In-Building Cellular Solution

Spotty cellular coverage, poor voice quality, dropped calls, and dead zones continue to plague employees, residents, and visitors in middleprise buildings (15,000 to 500,000 sq. ft.). In the following case studies, we take a look at how leading integrators are solving these problems with an entirely new, disruptive technology - Cel-Fi QUATRA active DAS hybrid.

Unlike the signal strength limitation and attenuation of analog passive DAS solutions that have been used for smaller middleprise venues, Cel-Fi QUATRA is an all-digital solution that provides uniform, high-quality cellular signal that is 1000x stronger, throughout a building. Cel-Fi QUATRA can be deployed in the larger middleprise venues economically, in much less time compared to a traditional active DAS installation.

Cel-Fi QUATRA is scalable to fit the size and budget of the full range of middleprise venues so organizations in these spaces can now resolve the in-building cellular coverage problems that impact tenant satisfaction, occupancy rates, employee productivity, and mission critical operations.

Carrier approved and guaranteed network safe, Cel-Fi QUATRA features proprietary, intelligent tools that provide integrators with greater flexibility and ease in optimizing the system design for any unique environment encountered, ensuring the absolute best result for every customer.

Learn how KonectaUSA, a provider of indoor cellular solutions, helped an industry-leading beverage manufacturer get the best quality signal inside its 376,000 sq. ft. plant with Cel-Fi QUATRA – despite the building’s metal roof and rural location.

Moving from manufacturing to the hospitality industry, we examine how Cel-Fi QUATRA was used in an international hotel chain’s property to overcome the challenge of employees’ cellular calls dropping in its two sub-basement floors. In this case, SignalBoosters.com, a provider of commercial signal

boosting and wireless solutions, did the install, ensuring hotel staff could communicate from the basement for the first time.

We also take a look at another first – this time in commercial real estate. We recount how RCS Wireless Technology – a 65-year-old company that offers two-way radio solutions, paging and video camera systems, mass notification systems, and cell phone signal boosters – helped apartment building residents make calls from their cell phones for the first time with Cel-Fi QUATRA.

Contact us today to learn how Cel-Fi QUATRA is helping the middleprise (those in spaces up to 500,000 sq. ft.) get the best quality cellular signal.

Cel-Fi QUATRA: Addressing Complex In-Building Cellular Coverage Challenges for the Middleprise

In-building Cellular Coverage cel-fi.com/quatra

Lightstone Group, a real estate investment company, was in the process of constructing a 10-storey, 375,000 square feet apartment building called ARC Living in Dutch Kills, a Long Island City, New York neighborhood. Like many new building projects, there was no provision for landlines, so residents leasing an ARC apartment had to rely on their cell phones for communication. But new construction material, which often inhibits cellular signals from penetrating indoors, was making this impossible.

BUSINESS NEEDAN OPPORTUNITY TO PUT CEL-FI QUATRA TO THE TEST

“At least a dozen people came in and refused to lease apartments because they couldn’t get an indoor cellular signal, and those who did move in were frustrated with their inability to make calls from inside their homes,” says Steve Klingensmith, Signal Booster Solutions Manager at RCS Wireless Technology. “We had to find a way to give residents the coverage they needed.”

RCS Wireless Technology — a 65-year-old company that offers two-way radio solutions, paging and video camera systems, mass notification systems, and cell phone signal boosters — had done work previously for Lightstone Group, including a passive distributed antenna solution (DAS) at one of the company’s new hotel properties. The installation at this hotel property was particularly challenging because Klingensmith and his team were forced to wait eight months between the time they installed the cabling and the actual installation. By then, cables had been pulled or gone missing entirely, and there were no access panels for the hard ceilings. In addition, it was difficult to determine points of failure due to the number of cables, splitters, and connectors required as part of the solution. All of this contributed to poor satisfaction around the solution implemented.

SOLUTION CEL-FI QUATRA WAS CONFIGURED TO IMPROVE SERVICE FOR AT&T, VERIZON, T-MOBILE, AND SPRINT.

To address the coverage challenges faced by tenants in the apartment building, Klingensmith looked for an alternate solution. The company selected Cel-Fi QUATRA™, an active DAS hybrid designed for the middleprise. This all-digital, carrier approved solution is guaranteed network safe and combines the best of both active DAS and Cel-Fi technologies. It enabled RCS Wireless to provide uniform, high quality cellular signal throughout the building to improve service for AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint subscribers.

