Sedgwick County Zoo
Smart City connectivity case study highlights:
Total cost of ownership. Fast, easy deployment. Topology flexibility & scalability. Device connectivity & power. Discreet appearance & minimal footprint.
Overview: Kansas’ most-visited outdoor attraction deployed Altowav 60 GHz radios for parking surveillance and food truck connectivity, saving over $50,000 in infrastructure costs.
Sedgwick County Zoo, located in Wichita, Kansas, is the state’s most-visited outdoor attraction and one of the top zoos in the nation. Home to 3,000 individual animals of nearly 400 species, the zoo is a premier destination for education, conservation, and family-friendly experiences.
Welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors annually across its expansive grounds, the zoo needed to support both enhanced security and expanded operational needs. To achieve this, Sedgwick County Zoo deployed a new wireless network using Altowav’s high-availability 60GHz radios, enabling advanced surveillance and improved connectivity across challenging locations.
Altowav radios’ minimal footprint preserve Sedgewick Zoo’s aesthetic appearance
Secure blind spots and connectivity gaps, without disrupting animals or visitors
The zoo faced two major infrastructure challenges.
- Security blind spots: A string of vehicle break-ins in the parking lot revealed a critical gap in visibility. The security team needed a reliable way to monitor vehicles exiting the premises in real time.
- Connectivity for pop-up operations: A new food truck, located in the heart of the zoo, required reliable network access. Running traditional wired infrastructure would have required trenching through pedestrian walkways and even near animal exhibits, raising serious logistical and ethical concerns.
Deploying fiber to either area would have required extensive boring through parking lots, visitor pathways, and sensitive environments, at an estimated cost of over $50,000 in conduit work alone. The zoo needed a fast, cost-effective, and non-invasive solution that could deliver enterprise-grade performance.
High-speed wireless backhaul with zero trenching
Sedgwick County Zoo Deployment Topology
Sedgwick County Zoo partnered with Sandifer Engineering & Controls to design and implement a wireless network using Altowav’s 60 GHz radios. The project addressed both the parking lot surveillance needs and point-of-sale connectivity for the new food truck.
Key features of the solution included Altowav 60 GHz radios deployed to deliver high-speed, interference-free wireless backhaul without the need for trenching.
The wireless network integrated seamlessly with the zoo’s existing Genetec® Omnicast VMS, secure connectivity extended to the pop-up food truck enabling both video surveillance and point-of-sale operations, and high reliability with minimal installation disruption, ideal for a public and animal-centric environment.
POS, ALPR, and panoramic cameras on one wireless network
The deployment included six Altowav 60 GHz radios with integrated PoE ports supplying power and connectivity to point of sale and advanced analytic cameras, significantly easing the installation time and expense.
- Food truck network access for PoS equipment
- Axis® Q1700-LE 1080p/2MP license plate cameras
- Axis® P3735-PLE 2MP×4 IR panoramic camera
These secure wireless connections were made with minimal disturbance to zoo operations, patrons and animal exhibits.
Over $50,000 saved, with faster deployment and better coverage
“Utilizing Altowav radios allowed for a significantly faster scope-to-live project compared to wired networking, while providing significant cost savings and maintaining a high level of network security and availability.”
Matt McWilliams, Security Project Manager, Sandifer Engineering & Controls
The network went live quickly and efficiently, offering an accelerated timeline from scope to deployment thanks to Altowav’s ease of installation and immediate availability. The zoo now benefits from high-bandwidth surveillance coverage of vehicle exit points, secure and stable POS connectivity in areas previously considered unreachable, substantial cost savings (more than $50,000) by eliminating the need for boring and conduit infrastructure, and improved situational awareness for zoo operations and guest safety.
Expanding wireless coverage across the zoo’s perimeter
With the proven success of this deployment, the Sedgwick County Zoo is actively considering further expansion of the wireless network to other perimeter areas once deemed too expensive to reach. Altowav’s performance and ease of use have opened the door to a broader security roadmap, ensuring continued innovation in safety, guest experience, and operational connectivity.