One Beacon Court

Wireless Solution

One Beacon Court

Background: One Beacon Court is a mixed-use tower, located at 731 Lexington Avenue in the heart of Manhattan. Completed in 2005 by Vornado Realty and occupying a full city block, the 1.4-million-square-foot building includes a 105-unit luxury residential condominium project that occupies the top 24 floors, and 900,000 square feet of office space housing the corporate headquarters of Bloomberg L.P and a unit of Citigroup. Retail tenants include the restaurant Le Cirque, Home Depot, H&M, Wachovia and The Container Store.

The Challenge: Vornado recognized the need to enhance the capabilities of wireless devices, such as two-way radios and cellular phones in the event of an emergency. Materials used in the construction of large buildings degrade and distort radio frequency signals, limiting the effectiveness of wireless communications. Radio frequency signals can become so distorted that even people on the same floor cannot communicate with two-way radios.

Blocked wireless signals also make it difficult for commercial and residential tenants to use their wireless devices, such as cellular phones or wireless laptop computers in their offices or condominiums. Having personal cellular calls dropped is frustrating enough, but dropped calls or the inability to retrieve data in an office setting can significantly disrupt workflow and inhibit business.

The Solution: Vornado decided to seek out a wireless infrastructure that could enable two-way radio and first-responder communications, as well as support future wireless needs. During its search for such a system, a general contractor recommended InnerWireless, a company that provides in-building wireless coverage for multiple applications and devices on its unified, broadband infrastructure call the Wireless Utility. Vornado installed the Wireless Utility in One Beacon Court as an amenity to the residential units and throughout the core and service levels of the entire building to enable the efficient deployment of a wide range of wireless services and applications.

InnerWireless easily handles applications and devices that operate on the 802.11 standard, or WiFi as it is more commonly known. Installed through the foyers and galleries of the individual residences, these WiFi capabilities, at the request of the condominium owner, can be extended throughout the unit.

An added benefit of having an in-building wireless infrastructure, such as the Wireless Utility, is that other applications and technologies can be easily deployed. For example, all major cellular carriers can plug into the system so that tenants can use their wireless phones throughout the building, even so the tenants can use their wireless phones throughout the building, even in elevators, stairwells and underground parking garages. The Wireless Utility is also future-ready, meaning that it can support new wireless technologies and standards as they become available. This capability eliminates the need to install a separate system for each new technology or wireless need, thus reducing future costs, maintenance and total cost or ownership.

Vornado's objective was to find a system that could support safety applications, such as two-way radios and first-responder communications, but soon realized that to meet its tenants growing wireless demands, a wireless infrastructure needed to be deployed. Following an exhaustive investigation, Vornado realized that the Wireless Utility from InnerWireless was the only unified, broadband wireless system that could cost-effectively provide a future-ready solution to meet the wireless needs of all One Beacon Court residents, commercial tenants, building staff and emergency service personnel.

Download the One Beacon Court Success Story

 
Wireless Solution

Diageo    

Background: As the world's leading premier alcoholic beverage manufacture, Diageo features an outstanding line of spirits, wines and beers, including Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Baileys, J&B, Captain Morgan, Cuervo, Tanqueray, Beaulieu Vineyard and Sterling Vineyards.

Listed on both the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and the New York Stock Exchange (DEO), Diageo trades in more than 180 markets around the world. It employs 23,720 people worldwide, with more than 1,300 personnel based in its North America headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut.

The Challenge: Employees in Diageo's North American headquarters had sporadic access to cellular and wireless Internet services. Personnel would frequently have to stand by a window to take important customer calls on their mobile phones, and they were often unable to receive e-mail on their Blackberry devices because of the poor wireless coverage in the building.

Diageo wanted to make its employees more efficient by providing real-time, reliable and constant access to information within its Norwalk facility. The company wanted to implement a flexible, broadband wireless infrastructure that could support a variety of wireless networks, including: WiFi, cellular and personal communication systems (PCS), two-way radio, and fire and life safety.

The Solution: Diageo engaged IBM Global Services-Integrated Technology Services to deploy a broadband solution from Richardson, Texas-based InnerWireless. InnerWireless' Wireless Utility is a unified, broadband infrastructure that provides a full range of wireless signal coverage to ensure seamless mobility, communication and real-time access to data. The solution provides access to a number of wide area network (WAN) services, including cellular services, paging capability, two-way radio service and first responder technology. Internally, the solution offers WiFi access, enterprise voice service, and building automation and security.

Diageo chose InnerWireless' broadband solution because it could scale to meet the company's short and long-term needs. In the short term, as the number of users accessing the various wireless networks changes, the system responds to provide the appropriate wireless networks changes, the system responds to provide the appropriate wireless network capacity at the exact place and time it is needed, ensuring that Diageo always has enough bandwidth. Over time, the solution also can expand to accommodate Diageo's growing business needs.

Currently, all of Diageo's employees use the various wireless networks provided by this solution-most commonly the cellular and PCS networks for mobile phone users. The solution is connected with several national cellular providers, including T-Mobile, AT&T/Cingular and Sprint/Nextel.

The IBM Integrated Technology Services team worked closely with InnerWireless to perform onsite surveys of Diageo's environment, as well as custom design and install the Wireless Utility to meet the Norwalk office's needs. The IBM team was also responsible for end-to-end management of this solution.

Download Diageo's Success Story