Kingsland Drinks smooths out wireless coverage

The new wireless network provides comprehensive, always-on, connectivity for the premier UK independent supplier of bulk wines and spirits across the site.

Following a site survey to map and understand the environment’s physical characteristics, the solution was designed and supplied by Allied Telesis, a global leader in connectivity solutions and intelligent networking tools, and its channel partner, Holker IT, a specialist in networking solutions and services for the manufacturing and education sectors. 

The challenge

Kingsland Drinks is an employee-owned business with approximately 480 staff. It has been based in Manchester since 1995 on a hybrid indoor/outdoor site that dates from 1895 and so has some buildings with 4ft thick walls. As a 24/7 bottling production and warehousing environment, the challenge for a wireless network includes lots of fluids, cardboard, and fluctuations in temperature between areas. The company has a high reliance on its IT infrastructure, and the ability to remotely monitor, manage and trouble-shoot the network is vital. Based on Allied Telesis’ Channel Blanket single-channel wireless architecture, the new network solved Kingland’s problem of black-spots and unreliable coverage in its existing Wi-Fi network, which is often a challenge in manufacturing environments. 

Kingland Drinks IT manager Brian Polkinghorne, explains: “We work in a very agile warehouse and production environment where we need to be able to monitor and manage the continuous movement of stock. Our forklift truck drivers move stock around the site and use a hand-terminal to scan it in from location to location, but our old Wi-Fi did not work because it had patches of low/no coverage. Every time the signal dropped, drivers had to dismount and walk to a PC to enter the information manually, which caused delays with booking in stock, movement of stock and the booking out of goods ready for distribution to customers around the UK. It was extremely frustrating and was costing our business a lot of time and money.” 

“We now have a highly resilient WLAN that covers us like a blanket with stable performance everywhere including the drivers’ handheld terminals. It is perfect for our complex site with its various warehouses, production halls, and outdoor loading/unloading areas, as well as our offices and meeting rooms where we need high speed connections for laptops, phones, and other devices,” Brian continues. “Holker supported me through the entire process and it’s a partnership that I know works.”

The tech

Deployed within two months, the new wireless network at Kingsland Drinks comprises AWC Channel Blanket licensing for hybrid wireless architecture; Allied Telesis TQ5403 Wireless Access Points for indoor areas and Allied Telesis TQ5403e Wireless Access Points for outdoor areas and areas requiring external, directional antennas. The new Allied Telesis network provides Kingsland Drinks with significantly improved coverage across the site, with no black spots being reported by users and monitoring software showing good coverage in all required areas. The onsite IT team are now able to use Allied Telesis’ Vista Manager EX & AWC for monitoring via a visual representation of the network, allowing them to see in-depth traffic management, performance of the WLAN and the devices which were connected at any given time.

Chris Dyke, Sales Director UK & Ireland at Allied Telesis explains: “Our Channel Blanket solution is ideal for designing and deploying wireless networks in dispersed manufacturing and warehousing locations. It solves the major problems of these environments by using only one wireless channel to create a single ‘blanket’ of wireless coverage, thereby eliminating interference. In this way, a manufacturing business can not only optimise network performance, but also reduce the consumption of mobile devices, ensuring uninterrupted productivity combined with an agile and fast experience.”