The Convention Centre Dublin (CCD) is a high profile building in the heart of Dublin. The building is a new, purpose-built conference and events venue with iconic design and state-of-the-art facilities. The CCD targets major events and required a unified indoor wireless coverage system to support mobile broadband technology for international visitors.
From the outset of the project in 2006 there was a clear requirement for a modern wireless infrastructure that not only supported commercial cellular coverage but also offered the possibility of adding Wi-Fi hotspots, two-way security radio and Tetra emergency service provision as required. With large numbers of visitors moving around the building; often concentrated into particular areas, the operators required the ability to easily deploy cellular sectors in three different zones.
The project brief required a single infrastructure solution, but with the capability of a wideband hardware platform that had little or no incremental cost as new services were added over time. Zinwave’s wideband active Distributed Antenna System (DAS) is said to be the only solution that could meet all of these key criteria.
CCD is one of a growing list of buildings, which include airports, shopping malls, hospitals and corporate facilities, to take advantage of Zinwave’s unique support for multiple services over a single common infrastructure and wideband hardware platform. The Zinwave 3000 easily accommodates the specific services offered by all operators and required by the thousands of visitors from around the world. Cellular sectorisation is uniquely supported by a built-in switch matrix that, by simple software configuration, selectively routes services to specific areas of the building as required.
The CCD implementation was carried out as a joint venture collaboration between OpenOptics and Obelisk.
“The telecommunications industry is a rapidly changing environment, and the ability to easily add future services to the selected wireless coverage solution was an important factor for CCD. Zinwave‘s wideband technology provides this without the need for service specific hardware or system upgrade,” commented Christopher Plockelman, of OpenOptics.
Padraig Brady, of Obelisk added “When deploying cellular coverage across multiple operator networks and multiple services, including O2, Vodafone, 3 Ireland and Meteor, throughout the conference centre across the full service mix, being able to simply plug them in without worrying about service-specific hardware is a major advantage. Zinwave’s system has provided us with the most cost effective solution while the intelligence and flexibility of the architecture simplified deployment of cellular sectorisation. Thanks to Zinwave’s innovative, future proof DAS, we can add any future service at any frequency that may become available, with the ability to easily expand to meet future needs.”
CCD recently played host to the Pride of O2 Awards.
“This was an important day and an ideal setting to showcase Zinwave’s unique 3000 system. Only the Zinwave solution can offer service independent capability and sectorisation created by simply software configuration to provide a truly future-proofed multi-service platform,” said Colin Abrey, President of Zinwave International. “Zinwave provides the most cost effective and comprehensive wireless distribution solution in the industry, and one that benefitted from interaction with our forward-thinking industry partners Obelisk and OpenOptics. The architecture of our solution along with the flexibility to route specific services enabled the straightforward deployment of the project thereby satisfying all requirements for enhanced coverage across multiple wireless services.”