The Problem
Sykes & Son Limited deliver a range of building, engineering and maintenance solutions to iconic clients and sites throughout London and the South East.
They came to us during the construction of their new head office building to enquire about a signal solution. The brief; to boost the 3G & 4G signal for their company phones. This is a 3 storey building with a basement level, and the signal was poor throughout. The structure of the new building is metal clad with a metal roof, which was doing a great job of blocking the mobile signal.
Our engineers carried out a site survey which included signal tests throughout the building and the immediate area outside. The exterior signal was strong, which is often the case in central London, and confirmed that the building material was blocking the signal.
No Signal
No usable signal throughout the building
3,300 SQ FT
Coverage required across 3 floors including basement
Central London
New build office - metal clad structure
The SOLUTION
Building Materials
Due to the metal cladding used in the construction of this building, the internal signal was non-existent throughout the majority of the office. This is a common problem in modern, sustainable building design, where the energy efficient materials block radio waves from entering.
The Chosen Solution
Following on from our site survey and solution design, our Amplifi-Qx Digital solution was selected. This included 1 CEL-FI QUATRA Network Unit and 3 CEL-FI QUATRA Coverage Units, plus 1 external antenna to pick up the donor signal from outside the building.
Installation challenges
This particular building had a flat roof that could only be accessed via scaffolding. Our professional engineers are trained to work at height so this wasn’t a problem when installing the external antenna.
The Result
Significant improvement throughout
On completion of any installation we’ll always walk around the property to test the signal in various locations – comparing the boosted signal to the original signal readings.
The results at Sykes & Son were excellent; the signal for 3G & 4G was significantly improved throughout the property.
Immediate results
The customer was immediately able to see the results of our work with productivity and operational advantages. All areas of the building now receive strong and consistent 3G & 4G voice and data coverage.
Installing a signal solution at the building construction stage reduces labour, overall disruption to the client and is often more cost effective.
Signal reading comparison
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!
Pre & Post Install Readings
0
dBm
Vodafone 3G
Pre-Install
0
dBm
Vodafone 4G
Pre-Install
0
dBm
Vodafone 3G
Post-Install
0
dBm
Vodafone 4G
Post-Install
Customer Testimonial
Diego Espinosa
IT Consultant,
Sykes & Son Limited
Sykes & Son Limited
The signal has improved from 20-30% coverage to 100% and our staff have noticed a big difference in signal reception and quality. Before the installation, the signal was weak and most people had to dial back a few times to finish a conversation. Now that this has been fixed, our staff productivity has greatly improved.
We found the initial surveys prior to installation really successful as they helped us to identify the dead zones in the building. The installation process was easy and very quick even during lockdown which we thought would slow things down but it didn’t.
The engineers were very professional as was everyone at Signal Solutions that I spoke to in person or over the phone.
