About Hounslow Civic Centre
Hounslow London Borough Council provides local planning applications, housing, waste collection and environmental health services. As a local education authority, it also covers social services, libraries and waste disposal. The council shares responsibility with the Greater London Authority for strategic policies including housing, planning and the environment.
The new 16,000ft², 7-storey Civic Centre in Hounslow Town Centre is an architectural masterpiece with glazed bays separated by anodized aluminium geometric shapes. It houses the public-facing amenities, library, café and exhibition space on the lower floors and the council’s employees and meeting rooms on the higher levels.
The Problem
The building contractor, Bouygues UK, realised towards the end of the build that the materials used in the remarkably designed building did not allow for mobile signal to pass through, leading to little to no indoor mobile signal. A building like this deserved first-class, stable mobile connectivity and he was running out of time fast to find and deploy a cost-effective, legal solution.
Business Needs
Provide a cost-effective solution to enhance in-building mobile connectivity for all networks. Complex to install due to divisional design of building and building materials used.
The Solution
From the outset, it was clear that this was going to be a complex install which would require careful planning. Frequency and ZoneWave, one of their installation partners, led in-depth discussions, site map consultations and a thorough site inspection. Due to the divisional design of the new building, 46 separate areas were identified across the 6 floors. The Cel-Fi Quatra 1000 hybrid digital and DAS solution was proposed to solve mobile coverage across the building. This consisted of 22 NU’s and 66 CU’s with an attached DAS.
The Results
Despite the short lead time and challenges to stay on budget, the project was delivered on time and in budget. The feedback has been resoundingly positive, and Hounslow House now benefits from reliable, stable mobile connection on all major networks throughout the building.
