Background
Cayo is a meat processing facility in Ledrada, a small village in the Salamanca region of Spain. The province of Salamanca is famous for its Iberian cured ham, where the world famous Guijuelo Ham is produced. The facility is a large, five story building. Inside, hams are hung, cured and aged in a controlled, chilled environment.
The Challenge
The building was constructed with metal walls to create specific climate conditions for the meat curing process. In addition to this, the curing process requires the legs of ham to be hung for long durations. The metal walls, coupled with the water content of the hanging meat, prevented the external operator’s mobile signal from entering the facility. Once inside the building, no signal was available on the mobile phones, so staff and visitors could not use their phones to make calls or access mobile data.
The facility had approximately 30 staff working throughout the 5 story building. They required a solution that would enable all the staff to be able to use their mobile phones to access voice, 5G, 4G and 3G data, so that they could communicate quickly, efficiently and safely while working.
A solution was required that would bring the signal inside the building, support all of the local mobile operators and allow unlimited staff and visitors access to the mobile phone signal.
The Solution
The food processing factory was located in a rural location. However, a telecom tower was located about 700 – 800m away, providing excellent signal outside the building.
The client spoke to a local telecommunications expert, Telesa, who recommended the Stelladoradus iRepeaters as the solution. Telesa reached out to CRSL, who supply Stella repeaters in Spain. They helped identify which Stella repeater solution would be appropriate for the unique challenges that the meat processing factory posed.
The installation company, Telesa, using the modular iRepeater, ensured that the customer was able to achieve a successfull outcome. The solution involved 1x iRepeater, 5x LineAmps (one on each floor), and 20x internal antennas. During the installation planning process, the StellaPlanner was used by Telesa to design and plan the layout online. This helped them to position the antennas in the best locations, and it calculated the maximum cable lengths allowed, thus avoiding costly mistakes at a later stage.
The result
“This was a tricky installation due to the cured meats and their locations, but a fantastic result was achieved in the end”
-Carlos in Telesa [Installation Company]
Full Voice,5G, 4G and 3G throughout the building.
Stella iRepeaters enabled full mobile voice signal as well as 5G, 4G and 3G throughout the building, allowing staff and visitors to communicate quickly and efficiently in all areas of the building. With increased connectivity, workers can now communicate faster and more efficiently without having to leave the building to find a usable signal, thus increasing productivity.
Cost effective and Sustainable Option
Enabling the staff in the factory to use their phones at work contributed to a sustainable solution in far reaching ways. The production facility used special apps on their phones for scanning products, for receiving goods into the warehouse and also reporting errors in the manufacturing process. By enabling staff to use their phones for these procedures, time was saved, fewer staff were needed, less paper was printed and used, and fewer errors were reported. This allowed the facility to greatly improve their green footprint for a very small initial input of energy.
The system was cost effective to install, and once installed it works as a passive DAS solution where the antennas use no energy to transmit the signal. The repeaters themselves use about the same amount of power as a light bulb. Because the phones have full signal, they use less power, and need to be charged less frequently, thus providing a very sustainable solution.
Quiet on the operators’ network
Stella repeaters use smart technology that allows them to amplify the operators’ signal without unwanted feedback or disruption to the local operators’ masts.
Trouble free installation
The installation was carried out with minimal disruption to the workers in the factory. In less than a week, the factory had full mobile signal for voice and data and could operate far more efficiently and safely. The customer was very satisfied with the outcome.