Student Accommodation
Dojo House: Replacing an Ageing Network
An ageing WiFi system replaced in the heart of Nottingham's student area.
Client Overview
Background
Dojo House is a purpose-built student accommodation on Ilkeston Road in Lenton, Nottingham's main student neighbourhood. It is a modern block with a commercial unit at street level and student rooms above, in exactly the kind of location where residents expect the internet to just work.
The building's WiFi was showing its age, and age catches up with WiFi systems fast. Hardware installed even a few years ago was designed for a fraction of the devices in a student building today, where each resident brings a phone, a laptop, and often a console and a TV as well. A system with no central management cannot see where it is struggling, so it degrades quietly until the residents become the monitoring system.
Replacing a network in an occupied building is a different job from wiring a new one. Residents are living and studying there while the work happens, so the changeover has to be planned so nobody is left offline. AirGen was brought in to take out the old system and replace it with a fully managed network built for a full house of students.
How we helped
Solutions
AirGen IT replaced the old system end to end, including:
- A site survey to establish exactly where the ageing system was falling short and what the building actually needed.
- A new network design sized for a full building of modern device counts, not the usage the old system was built for.
- An installation planned around a live building, keeping disruption to residents to a minimum.
- Removal of the old hardware and full installation of the new network, from cabling to access points.
- 24/7 proactive monitoring, so faults show up on AirGen's screens before they show up as complaints.
- Direct tenant support. Residents report issues straight to AirGen, not the site team.
Outcome
Result
The difference from the old system was clear. The internet is stable and fast, tenant complaints are minimal, and some tenants have commented on the improved speed and reliability.
Just as important is what happens next. Ageing networks fail slowly and quietly, and nobody notices until residents do. The new network is monitored around the clock, so failing hardware and capacity problems get caught early. For a building in the middle of Nottingham's student market, that keeps WiFi a selling point rather than a complaint.
