• Our Solutions and Case Studies

Our Solutions and Case Studies

PW Data Group Case Study for ITV

Case Study :

After a re-organisation of the facilities at Yorkshire TV, ITV wanted to connect to a warehouse building 300m away in Leeds city centre. The building may only be required for a year and the cost to install a fibre based service on a multi-year contract was seen to be too expensive.

ITV needed a 100mbps connection to support a small group of users, with the potential to support IP telephony, and IP-CCTV images.

PW Wireless Networks part of the PW Data Group conducted a site survey, and subsequently installed a wireless bridge from the roof of the main Yorkshire TV building across the roof tops to the warehouse. Due to height of the warehouse, a cherry picker was used to install the wireless bridge at the warehouse end, driven by a licensed PWWN engineer. The engineers also cabled the wireless bridge into the existing ITV LAN infrastructure to complete the install in a single day.

ITV now have a 100mbps wireless link between their main building in Leeds city centre and their warehouse over 300m away. With just a single day to install, the wireless bridge has provided the most cost effective and efficient link between the two buildings.

Case Study for Combat Stress

Case Study:
Combat Stress is the UK’s leading charity specialising in the treatment and support of British Armed Forces Veterans who have mental health problems.
Combat Stress needed to provide a secure managed wireless infrastructure that would allow the Veterans and staff access to information and services from devices. It was important that the solution delivered both high quality wireless and that “Veteran” and “Staff” networks be completely and securely segregated from each other to ensure data confidentiality and integrity.
The installation was to cover 4 locations across the UK in Leatherhead, Ayr, Belfast and Newport.
PW Wireless Networks, Part of the PW Data Group, were selected initially to provide wireless RF site surveys to ensure coverage and understand the environment for any interference or conflicts that would need to be considered in the delivery of a solution. Reports were completed detailing the locations of each individual access point and also overall heat-maps to demonstrate coverage. Any conflicts with other wireless networks or wireless devices were identified and reported in survey results for future consideration.
 
 
The Solution:
 

Following the completion of all surveys a competitive selection process was completed with the requirement to deliver a company-wide secure managed wireless and network switch infrastructure that would support both the immediate and future wireless needs. PWWN were successful in the selection process proposing a solution that was comprised of Layer 3 HP switching and dual band (2.4 / 5ghz) wireless “N” technology. The total solution included the delivery of all cabling, integration to active directory and captive portal for guest wireless access at the individual locations as surveyed at all sites.

Following a structured design process and roll-out plan developed closely with the customer, PW Wireless Networks co-ordinated the delivery of all the sites in a 4 week period with standardised configuration and settings at all sites to ensure compliance with operational needs and security. SSIDs were set up to identify the networks and VLANS configured to segment data throughout. Full testing and documentation was completed and issued centrally at each site with on-going technical support in place.

“This total solution demonstrates the capability of the PW Wireless to deliver a total solution to plan, within budget and timescale to the highest level of quality and functionality”

Richard Burley, Chief Information Officer, Combat Stress.
 

Case Study for Blackpool Pleasure Beach

Case Study:
Blackpool Pleasure Beach, the UK’s favourite tourist attraction home to the UK’s only Nickelodeon land and the world’s first Wallace and Grommit ride ‘Thrill-o-matic’, has teamed up with LoQ to get people out of the queues!
The Park required an extension to the existing wireless network to cover the queuing areas where the LO-q speedy pass solution would be required. The solution was expected to improve customer service and further opportunities for customer interaction.
Following a competitive selection process PW Wireless Networks part of the wider PW Data Group were selected as the delivering partner for LO-q and the speedy pass solution for Blackpool Pleasure Beach. LO-q wanted to work with a single supplier with the ability to complete all works including on-going support to ensure ease of delivery and certainty of their solution moving forward for Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

The Solution:

Internal and external unifi access points were installed across the park and integrated in to the current Blackpool Pleasure Beach wireless network which now delivers close to total coverage. The installation also required a hot spot and content filtering solution to ensure the park complies with guidelines on public access wi-fi and meets all the legal requirements. During the installation a site survey was carried out to identify the best positioning of the wireless AP’s and the external and internal CAT 5e data cable routes from cabinet locations. The complete solution was rigorously tested and documented down to each individual cable for ease of support and maintenance moving forward.
 
