System and method for wireless communication to permit audience participation

A method for audience participation using user equipment (UE) wireless communication devices in a geographic area configured with a plurality of wireless access points (APs) comprising:

• upon detection of any one of the plurality of APs, each of the plurality of UEs performing an automatic authentication with the AP whose signal was detected by the respective UE;
• upon completion of the automatic authentication, a server transmitting a plurality of welcome portal pages, including merchandise coupon information, to the plurality of UEs;
• each of the plurality of UEs responding to user input to select and display the merchandise coupon information from among the received plurality of welcome portal pages;
• any of the plurality of APs receiving merchandise order request data, based at least in part on the displayed merchandise coupon information, from a first of the plurality of UEs;
• the server receiving the merchandise order and using a heartbeat signal automatically transmitted from the UE to at least at least one of the plurality of APs to electronically and automatically determine a location of the first of the plurality of UEs within the geographic area;
• and
• the server performing an order fulfillment operation based on the received merchandise order request data to enable delivery of merchandise to the electronically determined location of the first of the plurality of UEs irrespective of which of the plurality of APs received the merchandise order request data.

A system to permit audience participation in a geographic area using user equipment (UE) wireless communication devices comprising:

• a plurality of wireless access points (APs) each having an area of radio coverage, each of the plurality of APs being configured to communicate with any of a plurality of UEs within the area of radio coverage of the respective APs;
• each one of the plurality of UEs performing an automatic authentication upon initially moving into the area of radio coverage of any one of the plurality of APs;
• a server communicatively coupled to the plurality of APs and configured to provide merchandise order information to the plurality of APs for transmission to the plurality of UEs within the area of radio coverage of the respective APs upon completion of the automatic authentication;
• the server being further configured to receive merchandise order request data transmitted by a first of the plurality of UEs and received by any of the plurality of APs;
• after receipt of the merchandise order, the server being further configured to use information using a heartbeat signal automatically transmitted from the UE to at least one of the plurality of APs to electronically and automatically determine location data for the first of the plurality of UEs from which merchandise order request data has been received;
• and
• the server being further configured to process the merchandise order request data and location data to thereby enable an order fulfillment operation based on the received merchandise order request data to deliver merchandise to the electronically determined location of the first of the plurality of UEs from which merchandise order request data was received in response to receipt of the merchandise order information irrespective of which of the plurality of APs received the merchandise order request data.