Historical building meets state-of-the-art network technology
Hotel Oderberger take a great deal of pride in its high-performance IT infrastructure
Until recently, the historic swimming pool has been a hidden gem, located in the midst of the trendy Prenzlauer Berg district. The extensive restoration of the listed neo-renaissance building began in 2012. The attention to detail in the restoration has created a charming hotel with state-of-the-art technology: Hotel Oderberger opened in May 2016 with 65 rooms, five tower suites, two apartments and ten seminar rooms.
In all the historical areas, the planners ensured a flexible and future-proof IT infrastructure. ITS Information Technology Services Limited designed and installed a high-performance backbone with 1,200 ports. Comprehensive areas of the building technology, the locking system, the video surveillance system, along with hotel, guest and event Wi-fi, all operate over the network. This system is distinguished by the fact that through the wide range of components in the entire system – from the backbone switch to the video surveillance camera – is equipped with end-to-end D-Link technology.
"As a languages school with a seminar centre and hotel, we place high demands on a perfectly functioning IT system. The company ITS has installed a D-Link network solution to create a future-proof and scalable infrastructure both on the previous campus and also in the Oderberger public pool. A high-performance Wi-Fi network is available in all areas for our hotel and event guests. The flexible LAN operates fast and reliably, and thanks to the low installation and maintenance efforts of the D-Link products, our costs have also been kept to a minimum." - Barbara Jaeschke, co-owner of Hotel Oderberger
Partner with experience
Equipping a hotel of this size with the complete technology solution requires both time and in-depth experience, which is precisely what ITS Information Technology Services have to offer. The system integrator has very successfully supported the GLS Campus, well-known beyond Berlin, with its own hotel, more than 66 seminar rooms of different sizes and a restaurant. When the GLS Languages Centre purchased the historic Public Bath which was adjacent to its own campus, it quickly became clear that the technical planning of the new hotel would also be assigned to the system integrator.
Comprehensive applications
As a long-term partner of D-Link, Oliver Warnke and his team started by defining a usage concept with the owner which specified the applications to be covered by the IT-infrastructure of the future Hotel Oderberger and its events area:
- Office operations: All administrative tasks
- Telephony: VoIP both for guests and administration
- Internet access: Internal Wi-Fi for hotel and conference guests
- Video surveillance: public areas, emergency exit routes and the external area
- Building technology: the locking system (room access via cards), the lifting platform in the swimming pool, window sensors and motion detectors
- Event technology: central control of light and sound via tablets or laptops from reception or individually in the individual rooms
- Restaurant area: ordering and payment systems
All the applications in the hotel require a reliable, stable network with a future-proof capacity. Due to its positive experiences the GLS Languages Centre took the decision to commission ITS with the roll-out of the huge project – including the construction management of all external outsourcing.
Network Architecture
As a first phase the system house jointly developed the main structure of the network with D-Link. The central component of the backbone is a stack consisting of three D-Link DXS-3600-32S/SI switches from the 10 Gigabit switch range. Twenty DGS-1510-28P D-Link distribution switches are then connected in a star topology. Both the individual components of the stack and the associated switches were wired together with fibre optic cables. All other end-devices are connected from the three central network rooms with copper wiring. The switches have a total of over 1100 ports. Half of these ports are in permanent use with the other half made available for events.
Wi-Fi for all
One challenge that had to be planned in detail was the Wi-Fi coverage throughout the historic building. Several constraints had to be considered here.- Maximum 30 clients per access point
- Wi-Fi usage also with older devices
- Seamless roaming between Wi-Fi access points
- Possibility for bandwidth intensive applications
Together with the D-Link experts, the ITS team also came up with an optimum solution here: 200 D-Link Dual-Band Ceiling Access Points (DWL-6600AP) were installed throughout the building complex. These are controlled centrally via two redundant DWC-2000 wireless controllers. The controller can manage up to 64 D-Link Unified Wireless Access Points directly. With optional upgrade licences up to 256 access points per controller and up to 1024 access points in a controller peer group can be supported.
On the safe side
In order to further increase security in the very extensive building complex of the Hotel Oderberger, ITS also installed in transit areas and to monitor emergency exits and escape routes, 25 compact surveillance cameras with full HD and power-over-Ethernet functionality (DCS-2210) and ten D-Link DCS-7110 outdoor HD cameras in the external area. All images are monitored centrally so that any danger points can be identified immediately.
A one-stop shop
Throughout the project the huge benefits of central planning and implementation became clear. The cooperation between the different suppliers was managed by ITS and the approval process was performed by the ITS project team through, of which valuable time was saved. Barbara Jaeschke –co-owner of the hotel together with her husband Dr. Hans-Dieter Jaeschke, who is also the head of the languages school is convinced: "As a languages school with a seminar centre and hotel, we place high demands on a perfectly functioning IT system. The company ITS installed D-Link network solution to create a future-proof and scalable infrastructure both on the previous campus and also in the Oderberger public pool. A high-performance Wi-Fi network is available in all areas for our hotel and event guests. The flexible LAN operates fast and reliably, and thanks to the low installation and maintenance efforts of the D-Link products, our costs have also been kept to a minimum."
Dagmar Ecker - Industrial Engineering Graduate (University of Applied Science)
Designed and implemented by ITS, Information Technology Services
Indoor pool or building: The Oderberger Public Bath was opened in 1902. It was closed in 1986 but thanks to a citizens' initiative, the former building structure was preserved. The building is now gleaming again and even the historic indoor pool can be used once again for swimming.
