Case Study: Ty Newydd Caravan Park
The Problem:
Many of the people who own Holiday Park Homes or visit the Ty Newydd Leisure Park are business professionals and were looking to get internet access so they would be able to collect email or work when at the site on a weekend, during vacation time or when taking a quick mid week break.
Historically, some park owners have offered internet access via a ‘Hotspot’ at the Clubhouse or Bar, something that Ty Newydd have had in place for 18 months and had proven exceptionally popular among guests, however, more and more owners were asking for the convenience of Broadband Internet Access in the comfort of their own Holiday Park Homes where they can work in more appropriate surroundings or can communicate with friends and family via email in the privacy of their own Park Home.
Having looked at the issue, Ty Newydd decided to tackle the problem head on and look at how they could get a solution that was both robust, required little management and was cost effective from the point of view of the initial investment and ongoing running costs.
Other considerations for investment in the technology were the potential for increasing retention of existing caravan owners and offering the kind of services that may be required by those owners now and in the future. Ultimately, Ty Newydd Leisure Park wanted to offer other services such as telephones (so called IP based telephony), which would allow caravan owners to have a telephone in their caravan as well as trying to drive down the cost of Security on site by using the Wireless Infrastructure to mount IP based security cameras instead of hardwired cameras.
Comment:
“There were many different routes to chose from and we were looking for a cost effective and robust solution that would give us what we wanted” said Mike Monger, owner of Ty Newydd Caravan Park.
“We looked around and after considering other suppliers settled on Park & Marine Wireless Networks to take on the project to create the Wireless Network. They were able to advise us and design & implement a wireless solution to cover our entire caravan park”.
“They sat down with us and explained how Wireless Internet access could work on a caravan park for both the caravan owners and ourselves. We talked about the benefits to us, as a business, in terms of generating additional revenue from usage by the Holiday Home owners and Tourer and Camping customers who required internet access whilst at the site. They planned the project and from the start we were clear as to the costs of the system and the revenue potential. They surveyed the park to ensure that all areas could be covered and once the system was installed they trained us on how to use it”
The Solution:
The solution was fairly straight forward, the standard BT modem was replaced and the Broadband connection was upgraded so it could handle the additional traffic that the new facility may attract. A Gateway was then installed to control and allow access onto the network. This is designed to create a secure environment that helps to manage user accounts, provide access and do the billing. Customers in Holiday Caravans and visitors to the park are given access by purchasing a voucher that can be valid for any time period or by creating a yearly account for those who are there for the season and want unlimited access. This also allows the definition of different tariffs for short and long term usage. Every time a customer logs on to the Wireless Network or when a connection is made to the network, the user is prompted to enter the user name and password, if they don’t then the connection is refused. Security is one of the major issues to consider when installing a Wireless Network. The network also has the facility to allow computers to be placed in the clubhouse, for example, in the fashion of an Internet Caf? for visitors to use. Using the prepaid voucher system, you can manage how long the customer is online easily and efficiently. Any PC can work whether it is a desktop or laptop, wired or Wireless.
After this, a new Wireless Access Point was installed in the clubhouse to provide a ‘Hotspot’ in the bar and Wireless Access Points were installed at the park office and the house. Repeaters were then sited on existing buildings around the park to repeat the signal and ensure accurate coverage of the park with the wireless signal. This gave us good coverage over the majority of the holiday caravans on the park. The areas where there wasn’t a strong enough Wireless signal to ensure good bandwidth and a reliable connection, a small ‘subscriber unit’ was installed in the caravan to give the signal a boost so the customer would be able to use the Internet in the comfort of their Caravan.
All of this sounds extremely complicated and did take some time to put together, however, once the solution had been designed, the installation on the park only took four days.
Finally:
“We are very happy with the solution that Park & Marine Wireless Networks installed on the site. They were professional and carried out the installation with the minimum disruption to our business” commented Mike Monger, “they helped us to decide on the tariff and how we can best take advantage of the new facilities when trying to attract new customers. Over 40% of our customers have now subscribed to the service”.
