Cell Phone Service Will Improve at Ravinia

The city of Highland Park and Ravinia Festival officials are working to improve cellular telephone service at the popular concert venue.

Proposed is the erection of a system of antennas that would point inward toward to Ravinia property and automatically intercept cellphone calls from concert patrons and re-route them to a local server, according to the Daily Herald. The system would also re-route any attempts to use wireless Internet or other data services in the park to the new server.

The need for this comes from complaints from numerous concertgoers who can’t get reception and word from Highland Park Fire Department officials who have said ambulances often struggle to send emergency medical data to hospitals due to the high volume of cellphone activity during popular concerts.

“Ravinia is a tremendous asset to our community and works well with the city,” Mayor Nancy Rotering said. “Together we’ve come up with a plan to help emergency communications, reconnect residents who are unable to get a cell signal and ease data congestion around Ravinia.”

more via the Daily Herald