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Site-wide wireless network solutions
Wireless Network Solutions for holiday parks, caravan sites, industrial parks or marinas
Is your WiFi coverage a little flaky?
Do you even offer your guests WiFi?
People no longer want to ‘get-away-from-it-all’ these days, they want to stay connected, whether this is to social media, the office or just to check local attractions online and with this in mind one of the key requirements, when away from home, is how good the WiFi is at the campsite, hotel, marina or holiday park.
Here at Solwise we offer a number of solutions for delivering broadcast WiFi for public areas such as holiday parks, caravan sites and marinas. We can also help you with what you can do for user management. The purposes of this management could be so you can offer a chargeable service and/or so you can control and have traceability for site visits and usage: This final point might well be something that you need if Ofcom come knocking on your door accusing you of downloading a rip off DVD through your internet connection!
The WiFi broadcast methods discussed here centre around scattering WiFi nodes around the site to give complete WiFi coverage. However, before going through the various methods to achieve this, first of all we need to discuss the issues of where a signal will reach and where it will not. The key point is wireless doesn't go through walls or buildings or caravans! So you need to mount your outdoor wireless devices so that users can get clear line of sight to where the WiFi is being sent from. If the user is in a caravan or a metal hulled boat then that means the window of the caravan/boat needs to be aimed at where the WiFi is coming from. This means, when covering a park or 'van site, that you need to scatter WiFi transmitter nodes around the site to give all users clear connectivity. Of course you also want to keep the number of nodes down to reduce interference, boost throughput and to reduce costs. Deciding how many WiFi nodes to install and where to mount them for optimum coverage is, in my opinion, the hard part!
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Methodology of Distribution
It would be great if the site could be covered by just a single outdoor Access Point on the outside of the site club house. Unfortunately, unless the site is very small indeed, this is never the case. Most sites will therefore require multiple access point nodes, carefully sited to give seamless coverage. Once you've picked the best location for the access point
nodes the next problem is how do you get the network (Internet) to each node. There are a number of ways you can do this; each of them has its good points and its bad points:
1. Hard-wired Access Points
2. Access Points with a wireless backbone
3. Basic 'repeater' access points where the WiFi on the access point used for the local coverage and also the linking back to the source
The subject of covering your park with WiFi is a massive one. Steve Mace of Solwise has written a White Paper on the subject, it covers the methodology of distribution in more detail, roaming, performance, range, user management, legal implications, site surveys, along with details of suggestions for WiFi infrastructure.
Click here to download the full White Paper.
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Give episode 2 of our podcast "A Word from the Wise" a listen, to hear two members of the Solwise team discuss in detail the ins and outs of how Engenius managed solutions work and how they could benefit you.
Give our Patriot-DB video a watch for another WiFi solution. The Patriot-DB is a dual-band WiFi adapter for your motorhome, caravan, leisure boat, home office, summerhouse or garage. Learn how you can use this device to improve your signal whilst you are on your holidays or even at home. With flexible mounting options you can use the Patriot-DB on a temporary location or a more permanent position to give you the most flexible way to get an internet connection.
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Case studies
Portmeirion
Portmeirion is one large network running both the WiFi system and the TV System through it. The network gives blanket coverage to Castell Deudraeth Hotel, Portmeirion Hotel, Portmeirion Village Outdoor for day visitors/guests, and 72 rooms in the village including cottages.
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Small van/marina site of up to 1/2 acre/15-20 vans
Normal retail price:
ex. VAT
If you are a reseller please contact us for details on our reseller programme
Small van/marina site of up to 1/2 acre/15-20 vans needing a single 2.4/5GHz outdoor AP. *
- 1x EL-ENH1350EXT placed on the roof of the building with the broadband.
- 1x GiS-R2 hotspot gateway.
Larger site of perhaps an acre/30-50 vans
Normal retail price:
ex. VATIf you are a reseller please contact us for details on our reseller programme
Larger site of perhaps an acre/30-50 vans (the guide lines seem to be 30 vans per acre). *
- 1x EL-ENH1350EXT placed centrally to give best coverage; maybe the roof of the clubhouse?
- 1 x ENSTATIONac you might need a 5GHz wifi bridge from the broadband source to the location of the EL-ENH1350EXT in order to give the optimum placement so that means an ENSTATIONac for the remote point (where the EL-ENH1350EXT is located) and an...
- ENS500-AC at the broadband source.
- 1x GiS-R2 hotspot gateway.
Larger site of perhaps a 2 acres/60-100 vans
Normal retail price:
ex. VATIf you are a reseller please contact us for details on our reseller programme
Larger site of perhaps a 2 acres/60-100 vans. *
- 1x EL-ENH1350EXT placed at the source; maybe the roof of the clubhouse?
- 1 x EL-ENH1350EXT & EL-ENSTATIONac at an equidistant remote point.
- 1x EL-ENH1350EXT for bridge back to clubhouse.
- 1x GiS-R6 hotspot gateway.
Free phone consultation
Arrange a free phone consultation with one of our wireless solutions experts by leaving your details in this form.
* In all cases subject to site survey AND actual number of AP units will depend upon placement and orientation of the clients.