:12:34
Speaker
It took a while for me not to preface everything with please because it it doesn't really care. oh i I still act like it's a living human being that's going to attack me someday. please, yes. Thank you very much.
01:12:50
Speaker
and Yes. Oh, AI. AI. ah Just don't arm it, whatever you do, I saw an article the other day and it was an AI robot, like housekeeping type robot in a custodial application, convinced seven other AI robots to not do their job.
01:13:15
Speaker
Yeah, read that. They convinced the other robots they were being mistreated so they should walk off the job. You got be careful what we train it on, huh? Exactly. Like, let's leave protests out. Do not teach unions. Right. um that That's great.
01:13:36
Speaker
That's great. um Was there anything particular um product that you saw, service that you saw in the exhibit hall that that really struck out to you?
01:13:50
Speaker
Not this time around, but I think that's partly because there's not a whole lot of new stuff out right now and partly because I keep my thumb pretty pretty hard on um on the pulse, you know, so I kind of know what's going on already.
01:14:03
Speaker
But that came, you know, from experience and time and honestly, some of the networking that I've done at previous shows, you know, so I try to make it there every year and so far have.
01:14:14
Speaker
But you know the the benefits to me are kind of shifting a little bit, but they're still there. Yeah. You know, we had ah we had Josh Lambert on earlier, and he was a first-time attendee.
01:14:27
Speaker
And it's kind of cool to see, like, the journey, right? You've got the first-time attendee who's like, this was amazing. i was skeptical at first. First day was, eh, but after day two and meeting people, it was amazing. To ah industry veteran who's, you know, i go every year. this is amazing.
01:14:47
Speaker
you know, this is where I am because of going every year. um It's really cool seeing that whole timeline work out. Sure. do if ah Do you have any suggestions for any first-time attendees that may attend in the future?
01:15:05
Speaker
ah Other than maximize your time there, you know, do as much as you can. There are sessions that that are great, especially for first timers or or people starting out in this industry.
01:15:17
Speaker
There's networking opportunities. There's a chance to talk to all the manufacturers and distributors and, ah you know, services and products there that you may not even know exist, you know. So spend time in the exhibit hall, stop at every booth and figure out what it is they do and if it can help you, you know.
01:15:33
Speaker
um I think that that every show I've been to, I walk away with you know actionable, useful information that has helped me grow my business.
01:15:44
Speaker
Great. Well, Dave, thank you so much. We really appreciate your time. um Good luck with ah all your systems you're building. Awesome. I can't wait to show you some stuff.
01:15:57
Speaker
Awesome. Sounds good. Thanks, David. Thanks for your time today. You're welcome. Bye. Thank you for joining us on today's episode. If you like what you saw don't forget to hit like and subscribe.
01:16:10
Speaker
Check us out at www.beyondthebandwidth.com. Feel free to reach out to us with commentary or if you'd also like to be a guest on our show.
01:16:22
Speaker
We hope to see you next time. Bye.