However, the installation was not without its challenges as the ceilings between the building’s floors are exposed and are made up of eight-inch reinforced concrete. When installing the cable, RCS Wireless Technology used special mounting plates made of steel to attach to the concrete ceilings. The team then mounted magnets on the back of the coverage units to hold to them to the steel plates on the ceilings 10 feet up. This eliminated the need to drill into the concrete itself, which is time consuming and messy.

Cel-Fi QUATRA Helps Apartment Building Residents Make Cell Phone Calls for the First time

RCS Wireless Technology• One of the largest two-way radio shops on the east coast• Founded in 1953 and headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC• Portfolio includes a wide array of communication solutions• ThousandsofsatisfiedcustomersacrosstheUnitedStates

Wireless Technology

THE CHALLENGES: Apartment Complex• 10-storey, 375,000 square feet apartment building• New construction material inhibits cellular signals from

penetrating indoors • Needed to improve service for AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and

Sprint subscribers

In-building Cellular Coverage cel-fi.com/quatra

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The Cel-Fi WAVE platform provided the added benefit of enabling Klingensmith’s team to quickly access real-time performance data and manage the systems deployed throughout the building via their smartphones.

Shortly after the install was complete, Klingensmith ran into a resident who was out walking his dog. “I asked him if he had tried to make a call from his cell phone recently, and he said ‘no’ because he’d never been able to get signal,” says Klingensmith. “I asked him to go try again, and he was shocked. It was the first time he’d ever been able to make a call from inside his apartment.”

“The built-in intelligence is second to none,” says Klingensmith. “I can honestly say that I am more excited about Cel-Fi QUATRA than anything I’ve ever sold previously in my nine years with this company.”

casestudy_rcs_apartment-quatra_18-0404

In-building Cellular Coverage

BEYONDBETTERCOVERAGEQUATRA

• High-quality solution for the middleprise• Supports multi-carrier 3G/4G/LTE voice and data• Carrier-approved and unconditionally network safe• Can be monitored and managed using Cel-Fi WAVE

CEL- F I™

cel-fi.com/quatra

APARTMENT COMPLEX EQUIPMENT LAYOUT DIAGRAMCEL-FI QUATRA MULTI-CARRIER SOLUTION

Coverage UnitsDonor Antennas

Donor AntennasGround Level

Network UnitsNetwork Units

Network Units

Network Units

Coverage UnitsCoverage Units

BUSINESS NEEDREDUCING COSTS AND COMPLEXITY FOR CUSTOMERS

The hotel installed a bi-directional amplifier (BDA) passive distributed antenna solution (DAS), but coverage was limited as the coax cables used for this solution did not reach all areas that required coverage. To extend the coverage, the hotel would have to invest in additional coax cabling and costly connectors. But even then, there would be no guarantee of uniform cellular signal throughout the basement floors due to attenuation of signal from the system headend to the antennas — a limitation of this technology.

SOLUTIONTHE ABILITY TO USE CAT5E CABLE COMPARED TO TRADITIONAL COAX CABLE SPED UP THE INSTALLATION AND KEPT COSTS DOWN FOR THE HOTEL.

Hotel management called on SignalBoosters.com, a leading provider of commercial signal boosting and wireless solutions, to find out about alternative solutions. SignalBoosters.com proposed the Cel-Fi QUATRA™ enterprise in-building cellular solution to address the hotel chain’s cellular coverage needs.

Cel-Fi QUATRA is an active DAS hybrid that delivers a cellular signal up to 1000x stronger than other solutions, utilizing Cat5e cabling and Power over Ethernet, with no signal attenuation right to the perimeter of the building.

In addition to the cement floors, the walls were also cement, and featured steel fire doors. “Normally this would present challenges,” says Brandon Davis, vice president of enterprise for SignalBoosters.com. “Most solutions offer signal strength in the 70db to 72db range, but because of the 100db strength of Cel-Fi QUATRA, we were able to overcome these obstacles more easily.”

The ability to use Cat5e cable compared to traditional coax cable sped up the installation and kept costs down for the hotel. Cat5e cables can be up to five times less expensive than coax cables, can be extended farther, and are also simpler to use.

“Cel-Fi QUATRA is a game changer,” says Davis. “We are excited about the opportunities that both the current and future versions of the product will bring to our business—and most importantly, our customers.”

Cel-Fi QUATRA Helps Hotel staff Get Cellular Coverage in Basement Levels for the First Time

THE CHALLENGES: Hotels & Hospitality•Hotelhadtwosub-basementfloors•NocellularcoverageforAT&Tsubscribersin

sub-basement• BDApassiveDASsolutionscouldnotreachallareasrequiringcoveragewithoutincurringadditionalcosts,orimpactingperformance

An international hotel chain’s San Antonio, Texas property has two sub-basement floors (separated by cement) that house the human resources, operations, and housekeeping departments. Once staff—specifically AT&T subscribers—entered these areas, they were unable to use their cell phones to communicate due to poor signal coverage.

