Two Way Radio Adds Finishing Touch to Historic Estate Revamp

Set in grounds spanning more than 100 acres, Hapsden House has been restored and developed into a 35-room hotel featuring a restaurant, pool, spa complex, farm shop and visitor centre. The brainchild of South African businessman Koos Bekker, the re-branded Emily Estate will showcase the very best of Somerset country life, with the restaurant serving food from fresh produce grown in the grounds and with an on-site cider mill producing the county’s most famous export.

Ahead of opening, Brentwood was approached about supplying the hotel and estate with two way radio equipment. There were already handsets in use on site, but with no ancillary equipment to boost network range, coverage was patchy at best. And with poor mobile signal in many parts of the estate, management was keen to come up with a solution that would guarantee connectivity for all staff at all times, as a safeguard in emergency situations and also for general coordination.

Range and capacity

Dealing with a site with a ten mile radius, our primary concern was achieving satisfactory signal range. We therefore supplied three Motorola SLR55500 repeaters to boost coverage.

As the main requirement was to guarantee radios could be used throughout the grounds, we installed the repeaters in an outdoor server cabinet, with antennas mounted on custom-built telegraph poles concreted into the ground. All hardware was painted to camouflage it so it blended in with the surroundings as much as possible.

Initially, we set up the system so handsets were running directly off the repeaters, creating a total of six channels (two channels per repeater). But as staff were allocated a single channel only, they had to wait for it to become free before they could use their radio. For extra efficiency, we upgraded the system with Motorola Capacity Plus software, which eliminates queuing by auto-allocating users onto whichever time slot is free when they need to talk.

As for handsets, we supplied a set of Motorola DP4601e two way radios for all staff across the estate. The DP4601e is a high performance digital model with a four line display and partial keypad, which makes it easy to select individual users from a contact list for private calling and choose from various call options. Built to IP68 specifications for water resistance, it is ideal for use outdoors and also comes with GPS and GLONASS satellite tracking, meaning the location of all users on site can be pinpointed at any one time – should our customer wish to do so in the future.

Looking for a wireless communication solution for a large site? Brentwood has decades of experience building two way radio networks capable of covering the widest areas reliably. Why not drop us a line and book a free site survey to find out exactly how we can help. Call our team today on 01245 403520.