Recently I had the privilege of doing a UniFi install in the home of a current business client and good friend, Steven Manning – of AccessMedicine in Williamston NC. Steven and his wife Candi have been remodeling their family home for a few months now and he wanted to have the same VPN and configuration capabilities he has at the office, so a small UniFi system was a must!
Steven had just a couple of requirements for this set up to make his home office work the way he wanted:
- Switch ports in at least two locations for Mitel phones and hard wiring a computer or printer if needed
- Omni-directional Mesh wireless in far corners of the house for complete coverage inside
- At least one single room WiFi AP with extra switch ports for the safe room
It always helps when you have either new construction or a re-model torn down to the studs for installing access points and running wire. In this case, we didn’t want to do ceiling mounted AP’s like the UniFi AP AC Pro or nanoHD, just to keep the ceiling clean, so we ran two (single) drops for the UniFi In-Wall AC Pro’s that would provide both extra ports, PoE 802.3af passthrough from the UniFi Switch 8 60W in the closet, and single room WiFi.
In the AV closet, we wanted to minimize the foot print of the switching and routing equipment on the shelf so we recommended the UniFi Security Gateway 3P and the UniFi Switch 8 60W.
For the rest of the wireless in the house, two omni-directional UniFi Mesh Points were installed in linen and storage closets, connected back to a UniFi Mesh Pro in the AV closet. The idea here is that the mesh APs would carry the load of the majority of the clients, IoT devices etc, with the In-Wall AP’s radios turned way down just for close proximity devices and access within the safe room.
At 3000sqft, the finished space couldn’t be covered by just the In-Wall units, but with the addition of the mesh network, the entire house is blanketed in 5GHz AC.
Not to mention, the UniFi Security Gateway is connected with an IPsec VTI VPN, since Steven’s entire office runs on UniFi. In the future, he’ll be able to plug in VoIP phones in his home office or safe room and they’ll automatically connect to the Mitel VoIP server at his main practice in downtown Williamston.
The main reason I wanted to write this post is because of how well I felt the UniFi In-Wall AP’s fit in with the design aesthetic of his newly renovated house! Most of the time, this type of equipment is unsightly and ugly, but the In-Wall AP is made to blend in for hospitality (hotel) applications. In this beautifully renovated home, I wanted the equipment to be unnoticeable. Out of sight, yet still functional. And I think they blend right in:
These access points deliver awesome performance and blend in with the aesthetic of the house as well. Not only will Steven have a per-room wifi network for the places we have the In-Wall AP’s, but he’ll also have two direct wired connections if they are needed.
These types of installs are the best! When we can plan for square footage coverage, specific needs for access ports, and do it all before sheet rock goes up things turn out really awesome.
If you’re in the process of building a new house, or would like to install some structured cabling or high performance wireless in your house, shoot us an email at info@sundigital.io!
Jason