Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Between outdated construction techniques and materials, and the growing number of wireless devices, many businesses experience degraded and blocked wireless communications in settings like stadiums, public venues, campuses, hospitals, hotels and government buildings. Fortunately, new wireless architectures can help—as long as they have power protection built in.

“We here in Texas love our football and we here at Minuteman LOVE our baseball,” the power protection company explained in a blog. “Now, imagine being in a football or baseball stadium filled with tens of thousands of screaming fans, all with phones pulling at the network signal. How’s the reception? Can you still text your friend the score with those thousands of phones clogging the signal?”

To help combat the issue, distributed antenna systems (DAS) were designed to extend wireless coverage within structures and enable radios and cell phones to work regardless of their position within the building. These consist of networks of low-power wireless antennas that are strategically placed throughout the geographic location; instead of all devices connecting to a singular point throughout a building, each device connects to the closest antenna.

“This layout allows for each device to experience a stronger and clearer signal because the device is hypothetically closer to the antenna and competing with less devices for a network connection,” Minuteman explained.

But reliability should be a consideration as well. DAS may provide stronger and clearer wireless signals to connected devices, but if those systems go down, the connection goes down as well. Thus, as with any system that employs utility power, DAS needs power protection.

Minuteman’s line of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) provides DAS antennas with backup power and protection from everything from blackouts to surges and spikes, which can result in complete data loss, equipment overheating and hardware damage. Because power problems have the potential to cut equipment life in half, proper surge protection becomes essential in helping to ensure the health and longevity of equipment.