Background
Morrisons is one of the largest supermarkets in the United Kingdom with 500 shops throughout the country.
The new store in Eagle Way, Chelmsford is a single story building covering 1400sqm.
The Challenge
It was noticed, as soon as the newly built shopping centre opened its doors, that the triple glazed windows, along with steel and concrete walls, completely blocked all mobile signal from entering the premises. Once inside, customers’ phones went offline and the clients were forced to rush outside in order to make phone calls and get back online.
Furthermore, the customers were unable to use any mobile apps including the Morrisons shopping app. The shopping app is an extremely important marketing tool for this supermarket giant. The branded app records valuable information on customers’ purchasing habits which helps to tailor personalised deals. Google Pay, Apple Pay and similar digital wallet apps could not process any transactions because of poor mobile signal at the checkout.
The management quickly realised that such an experience was far from enjoyable for their clients. It was also costing them money in lost sales as people left the shop early to use their phones. The management reached out to Stella Doradus, who are experienced in professional repeater installations of all sizes.
The Objective
The management requested excellent mobile signal throughout the floor area. Morrisons wanted customers to be able to seamlessly use their branded app and avail of the latest deals and offers. Moreover, health and safety of both customers and staff members were a top priority for the management and mobile signal is required for health and safety to ensure speedy responses for the emergency services.
With the large number of transient clients passing through the shop, each with a different operator, the management at Morrisons insisted that the repeater system should amplify all of the UK operators.
Vodafone Signal after installation
Yagis installed up at ceiling height: 8m
2X Internal Yagi antenna pointing down at aisles
One of the SOHO R5 repeaters installed in a comms room
The Solution
Sure Signal Solutions chose the Stella Doradus SOHO-R5 repeater for this installation for the following reasons:
- It amplifies all UK operators networks. This was critical because of the large number of customers on different networks.
- An unlimited number of users can use their phone simultaneously with super fast data speeds. Unlike with WiFi, the 5G signal speeds do not slow down with multiple users.
- All mobile devices are amplified, including mobile payment terminals and e-Parking machines.
- The SOHO-R5 is fully compliant with the UK Ofcom regulations.
- As the mobile operators upgrade their networks ( increase data speeds) these improvements will automatically be passed on to the building ensuring this is the most future proofed and cost effective solution available.
Important aspects of this installation.
For this installation, because of the high ceilings, yagi antennas were used in the shopping floor area. These were installed back to back at ceiling level and pointed downward at a 25 deg angle to ensure coverage everywhere.
These antennas are difficult to notice, unless you were specifically looking for them as they are discretely located quite high up near the ceilings and kept flush with support beams and cable trays.
Ceiling mount omni antennas were installed in the staff rooms and offices because the ceilings were lower in these areas.
Time was of the essence with this installation. Work was carried out during the night time to ensure minimal disruption to the supermarket. The use of the TestTool and StellaPlanner were essential, as the plan for the positions of the cables and antennas could be drawn up in advance and the propagation from the indoor antennas tested in advance of the installation.
The equipment installed for this shopping center was:
- 3x SOHO-R5 repeaters
- 10x Yagi antennas
- 6x Omni antennas
- SD400 low loss cable
- Tappers and splitters
Time: 2 nights with 2 engineers.
Antenna Floorplan
