Hitachi Zosen Inova

Temporary Construction Site Connectivity

Service Type

Site Connect WiFi

Location

Erith, South East London

The Challenge

Client Requirements

Hitachi Zosen Inova build large Energy Recycling Facilities for their clients and these construction sites are large compounds with a vast array of sub-contractors moving through the build phases. The requirement was to provide temporary connectivity and WiFi into a welfare village of over 120 cabins provided by Portakabin in a four storey configuration with several hundred users at peak. This would be for approximately 90 days whilst waiting for fibre installation, which would utilise the same hardware on switchover.

Foreseen Challenges

With it being one of the largest welfare cabin setups of it’s kind in the UK it was the kind of configuration we don’t see too often. The location itself is in a flat spot for coverage on the mobile networks and so any 4G or 5G solutions wouldn’t be sufficient. Additionally, with a large footprint of cabins the wireless coverage would need to be vast to ensure connectivity was available wherever it was needed.
Hitachi Zosen Inova build large Energy Recycling Facilities

The Solution

Solution Proposed

We wouldn’t usually recommend utilising temporary connections for a site of this scale but because of the timeline we made use of multiple connections to a variety of mobile networks coupled with multiple satellite connections. This allowed for bandwidth well in excess of 500Mbps for HZI to work with and disperse to both their client and sub-contractors.

Installation Process

Across a variety of phases, our team worked within the mature H&S environment within HZI to install everything from multiple satellite connections, over 25 wireless access points, a point to point system to allow a network to spread to a remote security location. We carried this out over two days, allowing for full testing and handover.

Support Given

After installation, our team provided short term onsite support to ensure the configuration and capability was correct and then moved into our standard remote monitoring and support process. With alerts provided if anything fails or goes offline, coupled with firmware upgrades, moves and changes as well as phone support should there be any questions or concerns.

Outcome

A site supporting more than 300+ connecting devices is now established and whilst it has now been moved over to the fibre connection in a seamless switchover, we were able to install all necessary hardware right from the outset. The temporary configuration and bandwidth available was sufficient to allow all onsite staff, clients and sub-contractors to operate normally, moving design files, talking on Microsoft Teams, sending and receiving emails coupled with general browsing.
"Providing temporary connectivity into 120 cabins was by far our biggest ever construction site installation and the client was delighted with the result."

Ashley Smith

Fli-Fi - Director

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