V&A Dundee WiFi provided by G5Zone™
In February 2018, Design Dundee Ltd looked for a trusted managed Wi-Fi provider with a proven track record to deliver a wireless network solution for the inspirational new V&A Museum in Dundee. We are delighted to say they chose G5Zone™.
We provided a solution which can support 1000 concurrent devices and be used by both staff and visitors. In addition, the solution is compliant with the new GDPR legislation, PCI compliant and has the ability to restrict access to inappropriate pages to meet ‘Friendly WIFI’ approval.
Work was to commence March 2018, with access points being installed by the end of April 2018. The installation was to be fully functional by the end of June 2018. None of the wireless access points were to be visible in the beautiful new flagship building.
Image of V&A Dundee ©Hufton+Crow
Installation of G5Zone™
G5 Technologies have been installing high speed, legally compliant, managed wireless networks since 2004. Having read DDL’s detailed requirements, our hardware recommendation was to supply Cisco Meraki access points to provide the best quality of design and user experience.
The first step was to carry out a predictive survey using the architects plans. So we used The Ekahau Network Planner software to calculate the number of access points required. The software also suggests locations where access points can be installed to provide best coverage.
After agreeing the locations with the architects, internal and external access points were installed. Post-installation Passive and Active surveys were carried out using Ekahau Pro to provide detailed Wi-Fi heat maps of the building to ensure adequate coverage. We also test the network so we can see that it is going to perform as expected.
A key requirement was to ensure that visitor traffic didn’t impact on the overall operational traffic so traffic shaping policies were then applied to ensure this is the case.
G5 Technologies are an approved ‘Friendly Wi-Fi’ provider. Content filtering was delivered using DNSFilter in conjunction with our partnership with ‘Friendly Wi-Fi’. The guest network is configured in Cisco Meraki’s NAT mode. A key feature of NAT mode is client isolation ensuring that clients devices cannot communicate with each other while ensuring that visitor data is secure.
V&A Dundee WiFi – Free Guest access
Guest Wi-Fi access is free to the end user and the onboarding of the visitors Wi-Fi device is as simple as possible. It has sign on options available through social media, Facebook, Twitter and Google+. There is also a manual sign on page for users that prefer not to use social media. A fully customisable landing page and GDPR compliant Terms and Conditions were agreed with the V&A during the installation process.
Once a visitor has successfully registered on the Wi-Fi network, the device will automatically redirect to their chosen webpage. Return visits are recognised and auto login/onboarding on the device takes place.
V&A Dundee has now had over 250,000 visitors through its doors. We are proud to have been involved with this impressive, globally significant site. It is well worth a visit!
