Science & research Parks

Promoting reliable connectivity is essential for science parks and laboratory facilities, supporting both human collaboration and the operation of sensitive, data-dependent equipment.

The Problem Upon a new tenant moving into the Priestley building, located within a science park environment, they encountered significant and detrimental connectivity issues. They experienced poor mobile signal or a complete lack of reception throughout the building. This presented multiple challenges. Firstly, it directly impacted the tenant's staff, including corporate personnel, administrators, contractors, and guests. Their ability to use corporate airtime for essential calls and data access on their mobile devices was hindered. Poor mobile signal impacts business operations. Secondly, and critically in a laboratory setting, the poor signal severely affected the tenant's research and monitoring infrastructure. The tenant utilised sensors on measuring equipment designed to send valuable data to IoT gateways. Due to the insufficient mobile signal, these gateways could not transmit data, leading to lag and the absence of critical information transmission. This challenge aligns directly with known pain points for IoT/M2M deployments, where signal blackspots and not-spots can disrupt the function of monitoring devices and sensors. Issues with connectivity also impact business operations.

The Solution To comprehensively resolve these connectivity failures and support the tenant's advanced operational needs within the science park, a mobile signal booster system was implemented throughout the building. Mobile signal boosters are specifically designed to amplify and redistribute 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G signals inside buildings. A significant advantage of deploying such a system in a multi-tenant, multi-user environment like a science park is that it is network independent.

The Result The installation of the mobile signal booster system yielded immediate and significant improvements. The system rapidly and immediately increased signal strength inside the building. This restoration of robust mobile connectivity was critical for the tenant's laboratory operations: all the IoT gateways became fully operational and were able to connect and reliably send data from the sensors. The lag and missing critical information transmission were eliminated, directly addressing the negative impact of signal blackspots on their monitoring devices and sensors. Furthermore, the network-independent nature of the solution ensured that all users within the building – corporate staff, administrators, contractors, and guests – were able to effectively use their mobile devices for both calls and data across all four major UK mobile networks. The implementation resulted in improved staff communication and generally enhanced business operations that had been previously impacted by poor signal.

This successful implementation demonstrates how investing in a mobile signal booster solution ensures seamless connectivity for both essential human communication and critical data transmission from advanced laboratory equipment, providing reliability and resilience vital for occupants and enhancing the overall value and appeal of the science park facility.