How a dedicated leased line, high speed internet and a reliable, monitored Wi-Fi internet setup made all the difference to over 100 care home residents in North London looking to keep in touch with their loved ones during the pandemic.
During the challenging times of 2020, keeping in touch with loved ones has never been so important. Whilst this has been a challenge in itself, we can at least thank technology for bringing people together, even when they’re apart, with families able to use the likes of Zoom, Skype and Teams to get together, albeit virtually.
For those with loved ones residing in care homes, and indeed for those who live there themselves, it has been a particularly tough time, with visits in person put on ice due to the enforced social distancing guidelines. Video calling would of course be the ideal solution, but it is hugely dependent on a reliable internet connection, and in an environment where numerous people are online at the same time, the bandwidth soon drains away, leaving many with a shaky connection, and plenty of others with none at all.
Case study: Reliable Wi-Fi for Autumn Gardens and Anastasia Lodge care homes
Autumn Gardens and Anastasia Lodge are two residential and nursing care homes in North London, both run by the same provider. Committed to doing their very best to care for and entertain their residents during the strains of the pandemic, they identified that finding a way to connect everyone with their loved ones remotely would make a considerable difference. The problem was, they only had regular BT fibre broadband within the homes, which wasn’t sufficient to provide all of the residents with the required bandwidth for video calling.
Wi-Fi wasn’t available anywhere within the properties, so any video calls were made using the mobile phone network, which was proving expensive. Coverage was patchy, and video links were dropping constantly. All very frustrating for the residents, and distressing for families who had no other way of connecting with their loved ones.
The lack of Wi-Fi also made it difficult for staff to work outside of the main office where the wired internet connection was. The advantage of flexibility was very much absent.
We were approached by the owners of the homes with a brief to provide a reliable Wi-Fi solution.
The brief
The remit was to provide reliable wireless internet coverage across both homes, catering for around 90 residents in Autumn Gardens, and 30 in Anastasia Lodge. The coverage would need to support all users simultaneously whilst video conferencing or using the internet.
The solution
We came up with a plan that would deliver precisely what the residents needed in order to stay in touch with their loved ones, and that would also benefit the staff.
Leased line
A leased line, supplied by our sister company PC Docs Tel, formed the core part of the setup in each of the two homes. Leased lines provide a fast, resilient internet connection, with guaranteed upload and download speeds and no drop in speed during peak times. A leased line is literally your own personal internet connection, which means bandwidth is not shared with outside users. The homes now have scope to increase their speed up to 1,000 MB as required.
