The Morton Arboretum

For more than a decade, Scientel has helped The Morton Arboretum enhance its guest experience and operations through reliable WiFi solutions.

Back in 2009, The Morton Arboretum was in need of a comprehensive WiFi and broadband internet solution for its guests and staff. Its site covers an impressive 1,700 acres – inclusive of gardens, hiking trails, a guest center, a library, classrooms, and event spaces.

Dependable and secure broadband internet was essential to ensure a high-quality guest experience and efficient operations. Though, for a property of that size, this was no easy task.

Scientel partnered with the prestigious botanic garden to implement an expansive, outdoor/indoor WiFi and broadband internet network that powers reliable high speed internet access for its guests, point of sale solutions for its vendors, and extended access for its researchers.

For more than ten years since the original installation, Scientel has continued to support and maintain The Morton Arboretum through our Network Operations Center – part of our lifecycle management services.

THE CHALLENGE

The arboretum’s primary attraction – its vast acres of lush plant life – presented a unique hurdle for implementing the necessary internet infrastructure.

The sheer size of The Morton Arboretum’s property posed the initial challenge. With vast acres of land spread across both sides of the IL-53 highway, there was a significant amount of property that needed access to reliable internet.

The make-up of the property added further challenges. In addition to indoor and outdoor coverage needs spread across a very large area, The Morton Arboretum’s lush vegetation and other obstructions were not ideal for the propagation of radio signals. This made it even more challenging to provide robust and reliable wireless links.

SCIENTEL’S SOLUTION

Scientel designed a WiFi and broadband internet solution that addressed the arboretum’s unique features and enhanced its guest, vendor, and internal operations.

The scope and size of The Morton Arboretum’s property and location didn’t deter Scientel’s engineers from designing a comprehensive WiFi and broadband internet solution. Integrating technology from Cambium Networks and Extreme Networks, Scientel implemented a scalable network that addressed the property’s unique challenges.

Cambium’s technology offered Near Line of Sight and Non-Line of Sight solutions to overcome the challenge of obstructions and tree foliage. Meanwhile, Extreme’s WiNG platform offered the multi-hop meshing capabilities needed to provide coverage to the areas with no network connectivity.

For The Morton Arboretum researchers, Scientel extended the internal WiFi network to locations that previously had no connectivity, including the arboretum’s greenhouses. Scientel also set up a secure and encrypted network for the arboretum’s point-of-sale system, to be used by vendors throughout the site.

“Scientel’s support and service has always been great. Organizationally, [Scientel] has always been very responsive to our needs.”

– Jeff Funderberg, Network Administrator at The Morton Arboretum

THE RESULTS

The Morton Arboretum’s WiFi infrastructure has improved its guest experience, while helping ensure business continuity for over ten years.

Since the original installation in 2009, the new WiFi network has improved both the arboretum’s guest and operational experience.

Guests have been able to easily access the network for events and education programs, while the staff has benefited from more efficient and reliable systems. For the arboretum’s researchers, the WiFi system has enabled them to monitor the growth and health of its plants, as well as monitor the environmental conditions inside the greenhouses.

Over the years, Scientel has continued to extend coverage to additional buildings and areas throughout the property. To date, eight buildings have been connected across the 1,700-acre site including the Visitor center, library, greenhouses, research facilities, and more.

As technology has evolved, Scientel has performed regular network upgrades to keep The Morton Arboretum’s systems at the forefront of modern standards and to continuously improve the end user experience.

Scientel has continued to support and maintain The Morton Arboretum’s network to this date through our Network Operations Center (NOC), a core component of our lifecycle management services. Scientel’s NOC staff monitor the arboretum’s networks and swiftly address any issues that arise.

For the Arboretum, this support has made it easier to manage and maintain its business by helping them offload network maintenance and security to a trusted partner. With Scientel’s ongoing system oversight, the Morton Arboretum can focus on the happiness of its guests and staff.

“We thank Scientel for their proactive monitoring, excellent support, and reliable team of engineers.”

– Sai Ravichandran, Director of IT at The Morton Arboretum