Background
SuperValu is one of the largest supermarket chains in Ireland, owning 200 stores throughout the country.
The SuperValu store in Co Meath is a medium sized shopping centre ( 50x 50m).
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The Challenge
In this highly competitive market, it is essential that customers have a positive experience while shopping. Customers expect to be able to make phone calls, scan products for information and make payments without delays. This ensures they will stay longer and spend more money.
The SuperValu App is an extremely important marketing tool used by management. It is used to gain valuable information on customer buying behaviour. It also encourages customer loyalty and advertises promotions.
In this store, the modern construction materials with which it was built – concrete, steel and double glazed windows – blocked the mobile signal from entering the premises. This resulted in weak mobile signal for customers, and unacceptably long waiting times while customers used the Mobile App and made payments at the cashiers desks.
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The Objective
The management of the shopping centre reached out to CommsTel, a trusted Stella Doradus installer who has years of experience doing cellular installations in all types of buildings. The requirement was to have full mobile signal for all operators throughout the store to ensure phones, the Superquin App, and payment terminals worked speedily. It was also essential for health and safety to have mobile signal coverage in the premises.
The Solution
For this installation CommsTel chose a 5 band Stella Doradus repeater system to ensure all operators were amplified for 5G, 4G, 3G and 2G. This provides excellent mobile signal as well as fast mobile data for all customers and devices in the store.
In this shopping centre the ceilings were not very high (4m), so ceiling mount omni antennas were installed on the low points of the ceilings, away from the lights and fans (which can cause disturbances to the signal).
If the ceilings were higher ( ~10m), then panel antennas or Yagi antennas would have been chosen as their beamwidths travel further in 1 direction.
Extra antennas were installed over the cashiers desks to ensure there was excellent signal for fast payment receipts and easy use of the Mobile App.
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The equipment used:
The TestTool was actively used before, during and after the installation which guaranteed a professional and quick installation. By using the TestTool, it was possible to:
- Quickly determine the external direction of the dominant mast for all operators.
- Record the signal level from each internal antenna for each operator.
- Confirm the correct number of antennas were installed to provide coverage everywhere.
This was important for the client and also for the installer, CommsTel, for commissioning the installation.
The equipment installed for this shopping centre was:
- 2 external Yagi antennas
- 2 StellaOffice 5 band repeaters
- 15 internal panel and omni ceiling antennas
- SD400 low loss cable
- Tappers + Splitters