For the past 30 years, National Instruments has been a technology pioneer and leader in automated instrumentation technology for test, measurement, and design applications. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company has more than 3,900 employees with direct operations in nearly 40 countries, and it sells products to more than 25,000 companies in 90 countries. | National Instruments Overcomes Geography with In-Building Wireless Solution CASE STUDY CHALLENGE For the past 30 years National Instruments has been a technology pioneer and leader in automated instrumentation technology for test measurement and design applications. Headquartered in Austin Texas the company has more than 3 900 employees with direct operations in nearly 40 countries and it sells products to more than 25 000 companies in 90 countries. National Instruments Austin headquarters campus includes three buildings an 8-story building housing executive offices conference rooms and a training center a 5-story office building and a 2-story manufacturing facility. In all some 2 500 employees work at the campus. Most of these employees have cellular phones and the 8-story building s conference and training centers often host customers and sales people from National Instruments worldwide offices. CASE STUDY We have a lot of people who come to our campus for our training classes and sales conferences said Kris Curtis telecommunications specialist for National Instruments. Cell phones are mostly a convenience for our employees who work here but our executives and visitors need consistent wireless services for their cell phones and smart phones. The problem is the geography. It is located in a small valley and the all-glass buildings have energy-conserving film on their windows. As a result signals from nearby external cell towers can t penetrate the interiors of the 8-and 5-story buildings which are at lower elevations. The two-story manufacturing plant receives adequate coverage. Even standing outside the two larger buildings says Curtis the signal is about half strength and once you walk into the building you re pretty much cut off. If you re by a window on the upper 3 floors of the 8-story building and you happen to be facing the carrier s cell tower you can make or receive calls but the call can drop at any time. INVESTIGATING SOLUTIONS Since National .
