Four published tiers of event network capability
A common vocabulary for organizers writing requirements and vendors bidding on them. Tier claims are self-declared until a readiness audit is completed.
Tier 1 — Community
- Single uplink
- Basic managed switching
- Best-effort support
- Documented topology
Tier 2 — Regional
- Dual uplink
- Managed switching with VLAN segmentation
- On-site engineer for full duration
- Basic monitoring with logged metrics
Tier 3 — National
- Redundant ISP with automatic failover
- UPS-backed core switching
- 24/7 NOC coverage
- Public monitoring dashboard
- Pre-event readiness audit passed
Tier 4 — International
- All Tier 3 criteria
- LAN-first architecture
- Sub-5ms path to match servers
- Hot spares for all core hardware
- Documented disaster-recovery plan
- Publisher technical compliance sign-off
Pre-event verification
An organizer may request a readiness audit before an event. The checklist for the claimed tier is run against the delivered design, and the result — pass or fail — is published on the event page.
The organizer or vendor requests an audit at least 14 days before the event, nominating a tier.
Topology, redundancy, power, monitoring and staffing are checked against the published tier criteria.
The outcome is recorded on the event page. A failed audit is published with the same prominence as a pass.
Free templates for organizers
Using a common RFP and SLA template makes bids directly comparable, and makes it far harder for a disruption to be attributed to the wrong party after the fact.
📄 RFP Template
A request-for-proposal structure covering concurrency, redundancy, monitoring, escalation and evidence retention.
- Concurrency and peak-load requirements
- Required tier and justification
- Uplink redundancy and failover expectations
- Monitoring, logging and data-retention obligations
- On-site staffing and escalation contacts
- Post-event reporting requirements
📄 SLA Template
Service levels written so that responsibility boundaries are unambiguous before anything goes wrong.
- Definition of scheduled play time
- Uptime commitment and measurement method
- MTTD and MTTR targets by severity
- Explicit scope boundaries: venue power, ISP, publisher
- Evidence and log handover within 72 hours
- Root cause classification using the PENS taxonomy
Why scope boundaries matter
Most disputed attributions come from contracts that never defined where the vendor's responsibility ended. An SLA that names the venue's power arrangement and the ISP's delivery obligation separately makes post-event classification a matter of record rather than a matter of argument.