What I absolutely love about iBwave is the ability to not only do passive and active surveys and produce high-end heat maps, but the ability to annotate cable/devices on the map. And the ability to snap pictures for each annotation. In addition, the reporting is absolutely the best I’ve seen in any survey tool. Hands down the leading tool in my bag!
- Matt Wierzgac, Engineering Manager, WZC Networking -
With over 20 years of in-the-field experience, WZC Networking are industry leaders in designing and implementing wireless network solutions for commercial enterprises.
QUICK FACTS
ABOUT WZC
Launched in 2008LOCATION
Chicago, Illinois, USAVENUE TYPE
Convention CenterPROJECT GOAL
Improve the existing Wi-Fi network at the convention center.PRODUCTS USED
iBwave Wi-Fi® Mobile
Manage complete indoor wireless network designs for Wi-Fi projects directly from your smartphone or tablet.
iBwave Cloud
Easily share files and work with project partners via the cloud, eliminating coordination issues.
WHAT'S THE STORY?
WZC Networking was hired to improve the Wi-Fi network at a large North American convention center. In order to be successful, WZC wanted to provide their customers with the most optimal design that would meet their performance KPIs.
To do this, WZC used the powerful combination of iBwave Wi-Fi® Mobile app on-site, the iBwave Cloud to share information, and iBwave Wi-Fi® for the PC to finalize the project.
THE CHALLENGES
DESIGN OPTIMIZATION
Reduce the risk of over-designing by ensuring the number of antennas and the amount of equipment are optimal to meet the performance KPIs.
ORGANIZING, SHARING & REPORTING SITE DATA
Reduce the number of hours, and amount of effort it takes to gather, organize, and share site survey data, and deliver a Bill-of-Materials
DESIGN ACCURACY & PERFORMANCE COMPLIANCE
WZC was given a set of performance KPIs from the customer to ensure the goal of improving the Wi-Fi performance at the convention center was met.
“The iBwave Platform gives me the all-in-one robust tool that I can literally do everything on the site and deliver the key documents very quickly as opposed to gather it all up on paper and then come back and try to dress it up with Excel. iBwave Wi-Fi® Mobile gives me that on-site generation tool.”- Matt Wierzgac,
Engineering Manager, WZC Networking
THE SOLUTION
WZC Networking used the powerful combo of the iBwave Wi-Fi® Mobile app, iBwave Cloud, and iBwave Wi-Fi® for PC/Laptop to drastically reduce the time it took to do the site survey, design the network, ensure performance KPI compliance, and deliver an accurate and complete Bill of Materials. Here is how they did it.
iBwave Wi-Fi® (PC)
BEFORE SITE SURVEY
- Import AutoCAD floor plan
- Model venue walls
AFTER SITE SURVEY
- Route cabling, get automatic cable lengths measurements, place routers, connectors and switches
- Calibrate prediction with survey data
- Generate a complete Bill-of-Materials
iBwave Wi-Fi® Mobile (app)
ON-SITE AT THE VENUE
- Run Active Survey
- Capture site images and annotations in geo-located pushpins on the floor plan
- Place Access Points
- Run performance prediction on-the-spot
- Generate Bill-of-Materials
THE RESULTS
6
ACCESS POINTS
By starting the design of the network on-site with iBwave Wi-Fi® Mobile, and then using iBwave Wi-Fi® for the PC to calibrate prediction using active survey data, WZC was able to optimize the design and reduce the APs required from 21 to 15.
DESIGN OPTIMIZATION
50%
TOTAL PROJECT TIME
With iBwave Wi-Fi® Suite, WZC was able to reduce a project that would usually take one week to just 2 ½ days. With everything done onsite with the mobile app and then saved to the cloud, WZC’s field and office teams could work seamlessly together on the project to finalize the design, route cabling, add pricing, and quickly generate an accurate Bill-of-Materials.