5min read
Many of us love to go camping. Enjoying the great outdoors and appreciating the natural splendour from the perfect campsite or at the wheel of a 4-wheel drive. It’s even better now with modern conveniences, so if you have trouble setting up your new tent just YouTube the setup video and…
What?! No 4G!
Last month Radio Parts reps Darren and Ben put on their network thinking hats and helped Shane from Jims Antennas Gawler in South Australia install the WiFi for Marion Bay Caravan Park. The popularity of the park is understandable given its location next to Innes National Park and breathtaking coastal scenery but demand for modern conveniences in a high-traffic park made WiFi an essential feature.
The bush camp is a mix of cabins, powered and un-powered campsites along with all the usual communal amenities. Counting almost 120 campsites, 2+ people in each dwelling and a few hundred meters across the park that’s a lot of potential for internet demand! The initial obstacles were:

• No cabling possible between access points (AP)
• Many tall trees and no line-of-sight between access points
• Require minimalist system that is quick to install and simple to manage
• Outdoor installation with close proximity to the sea
• Needs to be easily expandable

Weighing up the various requirements for this installation brought American network giant Ubiquiti to mind. Their diverse range, proven quality and exceptional on-line support gave Ben, Darren and Shane the confidence to move ahead with a quote.
A few emails and phone calls later this system design and product recommendation emerged:

This solution met all the restrictions of the site and provided a high likelihood of success for Shane getting in and the finishing the job quickly. Yet no matter how good the plan is there are always things you can only check on the ground with the hardware insitu. In this case the trees and broken line-of-sight can be countermanded by raising the height of the access points above the trees but then the mobile devices have a harder time reaching a signal (problematic for older devices). Using the famed Ubiquiti mesh technology and good topology configuration we can avoid running ethernet cables between access points but we take a hit to overall bandwidth in order to accommodate this. By choosing the UAP-AC-M-PRO we were able to provide huge coverage with only 5 access points and offer simple and secure WiFi management from a Unifi Security Gateway connected to the parks office computer. Shane decided to take management to the next level and install a Unifi Controller Cloud Key that gives remote access to the parks WiFi system for any remote management or problem fixing over the internet. Another benefit to the Controller Cloud Key is that the office computer doesn’t need to be on 24/7 in order for the WiFi management to work, saving plenty of power. Now to top it all off this system is completely expandable in almost any way imaginable, so future additions to the system will be breeze for Shane when he visits Marion Bay next.

The installation was executed perfectly by Shane who had the system up and running over a day and a half. He took the initiative to pre-configure the system before travelling out to Marion Bay and deploying the gear which minimised wasted time on the job. Under test conditions the system gave 80% signal strength and 24mbps in the majority of the park with marginal areas dropping to under 40% and 13mbps but still providing lag-free internet access.
The whole project was a success with everyone enjoying a job well done and proving once again the effectiveness of not just the Radio Parts team but our experienced customers.

For more information on Ubiquiti and WiFi products in general click here.

Shane Williams
Jim’s Antennas – Gawler
M. 0422 434 812
E. shane.williams@jimsantennas.com.au

Darren Rowlands
Radio Parts Group – West VIC, SA, NT, WA
M. 0419 366 980
E. darrenr@radioparts.com.au

Ben Marshall
Radio Parts Group – North VIC, QLD, TAS
M. 0418 531 965
E. benm@radioparts.com.au