11 March 2022

Inverness is the largest city in the Scottish Highlands and its city centre now has free public Wi-Fi following a collaboration between The Highland Council, Purple and Rapier Systems. The Highland Council wanted to implement a Wi-Fi solution that would allow them to identify who visits the city and gain a way of effectively communicating with visitors. 

10 March 2022

Barnsley Council completes its SAP-to-Azure migration, while The Highland Council implements a Wi-Fi solution for tourists, visitors and citizens

Absoft completes collaborative SAP-to-Azure Migration with Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

When Barnsley Council first opened a bid in order to migrate its SAP landscape to the cloud, the tenders received did not offer an economically viable outcome. However, a non-negotiable deadline (the sale of its current premises and an outdated on-premise functionality) meant that a solution was required sooner rather than later.

07 October 2020

With more than 11,000 students, Bournemouth & Poole College (BPC) is the largest provider of further education and apprenticeships in the region. Its core focus is on work skills, so that students are well placed for their chosen careers.

The college uses a free and open source learning management system called Moodle. Following student feedback, the college decided to modernise its Moodle digital learning environment (DLE) with more engaging features for both staff and students.

07 October 2020

Loughborough Schools Foundation, a group of four independent schools and a nursery, with a total of just over 2,500 pupils.

Three of them share a campus: the all-boys Loughborough Grammar, founded in 1495, which has 849 pupils (and 74 boarders); Loughborough High, with 650 girls; and Fairfield Preparatory which has 506 pupils.

Loughborough Amherst School, founded in 1841 as Our Lady’s Convent School, has 359 pupils; and a day nursery looks after 64 children.

15 September 2020

Bristol-is-Open is a project for smart city experimentation in technology and citizen engagement, jointly backed by Bristol City Council and the University of Bristol. The city was  recognised as the UK’s leading smart city based on the UK Smart Cities index 2017. Then, in 2018, Bristol-is-Open was recognised with the Glomo Smart Cities Award. 

Zeetta Networks, a local university spin-out company, has worked closely with Bristol-is-Open using NetOS to manage its smart city network infrastructure.

15 September 2020

Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS company, got involved in Sheffield City’s free-to-use, superfast Wi-Fi project. Working collaboratively with Idaq Networks – it runs the network - and Siklu, a player in millimetre wave radio technology, the project creates a virtual data ring-road around the city, transmitting high-speed capacity between tall buildings, before bringing it down to street level to be used by residents.

 The project delivers superfast internet, at 20 gigabits per second (Gbps), to 293 streets in the city and up to 24,000 users can connect simultaneously. The network is free, and at no cost users or to the council who provided exclusive access to street furniture and buildings to install the network. The network can also be leveraged for other commercial opportunities to help fund the service.

15 September 2020

There are many towns and cities utilising public Wi-Fi solutions in various forms with ranging areas of coverage both in the UK and worldwide. In fact, pick up any august tech publication or visit a relevant website and you’ll see that ‘smart cities’ or ‘connected cities’ feature somewhere.

This is very true in many northern English cities, which are investing heavily in various comms technologies in a bid for parity with more affluent parts of the country. Yet while many projects are announced from the rooftops, some cities, councils and other relevant authorities are keener to keep their powder dry. In other words, some information is in the public arena but much of it is not. The following details some that our cities have completed via the SuperConnected Cities Programme and published information about the previous implementation in Barnsley.

15 September 2020

Working in partnership with CTIL and O2, iWireless Solutions was asked to design and deliver a world leading, free outdoor Wi-Fi network within the Square Mile. The multi-million-pound project is part of one of the largest investments in wireless infrastructure ever seen in the UK, providing workers, residents and visitors with the ability to access digital rich content in a dense urban environment.

This work was inclusive of any column work, such as replacing for suitable height columns, as well as dealing with the power needed to bring the kit live. The existing Wi-Fi solution was insufficient to meet today’s data demands, which required the new system to be radically different. iWireless Solutions designed a Wi-Fi system with a dynamic, self- organising, fully resilient, gigabit capable backhaul.

28 August 2020

Ulster Rugby is one of four professional teams in Ireland who compete in the Guinness PRO12 Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup. Kingspan stadium has an overall capacity of 18,200, with four fully covered terraced areas providing seating for up to 9,000 spectators. The state-of-the-art stadium is equipped to the highest standard including professional team facilities, a family area, corporate hospitality, a food village and world-class media suite.

With top-level professional rugby taking place at the ground and matches broadcast globally, Ulster Rugby looked to WiFi SPARK to provide a fully managed and supported Wi-Fi service that included a branded user experience portal, enhanced content filtering, bandwidth control, user data analytics and remote monitoring.

28 August 2020

Over-C, a provider of workplace management and analytics which uses location, sensor data and other IoT devices to empower frontline workers, worked with Thomond Park Stadium, the home of Munster Rugby Club to transform it into a smart stadium. The bespoke digital solution will help Thomond Park to streamline processes, gain new insights into stadium data and deliver a first-rate fan experience.

Thomond Park Stadium was using paper-based processes for up to 1,500 contractors to perform hundreds of match day security, catering, cleaning and maintenance tasks. These critical tasks included checking all fire exits, fridges, boiler rooms, public facilities, fire safety equipment, waste disposal, collaboration with local authorities and transport as well as many more.