The Problem
Nightingale Hammerson is an independent charity and leading specialist in the care of older people, comprising two care homes; Nightingale House in Clapham and Hammerson House, in Hampstead.
We were contacted to fix the serious mobile signal problem that the Hammerson House care home was experiencing. The old building had been demolished and rebuilt and the new building was blocking the mobile signal.
Hammerson House is a private care home with a need to provide a strong, consistent mobile signal to all the residents and staff. Reliable mobile signal is essential from a health and safety point of view and to enable the residents to communicate freely with friends and family.
We visited this site to carry out an initial site survey to check the signal and carry out signal tests. All networks were required to keep the residents and staff connected.
No Signal
NEW BUILD MATERIALS BLOCKING EXTERNAL MOBILE SIGNAL
All Networks
Multi-network solution required throughout building
Amplifi-Qx Analogue
Mobile signal booster solution using cel-fi technology
The SOLUTION
INSTALLATION CHALLENGES
This was a challenging project as this large and complex property has extensive fireproofing between each section of the building. We were contacted towards the end of the building process which meant that the fire sealing was already in place and locating the cable routes could potentially be problematic.
Our specialist engineers are experienced in working in all building types and were able to design a signal solution that was sympathetic and appropriate to this particular structure.
The Chosen Solution
We used our Amplifi-Qx Analogue product with the CEL-FI GO X booster for this project. To ensure optimum coverage we installed 32 GO X boosters (8 per network) to cover the size of this 4 floor building, plus 32 internal omni-directional antennas.
Our design included 12 external antennas installed on the roof to pick up the donor signal from outside the building.
The Result
Significant improvement throughout
The results at Hammerson House were immediate. We provided 3G and 4G signal throughout all areas of the building and most importantly within the resident dwellings.
The residents can now communicate with friends and family via their personal mobiles. The building now receives strong, consistent voice and data coverage.
Immediate results
Employees and maintenance staff commented on the immediate productivity and operational improvement within the care home with the added benefit of elevated employee moral.
Having a strong mobile signal throughout the facility is also an enormous benefit from a health and safety point of view.
Signal reading comparison
On completion of any installation we’ll always walk around the building to test the signal in various locations – comparing the boosted signal to the original signal readings.
We use professional signal testing equipment to take dBm readings (decibel milliwatts) – we then compare these to the pre-install readings to calculate the increase in mobile signal. A really good dBm reading will be somewhere between -70dBm and -90dBm … the closer to zero the better!
3G Results
0
dBm
Vodafone 3G
0
dBm
O2 3G
0
dBm
EE 3G
0
dBm
Three 3G
4G Results
0
dBm
Vodafone 4G
0
dBm
O2 4G
0
dBm
EE 4G
0
dBm
Three 4G
