How Ravina, Highland Park plan on improving cellphone service

Prompted by community complaints, Highland Park and Ravinia Festival officials have developed a proposal to improve cellular telephone service inside and outside the popular musical venue.

Residents east of Ravinia Festival have complained about being unable to use their cellphones on popular concert nights, Mayor Nancy Rotering said. Connection issues also have been reported north of the park.

Additionally, Highland Park Fire Department officials have said paramedics in ambulances often struggle to send emergency medical data to Highland Park Hospital until they are closer to the facility because of the amount of cellphone activity generated at Ravinia on busy nights.

Officials investigated and found Ravinia patrons sometimes overwhelm the cell towers near the park during sold-out performances. Ravinia Communications Director Nick Pullia said.

"A lot of them are texting, trying to find each other," he said. "And there are a lot of selfies, people trying to share the experience."

Nearby ravines may also interfere with smartphone service, Pullia said.

To solve the problem, the city and Ravinia have proposed erecting a system of antennas that would point inward to the Ravinia property and automatically intercept cellphone calls from concert patrons and route them to a local server.

The system also would capture any attempts to use wireless Internet or other data services inside the park and send them to the new server.

That would ease the demand for service from the cellphone towers outside the park, officials said.

"Ravinia is a tremendous asset to our community and works well with the city," 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."

Ravinia patrons won't notice a difference in service when they make cellphone calls or post photos and messages to Facebook, Instagram or other social media platforms, Pullia said.

"We think this is going to be a wonderful way to solve the problem," he said.

The proposal will require construction of a building in Ravinia's west parking lot, Rotering said, and the installation of small antennas that will be hidden around the festival grounds.

"It's an unobtrusive system that will have no negative impact on the neighbors," Pullia said.

The system would run year round, not just during Ravinia's concert season.

A cost estimate was not immediately available. Ravinia will pay the upfront construction and installation costs, Pullia said.

The venue would collect rent from telecommunications companies using the equipment. That money would help fund educational programs at Ravinia, Pullia said.

The city's plan and design commission will discuss the proposal at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at city hall, 1707 St. Johns Ave.

If the city eventually approves the plan, the new antenna system could be in place in May 2016, before the next Ravinia Festival season starts, Pullia said.