Case Study - Hospital
A large hospital dealing with mentally unstable patients had always had radio coverage issues. However, with modern attitudes to Health and Safety, these coverage issues were starting to become cited as the, fortunately, infrequent cause of staff injury.
These problems had been further compounded by a new wing being added to the hospital, which had increased the patient numbers by around 30%. This new wing was constructed from reinforced concrete, a particularly difficult material for radio waves.
Other radio dealers had already looked at the solution, and the hospital had recently spent £30,000 with another company for a new multi-site digital radio system, but the coverage was still not as required.
The Maxxwave Solution
Maxxwave started looking at the problem from first principles. The problem was that the on-site repeater stations were not providing the required coverage. Looking towards the source, it was discovered that the aerial was poorly located, being on the roof at one end of the building.
Although the roof was very high, the antenna was some distance from the new wing. Another transmitter site had been installed within the new wing, with the two transmitters connected via the internal network cabling. It was initially discovered that the internal network cabling was defective, which we repaired, and the system started to operate as it should have when first installed.
We were again contacted within a few weeks, and further investigation revealed that the cabling had again become defective. It appeared that most of the internal network cabling within the building was faulty, and the IT department used Wireless LAN technologies to overcome the known shortcomings.
Maxxwave then decided that a radical solution was necessary. The main transmitter site was relocated to the centre of the building, and one of our 15m Aluminium Masts was erected on the roof. A "downfire" antenna was installed on top of this, concentrating the radio energy within the perimiter of the Hospital. The "fill in" transmitter was removed.
With our solution, the coverage was better than ever before, and boasted far greater resilience than would have been possible with the two-site solution, due to the sheer simplicity of the design.