Integrator

Dan Nestor

Founder and Chairman, C3 Communications

Suwanee, Georgia

End User

City of Suwanee, Georgia

OVERVIEW

Suwanee, Georgia, a progressive community committed to maintaining a high-quality life, is home to approximately16,000 residents. Recognized by Money Magazine as one of the country’s best small communities in which to live in 2007, the city of Suwanee was recently in the market for an IP video surveillance system. The goal was to maintain and improve the safety of the city as well as provide residents and visitors with open Wi-Fi in its parks.

CHALLENGES

Dan Nestor, C3 Communications integrator on the project, reports that a major challenge was to design a wireless mesh network over several square miles that would support backhaul for multiple communication mediums (data, voice, and video) while reducing or eliminating recurring costs for carrier-provided circuits. He also was faced with expanding and improving upon a wireless network that the city had previously installed, but was experiencing problems with.

"The city had recently begun installation of a wireless network interconnecting the police headquarters, city hall and local parks," Nestor explained. "They were having trouble with the system and were unhappy with the initial installer. They contacted C3 to take the project over and, since then, C3 has become a trusted partner. Together with Fluidmesh Networks, we installed a wireless mesh surveillance system by expanding and improving the existing system. We continue to work with the city on providing equipment that protects the community and its residents."

OBJECTIVES

The objective was two-fold. The city sought to provide network connectivity to the Suwanee Public Works building and Police Substation, without ordering dedicated data/voice circuits. They also were looking to design and implement an IP surveillance system in the park areas throughout the city with a central monitoring station at the police department.

SOLUTION & SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

Nestor credits the Fluidmesh solution with enabling them to meet the demands of this project without having to install underground Fiber Optic Cable. He explains that the system was originally installed as a “hub-and-spoke” with the City Hall Clock Tower as the hub and several spokes supporting the Public Works building and city parks. "As we designed, and continued to implement additional facilities, we created a true mesh network," Nestor added. "We installed multiple Fluidmesh 2200 and dozens of FM11100 radios."

The Fluidmesh wireless mesh network supports 75 cameras at city hall, the police substation, and four city parks; public Wi-Fi at two parks; data and VoIP to the police substation; and, data and VoIP to the Public Works building. Nestor reports that the system has not only completely met the needs of the city, but they are continuing to expand upon the robust backbone to include the backhaul of SCADA data.

AND NOW, A WORD FROM THE END USER

Capital Asset Manager for the City of Suwanee, Scott Moretz, noted that the Fluidmesh infrastructure installed by C3 Communications across Suwanee has enabled the city to utilize data collection in more ways than they ever imagined.  "Not only are we able to make our city safer through the use of IP surveillance cameras in otherwise impossible locations, but we are also able to provide improved quality of life for our citizens and visitors through open Wi-Fi in parks," he said."Additionally, we were able to eliminate recurring charges for both phone and Internet connections at two Suwanee facilities while being able to control critical infrastructure components remotely, all on the same, shared mesh network. We are able to accomplish all of this with even more capacity for future expansion to the system. The team at C3 Communications has proven themselves to be technically and operationally proficient in all aspects of wireless and IP video integration."