SignalBoosters.com• Founded in 2011,

with corporate offices in Houston and San Antonio, Texas

• Leading provider of commercial signal boosting and wireless solutions

• Solutions for enterprise and big business, public safety, home, and vehicles

• Named an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Company in 2014

In-building Cellular Coveragecasestudy_signalbooster_hotel-quatra_18-0404

cel-fi.com/quatra

BUSINESS NEEDA RURAL BEVERAGE MANUFACTURING PLANT GETS INDOOR COVERAGE

“The cellular signal from the nearby carrier towers have a really hard time penetrating a metal building,” says Mike Bozyk, co-founder of KonectaUSA, the Minnesota-based provider of indoor cellular solutions that was contracted by the beverage manufacturer to resolve the problem. “In a lot of rural areas, they are all metal – metal walls and metal roofs.”

To solve this challenge, KonectaUSA installed Cel-Fi QUATRA™, an active DAS hybrid designed to bridge the price-performance gap for the middleprise. KonectaUSA chose QUATRA because, unlike analog boosters and passive DAS technology, it delivers a cellular signal that is up to 1000x stronger, utilizing CAT 5e cabling and Power over Ethernet, with no signal attenuation right to the perimeter of a building. The scalable solution also includes proprietary intelligent tools that provided KonectaUSA with greater flexibility and ease in optimizing the system design for this unique environment.

“A system design can look okay on paper, but sometimes engineering on the fly is needed because of the wireless environment that is created by the carriers,” explains Bozyk. Initially KonectaUSA planned to put Cel-Fi MIMO Panel Antennas on the back of the building, pointing across the entire metal roof, but the metal was creating havoc with the signal.

SOLUTIONQUALITY WORK + CEL-FI QUATRA = REPEAT BUSINESS

According to Dave Schlange, co-founder of KonectaUSA, “We used the Cel-Fi WAVE cloud-based management platform to see the readings from the signal. We were able to determine the signal quality and strength from the antennas on front of the building were substantially better than the antennas we had mounted on the back.” So KonectaUSA moved the antennas into a new position at the front of the building and was able to get a signal into the plant from a nearby carrier tower.

There were also considerable installation challenges inside the plant. “We needed to use a scissor lift to run cable up and down the 25 ft. high ceilings,” explains Schlange. “But there were assembly belts, with bottles coming out, running 100 miles an hour. Forklifts were running all over the place. It was like rush hour.”

Cel-Fi QUATRA Helps Brand-name Beverage Manufacturer Experience Better Cellular Coverage Inside its Plant

THE CHALLENGES: Manufacturing• Beverage manufacturer with a 376,000

sq. ft. plant• Rural location with cellular coverage

challenges• Metal roof blocked cellular signals

KonectaUSA• Founded in 2015, with headquarters in

Minneapolis, Minnesota• Leading cellular live-inside provider

installations and service provider• Services include design, installation,

and maintenance• Customers include education,

hospitality, healthcare, and FORTUNE500 companies

A large beverage manufacturer with a 376,000 sq. ft. plant decided to do away with landlines, opting instead to give cell phones to its 40 managers. However, its rural location coupled with the plant’s metal roof made it nearly impossible for the managers to get a cellular signal on their phones when inside the building.

In-building Cellular Coverage cel-fi.com/quatra

“I was losing sleep over how to get coverage to the production side because of the incredibly high ceiling. It would have been impossible to get a scissor lift in there and manoeuver it around all the machinery and assembly belts,” says Bozyk. “Because the Cel-Fi QUATRA remote units provide coverage over a larger range than a traditional or typical cone type antenna, we got such good results that we didn’t have to go into the production areas at all to install the units. That was a huge relief. Not only did we cover more square footage, we did it quickly and with less hassle than I imagined possible.”

According to Schlange, the customer was, understandably, very happy with the results. “Remarkably, there’s now better coverage on the inside of the plant than on the outside.”

ADDITIONAL PLANTS OUTFITTED WITH CEL-FI QUATRA

“Our business has grown significantly since our humble beginning. A large part of our success can be attributed to repeat business from organizations that previously had no affordable or effective means of achieving in-building cellular coverage,” says Schlange. “Once they see what we can offer, they often call us back to provide solutions for other areas, and then they refer us to their peers.”

