Wolterton Hall Goes Superfast
Grade 1 Palladian Mansion set in extensive grounds near Aylsham Norfolk once belonging to Horatio Walpole, younger brother of Britain’s first Prime minister, receives connectivity makeover from SimRush 4G LTE superfast broadband and WiFi.
The Challenge
With a long-term renovation plan underway for owners’ private home, apartments and holiday lettings better broadband speeds were required from a connectivity solution at a suitable price point.
Being set away from the main road and nearest village by some distance, broadband and telecommunications services to the hall were very limited by today’s standards. Broadband speed on ADSL was less than 1mb and a fibre-on-demand leased line installation would have incurred more than £25,000 of excess construction charges and over £1000 per month in service charges.
The Solution
FreeClix performed a local survey and demonstration of the 4G LTE signal using SimRush. Although mobile phone signal was exceptionally limited at the location both externally and internally due to the thick mansion walls, 77Mbps download and 50Mbps upload speeds were achieved.
The SimRush Outdoor Unit was mounted in a discrete location on the roof, giving clearance above the leaded ridges but without being visible from the ground. The powerful yet small and lightweight SimRush unit was easily mountable onto an existing TV pole, therefore ensuring it is invisible from the ground and preventing the need for further mounting hardware.
All SimRush access points are centrally managed by the SimRush controller to provide graceful handover between access points when a client is roaming between rooms. Care was taken to provide small but functional access points that matched the colour scheme of their installation location to be as discrete as possible, some access points even being hidden behind panels. Internal CAT6 cabling between all the SimRush hardware, kept the exacting standards that this installation required.
The Result
Wolterton Hall made a huge saving in up-front and ongoing costs compared to a leased line installation.
Not having to wait months for a leased line from BT Months of time has been saved time. SimRush enabled Wolterton Hall to connect to superfast broadband in a matter of days rather than months.
In matching the buildings elegance, the discrete hardware devices are in keeping with the setting of this Grade 1 Palladian building.
Everyday business tasks, such as taking card payments and online marketing are now simple and they can also offer secure and reliable guest WiFi to visitors.
“With Head Office only one mile away it was very frustrating to have no card paying facilities and very slow, sometimes non-existent connectivity… It’s also significantly enhanced the customer experience as we now have guest wi-fi running at a speed which enables customers to stream videos and keep up to date with social media and emails.”
