The Challenge
As part of a five-year investment plan to expand the company’s production capacity, Leviton Network Solutions would more than double the size of their Fuquay-Varina, NC facility, expanding the 55,000 sq ft facility by an additional 94,000 ft. The expanded facility would fulfill Leviton’s mission of shortening time-to-value for global customers, providing additional capacity and cutting lead times — all while investing in the local community of Fuquay-Varina.
As plans for the expansion were being developed, senior leadership noted a significant pain point. Across the Fuquay-Varina facility, employees would get next-to-no cell service; it was all too common to be stuck working with one bar, no matter which provider employees used.
“Pre-Nextivity, when we ran a signal speed check across our network, the speed was effectively zero throughout the facility,” said Mike Connaughton, Leviton Network Solutions’ Sr. Product Manager. “And so we thought, well, we’re expanding the facility anyways, and we have a strong relationship with Nextivity – let’s pull this in as a part of our expansion.”
Aside from Leviton experts’ experience working with Nextivity solutions, there were two reasons they chose Nextivity to support its facility expansion: the synergy of Nextivity solutions with Leviton structured cabling infrastructure and Nextivity’s passive DAS capabilities. The latter is a real differentiator, as it amplifies signals from each cell carrier equally across the facility – a unique benefit for Nextivity’s industry.
The Solution
In selecting and deploying a Nextivity solution in the expanded facility, Leviton experts worked with representatives from Nextivity, JPI Associates (Leviton’s regional manufacturer’s rep), and Strategic Communications, the contractor who secured the bid for the project. Adam Byrne from JPI Associates performed initial scans, gathering data on signal strength across the facility and providing recommendations for where infrastructure should be placed.
After thorough evaluation, it was determined the Nextivity CEL-FI® QUATRA® 4000c solution, supported by Leviton copper and fiber systems, would address the facility’s infrastructure needs. Nextivity’s QUATRA 4000c is the market’s first neutral host cellular DAS coverage solution that also provides private networking. In short, in addition to providing multi-carrier signal boosting up to 100 dB, the QUATRA 4000c also pairs with private networking services to extend 5G coverage throughout large manufacturing facilities. With a lossless RF signal, Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) distribution, and compatibility with easyto-install category cable architecture, the QUATRA 4000c worked perfectly with the MILLENNIUM™ ATLAS-X1™ SST Cat 6A copper cabling system used in the expansion.
“I think this project, and its outcome, really illustrates why we choose to work with Nextivity,” explained Connaughton. “Nextivity’s DAS solutions utilize twisted pair cabling; and oftentimes, as organizations explore incorporating DAS solutions into their facilities, they have their existing structured cabling systems to think about. Nextivity solutions are a convenient way to marry the two, and with benefits (like private 5G) that competitors just don’t provide.”
Strategic Connections worked closely with Adam Byrne and JPI Associates to receive training and resources for Nextivity solutions, then performed the full Nextivity installation. Additionally, as the expansion was taking place at the same time, Strategic ran fiber connections and copper cables throughout the facility, terminated all the links, and installed paging speakers. Follow‑up scans were performed by Byrne and Nextivity reps at several stages throughout the installation process; final scans were performed solely by Nextivity reps, who came on-site after the installation was complete.
The Impact
Post-installation, the difference is stark: employees and leaders alike have reported full bars throughout the facility, irrespective of cell carriers. Final scans from Nextivity confirmed the QUATRA 4000c is hard at work, amplifying and balancing signals from all providers to ensure uninterrupted coverage across the facility.
With Nextivity’s solutions, powered by Leviton connectivity, a longstanding pain point has been addressed, providing critical support to employees as they continue to do what we do best: build a better connected world for customers all over the globe.
Learn more about Leviton’s Nextivity alliance at leviton.com/nextivity.