The Villas of Holmdel Picks Cambium to Enable Wi-Fi

Cambium Networks enterprise networking solutions enable elder care facilities to provide excellent care in the nursing shortage and enable further efficiencies from digital transformation initiatives.

The Villas of Holmdel provides human-centered, accessible and affordable care for assisted living residents. With Wi-Fi 6 access points (AP), cnMatrix™ switches and centralized cloud management from Cambium Networks, designed and deployed by Future Technologies, Inc., the 130,000-square-foot assisted living facility achieves excellence in care and is paving the way for future digital transformation initiatives while minimizing total cost of ownership.

Villas of Holmdel improves elder care with Wi-Fi 6 connectivity
Residents want the ability to connect with friends and family, and elder care operations managers need reliable Wi-Fi at reasonable costs. At the same time, challenges such as the ongoing shortage of nurses and caregivers, inflation driving costs higher, and lingering COVID issues are putting a strain on facilities to provide security and comfort with fewer staff.

The Villas of Holmdel, one of Hackensack Meridian Health’s newest assisted living facilities in New Jersey, is comprised of 110 rooms, 15 office rooms, a dining area, an indoor pool and other amenities. Campus-wide Wi-Fi coverage and high performance were essential for the Villas since residents and staff required higher density and capacity, especially at high-traffic, high-density nursing stations.

“Wi-Fi 6 connectivity enables our residents and nurses to do more than they could before,” said Walt Gant, Director, Hackensack Meridian Health. “They can now stay connected throughout the facility, and we’re able to focus on our core business. It will pave the way for us to do more for our residents in the future.”

Future Technologies Venture, LLC., which planned the network design and served as lead system integrator, deployed Cambium Networks’ XV2-2 and XV3-8 Wi-Fi 6 APs and EX2052-P switches to handle an uptick in simultaneous video streams, as well as an increasing number of concurrent network users. The Cambium Networks solution will also enable future IoT initiatives, such as sensors, controls and potentially robotics. These future initiatives include robots for cleaning floors, delivering items to residents and remote patient monitoring – a critical need at elder care/memory care facilities.

“With the Cambium Networks solution, we were able to offer complete coverage and capacity with 64 access points – immediately reducing the hardware and associated installation costs by one third. Being able to reduce the total access point count by 35% and having a single pane of glass to manage the system really made a big difference in meeting these needs,” said Peter Cappiello, CEO, Future Technologies. “We considered other options, but they couldn’t provide the end-to-end solution portfolio capabilities we required to meet the technical and commercial requirements of The Villas.”

The deployment of Cambium Networks’ Wi-Fi 6 APs and switches are managed under the cnMaestro™ wireless network management system. The entire network is monitored and managed from one screen and the service comes at zero operating expense. Future Tech designed the solution so the facility can self-maintain.

“Care facilities need a communications network that must be seamless, reliable and easy to manage so that the primary focus is on patient care,” said Atul Bhatnagar, president and CEO of Cambium Networks. “Working with our partner Future Technologies, we were able to equip The Villas with great connectivity at an attractive total cost, enabling them to focus on providing excellent care at a time of significant nursing shortage and skyrocketing inflation.”

In a recent ranking of Wi-Fi 6 access points, the Tolly Group, an independent testing analysis organization, concluded that Cambium Networks’ products outperformed competitors Aruba, Meraki (Cisco) and Ruckus in terms of performance and total cost of ownership. What’s more, Cambium Networks’ Wi-Fi solutions are certified and proven for healthcare applications.