Blogs

The Brewery Yard in downtown Chippendale was Sydney’s premier beer brewery until 2005 for Carlton and United Breweries. The six-acre site with six early 20^th century buildings was acquired by IP Generation in 2019 as was extensively redeveloped into a mixed-use commercial building, with onsite power Tri- generation and a public plaza for local events and markets. The site’s anchor tenant is Block who own AfterPay and Square.

Our client, GE Communications was tasked with security and communications for the project. Aiden from GE reached out to Powertec as the site had been earmarked and cabled for a Full DAS (Distributed Antenna System), however, the capital and ongoing costs of the “on Air” DAS was prohibitive and other solutions were sought.   

The Issue:

Many of the heritage listed buildings had very low or unworkable Cellular coverage in significant areas, certainly not sufficient for the Blue-Chip tenants planning to occupy the facility. 

Challenges:

All heritage sites tend to be difficult as they were built without MDFs, risers and electrical pathways that newer buildings have as standard. Additionally, as many heritage building uncover original finishes to be displayed in the final build, cabling and antennas must be carefully integrated to preserve the heritage architecture. The RF Cabling which was installed by a previous contractor prior to our involvement was well implemented so that did not cause any issues, however, the donor antenna we placed on the roof was difficult to install due to the pitch and tiling and required a street to be shut temporarily for Cherry Picker access.

Product Solution 

An In-Building Coverage solution was implemented, installing a Nextivity QUATRA off Air repeater system to boost the cellular signal throughout the building. The solution covered Telstra, Optus and Vodafone mobile networks to ensure tenants and visitors could stay connected throughout the facility.

• Off Air Repeater System – Nextivity QUATRA
• Donor antennas - Blackhawk Ultraband Parabolic Grid Antenna
•  Internal domes - Blackhawk Ceiling Dome Antenna
• RF Components – CommScope, Blackhawk
• Roof Masts - Blackhawk Galvanised Collared Roof Mast

Outcome

Aiden Porth from GE Communications, who engaged Powertec said “Complaints were raised from the Brewery’s Tenants that they had no coverage. We had at that stage a cold shell fit out with existing cables for a DAS. As The Brewery’s DAS Costs were exorbitant, we decided to look for a more cost-effective solution and engaged Scott from Powertec who worked out how to efficiently maximise coverage at the lowest cost. Scott recommended and installed a Nextivity QUATRA for approximately 20% of the quoted cost of the DAS“.