Business WiFi that holds up when the building fills
In short. Business WiFi is not about signal strength. It is about how
many devices can take their turn at the same moment. One powerful access point serving a whole
floor gives you full bars everywhere and useful speed nowhere.
How many access points do you need
As a rule of thumb, one access point per 115 to 140 square metres, and then check the
second number: how many devices are connected at the same time. In an open-plan office with
everyone on a video call, the device count runs out long before the coverage does.
Those figures come from the manufacturer and are measured in an empty room. Concrete floors,
coated glass and a lift shaft take a substantial bite out of them. Treat the calculation as a
lower bound, not an answer. The only way to know what your building actually does is to measure
it.
What a site survey shows that a drawing cannot
We walk the building with measuring equipment and record what is actually there: your own
signal, the neighbours’ signal, and where the two collide. In a business park the channels are
usually crowded, and a perfectly designed network can still be slow because the tenant upstairs
is transmitting on the same channel at full power.
The survey also finds the things nobody drew: a firewall that was added later, a plant room
full of steel, a glass partition with a metal coating that stops the signal dead. Those are the
reasons WiFi disappoints, and none of them appear on a floor plan.
Every access point needs a cable
This surprises people who expect WiFi to be wireless. Each access point needs a network
cable back to the cabinet and takes its power over that same cable. Pulling those cables is
usually the real work; mounting the units takes an afternoon. If you are budgeting, budget the
cabling.
It also means the switch has to supply the power. Count on roughly 15 watts per access
point, add whatever cameras and phones are on the same switch, and keep about a quarter of the
total budget free for peaks. You can work this out yourself in our
network drawing tool.
Guest access, staff access and devices
Most buildings need at least three separate networks: your staff, your guests, and the
equipment that is not a person — cameras, door controllers, sensors, screens. Keeping
them apart is not a luxury. A guest laptop with something nasty on it should not be able to
see the door controller, and a camera should not be able to reach the finance server. That
separation is configured once and then stays out of everyone’s way.
Which equipment
We are a UniFi specialist and install it in most projects, but the brand is the last
decision, not the first. What matters is how many devices connect at once, how many internet
lines the site needs, and whether the equipment is going in a cabinet or on a wall in plain
sight. Our selection tool works through those
questions with the manufacturer’s own figures.
Working with us as an international client
We work for companies that have their Dutch operation here but their head office
somewhere else. That brings a few practical things with it, and we are used to all of them.
Our engineers speak English on site, not just over email. We can work to a specification
written abroad and tell you where it does not match Dutch practice before we start rather
than after. And we deliver documentation you can hand to a landlord, an auditor or a head
office without translating it first.
One thing worth knowing if you are used to other markets: in the Netherlands the
permanent cabling run is limited to 90 metres, with 100 metres allowed once patch cords at
both ends are included. Specifications written for the American market often quote 300 feet,
which is not the same number. We check that before anything is ordered.
What determines the cost
We do not quote a price without having seen the situation, because without that we would
either overcharge you or promise something we cannot deliver. What we can tell you is what
drives the number: the number of outlets, the distance from each outlet to the cabinet,
whether existing routes can be reused or new ones have to be made, whether the ceiling is
accessible, whether power over the data cable is needed, and whether the building is in use
while we work. That last one is often the biggest single factor.
Talk to an engineer, not a call centre
Call 036 52 98 447 or send us a message and one of our own engineers
will get back to you. We are based in Almere and work across the Netherlands. Everything is
done by our own people; we do not subcontract the work and disappear.
