The Client
The Ludgate Hub is located in Skibbereen, Co. Cork. The initiative aims to facilitate up to 75 people in a creative co-working environment, with a long term objective to create 500 direct jobs and 1000 indirect jobs via a sustainable digital economy for Skibbereen and the wider West Cork area.
As featured in the case study in the Action Plan for Jobs, South West (2015 – 2017) the Ludgate Hub is cited as an example of innovation occurring in rural Ireland, and indeed a blue print for other rural areas.
The Challenge
The National Digital Week Conference was held in the West Cork Hotel. Our task was to carry out a site survey and propose a wired and wireless network that would facilitate 5 presentation stage areas and circa 2500 wireless network users connected to two Internet connections, 150Mbps and 80Mbps.
The Solution
We worked with the two Internet providers to route the stage (wired and private wireless) traffic across one connection and the Guest WIFI access across the alternate connection while also facilitating a failover in the event of one connection dropping.
Initially we made out a heat map for the WIFI network to identify the optimum locations for the wireless access points. The wiring in the hotel was not sufficient for the conference so we worked with the contract electricians to get the required cables installed and tested in appropriate locations.
To achieve the requirements, we supplied & configured a multi VLAN network with a HA firewall, wired 1GB layer 3 POE+ switching and 3×3 Enterprise grade WIFI. We carried out all preconference testing and managed and monitored the network throughout the 3-day conference. Once the conference was complete we removed all of the equipment and returned the hotels network to its prior condition.
The Result
The Aspira Team facilitated the design, supply, configuration and management of a temporary enterprise grade wired and wireless network, to facilitate 5 presentation stage areas, and circa 2500 wireless network users connected to two Internet connections, 150Mbps and 80Mbps, for the National Digital Week Conference.
