Is Your WiFi in Need of a Boost?

WiFi networks are now a critical consideration in a modern business or dwelling and, even where mobile phone signals are relatively strong, clients and residents will expect robust WiFi connectivity.

Despite being technically standards compliant, many WiFi networks fail to live up to their intended purpose. Demand has increased, and so have our expectations.

In today’s business world Fairhurst Estates’ sister company – Red Rock Facilities Management – takes a more in depth look and asks “How can you ensure that your WiFi network is capable of serving your users, securely and speedily?”

Carry out a WiFi survey

For a new WiFi network, a survey is the first logical step. It can help to identify coverage blackspots, while ensuring that your connection has the capacity to cope.

Your chosen provider will visit the building and test the signal strength through walls, and across long distances. Armed with this information, you can purchase only the equipment that you need.

If your network is already in place, a survey will help to pick up bottlenecks and areas where coverage is poor. This helps to future-proof the network you have, while ensuring it functions in the places you need it to.

Alternative Solutions

Driven by the Internet of Things, we’re slowly seeing new technologies enter commercial and domestic properties. Bluetooth Low Energy, Zigbee, Z-Wave and other networks provide a wealth of opportunities for facilities managers.

These technologies offer very short wave communication that is automatically extended when new devices are brought online. Systems work like a mesh, transmitting data from node to node, which allows the network to grow organically as demand increases.

As so-called ‘smart’ devices become more common at work and at home, these networks will come to be of equal importance to WiFi. Planning and designing alternative solutions could make your facility incredibly attractive to tomorrow’s innovative businesses and millennial occupants.

Building Infrastructure

Providing WiFi used to be seen as a nice perk for a facility. Increasingly, it’s a mission critical service. That’s because there’s huge potential for the facility management team when a good quality network is in place.

Using WiFi or a mesh networking system, facilities managers can get instant feedback on the state of their premises. They can detect temperature and moisture in any room, in real time, and get instant feedback on the way the building is run.

We’re already moving towards systems where everything is monitored with sensors, from the water supply to the refuse bins, and from the locks on the doors to the level of carbon monoxide in the air. Being able to respond to hyper-local alerts ensures the health and safety of your occupants, and makes it easier to control comfort and climate from a central location.