Newquay Cornwall Airport - Newquay, Cornwall
This stunning airport situated in Newquay on the North Coast of Cornwall, is a huge and vital link in the Devon and Cornwall tourism and business industry, with an estimated 250,000 passengers expected in 2015/16. When we received a call from the team at the airport asking us to look at a potential passenger wireless system for their terminal, we jumped at the chance to be affiliated with such an important regional business.
The airport terminal already had a wireless internet connection of sorts, although it was soon identified at our initial meeting that the existing set-up was unreliable, it generated a huge amount of frustration from passengers and staff alike, who had to deal with the complaints..! It was not intuitive, it didn’t cover the airport and most of all it was slow.
We completed a lengthy survey identifying the need for cabling across the arrival and departure halls which was going to be a challenge in public areas. We also identified the prime locations for ceiling mounted access points and were given instruction that the airport would like to collate some passenger information in return for offering a free service.
It was decided by us that we would implement a wireless network with a higher frequency, as the higher frequencies provide greater data transfer rates across the network and they are also far less likely to suffer from interference from the surrounding airports operations.
Newquay Cornwall Airport is no different to the rest of the majority of businesses operating in the South West in the fact that they have limited connectivity over copper cabling to the Internet, having looked at leased line costs which were prohibitively expensive, we opted for a dual ADSL broadband connection to run the new HSIA (High Speed Internet Access) server and with some clever programming we were able to utilise both of the broadband connections across the Wi-Fi network.
We opted for a Tiger TMS HSIA gateway and management console, Tiger TMS are a trusted supplier of ours, having used them to control the billing platforms at hotels such as Bovey Castle on Dartmoor in Devon. We knew that not only would they deliver a perfect hardware solution in this case but their support is second to none. The Tiger TMS gateway allows the airport to view live statistics of the wireless internet system and it also allows for on demand and automated historical reporting of the entire system.
Having collated all of this into a quote giving our specific solutions to the airport we were soon given the contract.
This is the point where you may think it becomes easy except as we all know when travelling in today’s climate airport security is extremely vigorous and as a work force there were no special exemptions.
We needed work permits; security clearance and a tooling permit to allow us to work air-side. We worked very closely with the airports management and security team to ensure we met the security protocols within the airport. This meant removing steel toe capped boots, being scanned through a metal detector and having all items sent through x-ray each and every time we needed to work in that area.
Our next challenge was to run a network of data cabling through all of the public areas, which in itself was a challenge but with careful planning and consideration we achieved this without any possibility of a person becoming endangered from the works.
Once all of the data cabling was in place we installed the wireless access points and the main cabinet to the Comms area of the terminal.
Once we tested the system and were happy with its operation we turned off the old system and converted to the new Marley Comms WI-FI system.
The passengers were immediately greeted with the new Newquay airport portal page and in a few simple clicks were being treated to an easy to use, intuitive, fast and reliable internet connection.
The airport management and staff are extremely pleased with their new Wi-Fi system and so are we…!
It had its challenges on all levels but we were able to deliver as promised a perfect solution for the airport ensuring a free wireless internet system to their passengers within the time scales initially set out. The management team of Newquay airport said of their experience of Marley Comms:
“After getting several quotes for installation of our new Wi-Fi service, we were happy to select Marley Comms based on indicated quality, service/response times and cost. Their professional attitude and technical knowledge soon became apparent, with physical installation schedules being met on or before time. The airport environment is fairly challenging, with various passenger and security constraints continually present. Marley Comms met these challenges brilliantly and delivered, as promised, a fast and reliable free Wi-Fi service. I would definitely recommend them to others.” – Matt Mitchell (Senior Data & Finance Analyst – Newquay Cornwall Airport).
We are understandably proud to have provided this solution to such an influential business in Cornwall. We have enjoyed working with Newquay Cornwall Airport and we very much look forward to working with them in the future. Thank you to the team for your assistance, you were very helpful.
To see the great service Newquay Cornwall Airport offer please visit :http://www.newquaycornwallairport.com/
Interested in Tiger and what they can offer please see : http://www.tigertms.com/