Cell Phone Signal Booster Solution for Studio 88 Head Office

Cell Phone Signal Booster Solution For Studio 88

Studio 88 is South Africa’s largest independent fashion and footwear retail chain. The Group works tirelessly to offer exclusive releases and leisurewear brands. With over 305 Studio 88 stores and more than 687 stores within the Group, their presence in the footwear and clothing retail world is growing. This growth is evident with increasing footprint within Africa with stores in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia.

The Problem

Studio 88’s modern head office and distribution center has a lot of aluminum and concrete throughout, with smaller windows in certain areas, making it very difficult for signal to penetrate the building. Some of their office areas had virtually no signal at all, meaning employees could not receive phone calls or access mobile data. The office’s approximately 100 mobile users struggled with slow, lagging data and constant dropped calls, resulting in reduced productivity and lots of frustration.

The office layout consists of three floors- basement, first and second. Virtually no signal reached the basement at all.

The Solution

The installation required a detailed site-survey, installation with testing and post-installation QA. A medium-gain omni-directional antenna was installed on the roof, to receive signal from various cell towers for all mobile networks. 

The installation took 3 days to complete and to ensure that all the vital areas in the office building was covered. 3 WilsonPro A1000 amplifiers were used in-line to create a scaled solution that would cover the entire 2000m² office space.

Coax cable was run into the building making use of existing cable trays for a neat and tidy install. A combination of BT400 & BT600 (LMR Equivalent) cables were used to reduce signal loss over long cable runs. In the basement, 4 ceiling mount dome broadcasting antennas were installed, placed strategically for optimal signal dispersion. The first and second level floors were covered by 5 additional ceiling mount dome antennas on each floor.

The Results

After the installation was complete, signal in all vital areas of the building had markedly improved on all networks. LTE signal on all networks went from practically non-existing, to strong - meaning employees could now make data calls with no problem and stream videos seamlessly without any interruption – the golden standard for strong cell signal.

• The average signal strength on 4G LTE went from -89dB to -64db.

• The omni-directional antenna has increased the number of cell towers that LTE signal is received from dramatically.

• The client was impressed with workmanship carried out by the Bolton install team, and complimented the neat install and the overall condition the offices were left in afterwards.