In keeping with its recipe for successes to date, KonectaUSA has since gone on to outfit two additional plants for the beverage company—both with Cel-Fi QUATRA. KonectaUSA expects that it will see a significant surge in its middleprise business thanks to the solution—and to the company’s unwavering commitment to doing quality work.

“There’s a significant difference between quality and the number of bars on a phone,” says Schlange. “You have to be able to get the best quality signal to get the absolute best result for the customer. Cel-Fi QUATRA will help us achieve that each and every time.”

casestudy_konectausa_bev-quatra_18-0404

In-building Cellular Coverage

BEYONDBETTERCOVERAGEQUATRA

• High-quality solution for the middleprise• Supports multi-carrier 3G/4G/LTE voice and data• Carrier-approved and unconditionally network safe• Can be monitored and managed using Cel-Fi WAVE

CEL- F I™

cel-fi.com/quatra

Power 54 VDC @ 2.22 Amp via external supply (51.3 to 56.7 VDC tolerance) (network unit) External supply: 100 to 240 VAC, 47 – 63Hz

Power consumption less than 120W max Network Unit provides power to Coverage Units over Cat5e (PoE)

Environmental Operating temperature: 0° to 40°C Storage temperature: -25° to 60°C Convection Cooling Relative humidity: 0% to 95%, noncondensing RoHS II 2011/65/EU

IP20Installation Mounting hardware included

NU may be wall mounted (solid or hollow) CU may be wall or ceiling mounted 1 NU supports 1 to 4 CUs iBwave supported

Radio Performance Total boost all-channel bandwidth 75 MHz (2x2 MIMO uses double bandwidth per channel) (check product version for DL Maximum NU in-band donor level -40dBm specific band support) DL Maximum NU survival donor level 30dBm

UL Maximum CU donor level -20dBm. Maximum UL power 24dBm EIRP bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 Maximum UL power 20dBm EIRP band 5, 12, 13, 20 Maximum DL power 12dBm per 5 MHz EIRP bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 Maximum DL power 10dBm per 5 MHz EIRP bands 5, 12, 13, 20 LTE 5/10/15/20 MHz and WCDMA 3.84/5 MHz bandwidths

Physical Specifications 264 x 185 x 62mm 225 x 185 x 37mm

1.2 kg (40.8 oz.) 0.83 kg (29.2 oz.)

Network Unit Coverage Unit

Connections 4x CU RJ45 Proprietary Gigabit link 100m max CU cable length Cat5e 200m max CU cable length with Cel-Fi QUATRA Range Extender (Cat5e or Cat6) PoE IEEE 802.3at RJ45 LAN management port (10/100 Fast Ethernet) RJ45 LAN management output port (10/100 Fast Ethernet) 2x MIMO External RF Input (QMA Female 50 ohm)

Compliance 3GPP TS 25.143 Rel.10 (check individual product version 3GPP TS 36.143 Rel.10 for specific regional compliance) CE

FCC Part 15, 20, 22, 24, 27 ISED Canada UL 62368-1/CSA C27.2 Bluetooth BQB

System Management Cel-Fi WAVE cloud portal (software) Cel-Fi WAVE Remote Management:

• Status (list and map) • Settings• Commissioning • Reporting• Diagnostics • Alarms & Notifications• Software Updates

Specifications

U.S. Headquarters: Nextivity Inc.16550 West Bernardo Drive, Bldg 5, Suite 550, San Diego, CA 92127, USA+1 858.485.9442 tel • +1 858.485.9445 fax • www.cel-fi.com

brochure-quatra-eng_18-0222

QUATRA 1000 Q34-2/4/5/12 1900 / 1700 / 850 / 700a 2, 4, 5, 12 4, 12 2, 5 QUATRA 1000 Q34-2/4/5/13 1900 / 1700 / 850 / 700c 2, 4, 5, 13 4, 13 2, 5 QUATRA 1000 Q34-1/3/8/20 2100 / 1800 / 900 / 800 1, 3, 8, 20 3, 20 1, 8 QUATRA 1000 Q34-1/3/7/8 2100 / 1800 / 2600 / 900 1, 3, 7, 8 3, 7 1, 8 QUATRA 1000 Q34-1/7/8/20 2100 / 2600 / 900 / 800 1, 7, 8, 20 7, 20 1, 8 QUATRA 1000 Q34-3/5/7/28 1800/850/2600/700 APT 3, 5, 7, 28 3, 28 5, 7 QUATRA 2000 Q34-4/5/12/13/25 1700/850/700a/700c/1900 4, 9, 12, 13, 25 n/a n/a

Product Model Frequency Bands MIMO CrossoverName Number (MHz) Supported Support Support