Does height matter? When it comes to the new Musco light towers at the Husker Harvest Days show site, it certainly does. These five new light towers are 90 feet tall each — 30 feet taller than the site’s old towers. And that 30 extra feet makes a big difference.

Not only are those towers equipped with security lighting, but they’re also equipped with repeaters for improved internet distribution.

“Microwave internet is a line-of-sight business. Having five 90-foot-tall towers around the show site, from anywhere on the grounds you’re able to see the peak of towers and get good internet wirelessly into everybody’s exhibits. From wherever you are standing, you can get line of sight to one of those towers,” explains Matt Jungmann, Farm Progress national events director. “That’s something exhibitors were trying to do on the top of 60-foot grain legs, but now we’ve got more capacity.

“Realistically it’s just repeaters that you’re beaming internet from Grand Island out here wirelessly, and it’s being distributed from those repeaters. Really all that’s there is a repeater,” Jungmann adds.

“The speed and capacity are better with less hops. The fewer bumps the signal has to go through to get to the show site, the higher quality it is. Having those great big things up in the air allows for a lot more speed coming out of Grand Island, and better distributing out here,” he says.

The site’s PA speakers are also mounted to those light poles, and the upgrades at the show site also take the PA system to new heights. The new sound system at HHD was installed by Electronic Contracting Co., the same company that installed the sound system at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb.

“The towers also get the PA system up at a height they can operate more efficiently. We can cover the entire 80 acres of the exhibitor area with two positions for speakers,” Jungmann says. “It’s going to make for a lot better PA system.”