“Knowledgeable team that go above and beyond in order to make sure you get what you want…and what you want is what you need!”  – Richard Shirt, Head of IT, Blackpool Pleasure Beach Ltd

Case Study for the NHS

Case Study:

The North Cumbria Informatics Service currently provides IT and Networking services to the following NHS Trusts in North Cumbria:

  • Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (Mental Health and Learning Disabilities)
  • NHS Cumbria (Primary Care Teaching Trust)
  • North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust (Acute Hospitals)

Traditionally, where wireless connectivity has been required a basic wireless network model has been installed with autonomous access points deployed to provide access for users only within specific locations.

It was acknowledged that this model was limited and unable to deliver the emerging hospital requirements for secure and seamless access to online data applications by roaming users, Intrusion Detection Systems, converged telephony (Voice over IP) and location aware services for asset tracking.

A number of wireless site surveys had been carried out, which indicated that careful design of any new service would be essential to maximise the wireless coverage. The site survey also identified that the number of wireless Access Points (APs) required and their location will determine the functionality of the wireless network, i.e. basic wireless access requires the lowest number and widest spread of AP’s, adding telephony increases the number of AP’s and asset tracking requires that even more AP’s are deployed to cater for the extra capacity required.

Insight Direct UK Ltd responded to the tender process in January 2010 as the Prime Contractor operating as a lot 1 reseller under the IT Goods and Services Framework Agreement. PW Wireless Networks acted as the subcontractor with the necessary experience to design, install and support the proposed wireless network.

The Solution:

Following the formal tender process in January 2010, the contract was awarded to Insight Direct UK Ltd, and PW Wireless Networks. A “Proof of Concept” pilot was installed at the Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, with the longer term intention to supersede the current wireless network across the whole of the infrastructure.

The Pilot environment was designed to provide highly resilient services for a range of users, on a 24x7x365 basis. The solution also included the facility for centralised enterprise management, and was completely scalable to allow for future incremental growth to fit in with the broader IT strategy of the Trust.

The Wireless LAN had three clear design goals, to support the following services:

Data Services
for a variety of Portable computers (e.g. laptop, net-book, tablet or PDA) to access computer systems such as Pharmacy, Results Reporting, etc.
Converged Telephony
(Voice over IP, Video Conferencing) using either a PC based system, or a wireless multi function handset such as Tandberg, Ascom etc.
Real Time Location Services
to locate expensive equipment (Asset Tracking) and for locating people using “man down” alarm technology.

The proposed Trapeze “NonStop Wireless” technology, is ideally suited to deliver services across these 3 key core requirements, and to illustrate the benefits of the Trapeze solution, we can break down the technology features into 4 main business benefits as follows:

Performance:
Intelligent switching forwards voice traffic in a distributed fashion along the shortest path. This being from access point to access point rather than through the central controller. As a result, network latency is reduced, enabling large scale VoWLAN deployments. Users can also maintain connection while roaming and devices remain connected at all times for optimum efficiency.
Reliability:
The unique “cluster” approach to the architecture, allows Controllers to back each other up across the wireless domain (from both data centres), which enhances the reliability of the wireless solution.
Security:
The solution is compatible and fully operational with existing investments in access security (802.1x) and Active Directory. This means that the wireless network can be secured without expensive additional security. Resulting in secure, yet simple wireless access.
Management:
Ringmaster was the first system to import site plans to provide accurate planning for the placement of access points. It still leads the market in planning radio frequencies for networks supporting real-time applications such as telephony and Real Time Location Services, as required by the Trust. Ringmaster can simply manage the whole wireless domain across all locations from wherever the IT team members are located.

PW Data Group provide a range of wireless solutions to meet the challenges faced by their customers. These include indoor WiFi networks for factories, hotels, hospitals, offices, schools, warehouses, and Mesh networks for outdoor coverage. We supply Location based services, for asset tracking via the wireless network, and we can provide a wireless access control management system (MDAC) to allow guests and employees to self connect to the wireless network under automatic user and device restrictions.

As with all our solutions, we provide a 100% satisfaction – money back guarantee, to give you full confidence in choosing us as your supplier.

If you would like any further information regarding our services, please call 03333 66 00 77 or email

PW data group design and install customised wireless solutions to meet your individual requirements