Phones pass data to nearby phones. Zeva routes it.
Zeva is a routing protocol, not a piece of hardware. It runs inside the venue's existing app or the Zeva app, forms a mesh over Bluetooth Low Energy, and carries orders and messages to a gateway with backhaul or keeps them local when they don't need the internet.
Phones pass data to nearby phones. Zeva is the protocol that routes it.
- 1
Discover
Phones running Zeva find neighbors over Bluetooth Low Energy automatically. No pairing, no configuration, nothing for the attendee to do.
- 2
Route
Zeva picks the path for each packet. Dense areas elect relay leaders so traffic doesn't flood, and every phone carries only its share.
- 3
Deliver
Orders and messages reach a gateway with backhaul, or stay local when they don't need the internet. Your existing systems see normal traffic.
From a seat in the upper deck to your ordering provider.
Attendee phones relay to each other, dense areas elect leaders, and a gateway with backhaul hands traffic to the systems you already run.
- 01
Attendee phones
Run Zeva inside the venue app. Discover neighbors over BLE and relay encrypted packets.
- 02
Relay leaders
Elected in dense areas so traffic doesn't flood. Every phone carries only its share.
- 03
Gateway
A small device with backhaul at points of sale, box office or ops. Bridges the mesh to the internet.
- 04
Your systems
Ordering, payments and messaging providers receive normal traffic. Nothing else changes.
The primitive is proven. Zeva is the protocol that makes it useful to venues.
Apple Find My
A passive BLE mesh across roughly a billion devices with negligible battery drain. Proves scale and user tolerance; closed to third parties.
Military MANETs
Mobile ad-hoc networks tested at 800+ nodes with sub-5-second network formation. Proves routing at density under hostile conditions.
Consumer mesh apps
Bridgefy and Meshtastic prove the primitive for messaging, but are built for chat rather than venue commerce.
Today's options buy capacity with hardware. Zeva gets it from the crowd.
| Criteria | Temporary installs | Infrastructure upgrades | Zeva |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost to venue | Tens of thousands per event, every event | Millions, multi-year capex | Software license plus usage fee, no hardware |
| Time to deploy | Days of setup and teardown | Months to years | An app update |
| Behavior under peak | Fixed capacity, saturates | Fixed capacity, saturates | Capacity rises with crowd size |
| Works outside the venue | No | No | Yes: parking lots, streets, disaster zones |
Zeva is complementary to carriers and DAS, not a replacement. It absorbs the peak those systems can't. Consumer mesh apps prove the primitive but are built for messaging, not venue commerce; Apple's Find My proves BLE mesh at scale but is closed to third parties.
Battery, privacy, coverage and phones.
Prove it at your next event.
We're selecting festivals, conferences and venues for validated 2026–27 deployments with published uptime data. A 30-minute call is enough to scope one.