In-Building Wireless Solution, Ace Hotel- New York, NY

Ace Hotel has several locations throughout the United States and is a thriving urban hotel chain.  They are known for their hip style, unique locations and are often called a boutique hotel.  The New York location is a 12-story building in the heart of midtown Manhattan.  There are 260 rooms and the hotel is located near the theater district.   The Ace Hotel concept reinvents historical buildings, creates a bohemian and organic design that is environmentally friendly and offers affordable rates along with luxury amenities.

Ace Hotel was preparing to open their newest location in New York, NY and they realized that the cellular reception was slim to non-existent in the building.  The hotel chain offers free Wi-Fi and operates under the premise that they offer luxury amenities in historical buildings in major metropolitan cities throughout the United States.  With this premise in mind, the proprietors wanted to ensure that guests have adequate cellular reception throughout the hotel.  Ace Hotel found Harris Communications online and quickly contracted with us to implement a custom designed, multiple carrier cellular repeater solution.

The Ace Hotel is situated in the former Breslin Hotel, originally built in 1904.  The building itself is 12 stories and is surrounded by newer and larger buildings from all directions.  The size of the building as well as the historical construction of the facility resulted in poor cellular signal throughout the hotel.  Ace Hotel incorporates green eco-friendly aspects as well as sustainable elements in the design.  In some instances green friendly design materials block cellular signals and prevent adequate in-building coverage.  The cellular signal was available outside of the building, Harris Communications designed a solution that would pull the outside signal into the building and repeat it throughout the newly remodeled hotel.

Harris Communications designed a multiple carrier Bi-Directional Amplifier (BDA) solution guaranteed that cellular signals would propagate throughout the building effectively and facilitate cellular reception throughout the building. The BDA solution has a Distributive Antenna Solution (DAS) backbone.  This system incorporates a non-invasive installation that was implemented without disrupting the progress of the Ace Hotel grand opening.  We were able to design a solution that delivered cellular service without compromising the historical integrity of the building.  This solution does not require upgrades and will serve the hotels needs for years to come.

Benefits

Ace Hotel can guarantee full cellular coverage throughout the hotel.  The solution implemented by Harris Communications has eliminated the possibility of dropped calls and poor cellular coverage in the hotel.  The greatest benefit is that the Ace Hotel can continue to deliver outstanding service in a hip environment without the concern of guests experiencing poor and/or non-existent cellular coverage.

About Harris Communications

Harris Communications is a national company based out of Charlotte, NC that specializes in wireless in building cellular signal enhancement and wireless solutions for commercial applications. They have over 17 years of experience and have implemented wireless enhancement solutions in facilities throughout the United States. Harris Communications is a turnkey company and handles every aspect from the design, installation and maintenance of their systems.

Cellular Repeater Solutions can be designed to suit any size facility and repeat as few or as many carriers that the building owner desires.  The outline below details how they work:

DAS is the acronym we use in the wireless industry for DISTRIBUTIVE ANTENNA SYSTEM (DAS).

A microcell is a cell in a mobile phone network served by a low power cellular base station (tower), covering a limited area such as a mall, a hotel, or a transportation hub.  A microcell is usually larger than a picocell, though the distinction is not always clear.  Microcell’s use power control to limit the radius of its coverage area; typically the range of a microcell is less than a mile wide.  A micro cellular network is a radio network comprising of microcells.

A cellular network is a radio network made up of a number of radio cells (or just cells) each served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. These cells cover different land areas to provide radio coverage over a wider area than the area of one cell, so that a variable number of portable transceivers can be used in any one cell and moved through more than one cell during transmission.

Cellular networks offer a number of advantages over alternative solutions:

1. Increased capacity

2. Reduced power usage

3. Larger coverage area

4. Reduced interference from other signals

A macrocell is a cell in a mobile phone network that provides radio coverage served by a power cellular base station (tower). Generally, macrocells provide coverage larger than microcell. The antennas for macrocells are mounted on ground-based masts, rooftops and other existing structures, at a height that provides a clear view over the surrounding buildings and terrain.  Macrocell base stations have power outputs of typically tens of watts. The term macrocell is used to describe the widest range of cell sizes. Macrocells are found in rural areas or along highways. Over a smaller cell area, a microcell is used in a densely populated urban area.

RF Engineering, also known as Radio Frequency Engineering, is a subset of electrical engineering. It applies to devices which are designed to operate in the Radio Frequency spectrum. RF Engineering is incorporated into almost everything that transmits or receives a radio wave which includes, but not limited to, Cell Phones, Wi-Fi and Public Safety Solutions.

RF Engineers are a part of a high;y specialized field and are an integral part of in-building wireless solutions. Their expertise is needed to design effective and reliable solutions. To produce quality results, an in-depth knowledge of mathematics, physics and general electronics theory is required. Even with this, the initial design of an RF Circuit usually bears very little resemblance to the final physical circuit produced, as revisions to the design are often required to achieve intended results.

RF Engineers are specialists in their respective field and assist in both the design, and maintenance of our solutions. Often, creative and collaborative solutions are required in the wireless industry, we work closely with our RF engineers to deliver quality solutions. The range of technologies used is vast due to the wide array of frequencies allocated for different radio services, and due to the range in age of equipment.

Each frequency range has a band designator and each range of frequencies behaves differently and performs different functions. The frequency spectrum is shared by civil, government, and military users of all nations according to International Telecommunications Union (ITU) radio regulations.

For communications purposes, the usable frequency spectrum now extends from about 3Hz to about 300GHz. There are also some experiments at about 100THz where research on laser communications is taking place but we won’t discuss this now. This range from 3Hz to 300GHz has been split into regions.

A Yagi antenna, also known as a Yagi-Uda array or simply aYagi, is a unidirectional antenna commonly used in communications when a frequency is above 10 MHz.  This type of antenna is low profile and ideal for cellular enhancement applications.

I simply had to post this picture……

We have had a crew out on multiple locations on the East Coast in the past few weeks.  I prefer to see completed installations in person but in some cases I rely on pictures from my lead technicians.  This one is a beauty; note the equipment rack and the amplifiers mounted on the wall in the background.  This is a really clean job and we have another happy client.  Thanks team!

Another quality installation by Harris Communications