Background
Verallia is a large international company that manufactures and recycles glass bottles. It has production sites and processing centers in 11 countries around the world.
The facility in Gazzo Veronese is a very large warehouse and the aisles are filled with pallets containing bottles, stacked from floor to ceiling.
In this plant multiple forklifts operate around the clock within the factory every day. iPads on these forklifts scan QR codes and relay the data up to a server. Mobile data is required for the scanning process, and in this large warehouse, only a very weak mobile signal was present, resulting in the scanners only working in certain areas (under the skylights) and data being transmitted unusably slowly. This poor signal caused huge difficulties and delays for the running of the plant, costing them time and money.
The management contacted One Direct, a certified Stella Doradus Integrator to help solve their problems.
The Challenge
The management required that the forklifts could scan pallets quickly, by seamlessly sending data via their integrated iPads. Mobile phone reception was also required for staff and visitors to make calls and use the internet for the many apps required for daily work; zoom meetings, mobile pay, taking photos of products etc. They also requested a system that could be monitored remotely to ensure peace of mind.
The challenges for this installation were the size of the warehouse, 180m x 200m, and also the height of the ceilings, 15m high.
The Solution
In a large warehouse like this, a repeater system that amplifies 800+900MHz (voice and 4G data) is normally installed because the signal at these lower frequencies covers double the distance. However, after surveying the premises with the Stella TestTool, it was found that in this warehouse, skylights in the ceiling allowed a weak external signal at 1800MHz to enter the warehouse. It was therefore essential to also amplify 1800Mhz. A 5 band repeater system was required, to provide signal to the iPads and phones. This ensured that all frequencies for all operators were amplified. iRepeaters were chosen in order to be able to remotely monitor and control the system.
Because of the height of the ceilings (15m), high gain Yagi antennas were installed every 15m, sending signal down each aisle. All Yagi antennas were installed with 45 deg tilt downwards.
Outside the building a very high-gain antenna – the Stella Laser Antenna – was installed, to compensate for the long cables. This antenna has a very narrow beamwidth, which enables it to receive the signal from a specific tower, while excluding other undesirable towers.
The equipment used:
The equipment installed for this premises was:
- 2x external Laser antennas.
- 2x iR6, iRepeaters 6 band
- 10x L5-O Line amplifiers.
- 40x internal Yagi antennas.
- 400m of LMR600 cable
- 2000m of SD400 cable.
Installation time: Late night work. Six weeks. 4 men.
The result
Full mobile signal in the warehouse. This enabled the tablets on the forklifts to speedily scan the pallets, which greatly increased efficiency in the warehouse, saving time and money. Staff and visitors can now use their mobile phones, making clear voice calls and using high speed internet.
Future Proofed Solution. By installing a 5 band repeater system, Verallia ensured that the system is future proofed to the latest technology that the mobile operators use. For example, when Vodafone upgrades their network, Verallia will automatically benefit from these upgrades too.