Linking up Lichfield Cathedral
When the cathedral authorities decided to 'wire up' the complex of buildings, they wanted a solution which would not involve destructive installation work.
Photo © Alan Williamson care of the Lichfield Mercury.
The challenges become even more evident when the organisation responsible for the building is committed to making it an integral part of the local community through a programme of public events. It is inevitable that these will involve a large number of helpers who all need to be kept informed about bookings and the requirements of the organisers.
At Lichfield Cathedral, a programme that includes hundreds of events during the year has to be organised around the regular devotional services. Many of the people involved live and work in the historic houses that surround the cathedral on three sides. In addition, there is an army of voluntary helpers who are spread across the surrounding district.
Enquiries about bookings for the cathedral and its facilities can come in from a number of different points, but at the moment only one person has access to the upto-date diary. The ability to call up the cathedral diary on screen will help ensure coordination of bookings for concert organisers, those requiring special services and groups wishing to bring school parties or adult tour groups.
It has been evident for some time that the sophisticated paper-based system that had been developed over the years was being outstripped by the demands being placed on it. Chief executive of the chapter office, David Wallington, began to consider alternatives last year.
'What we needed was a system that would allow authorised individuals to see the bookings diary and advise organisers of the availability of the various spaces we use for events. We also needed a system that would allow us to communicate quickly with all the people who are involved in these events,' he says. 'The obvious solution was an on-line system combined with e-mail. The difficulty was providing these services within the constraints of historic buildings.'
One option that was considered was a fibre-optic cable around the Close, connecting the various buildings through a computer network. This proved to be unworkable because of the cost and the fact that the Close would have to be excavated to lay the cable.
It was against this background that a meeting was held with Reference Technology, a Lichfield-based company with specialised knowledge of computer networks.
'They suggested that wireless networking could provide a solution,' explains David Wallington. 'In fact, our own IT consultant had already considered this as an option so we had some knowledge of what they were suggesting.'
Wireless networking involves the use of a group of small radio transmitter/receivers, known as access points, in place of the cable that is commonly used to connect computers in a network. It is sometimes used in large warehouses and hospitals where computers need to be operated away from hard-wired network plug-in points.
However, arranging for a few personal computers to connect to a wider network is a different matter to building a network operating almost entirely on radio transmissions.
Added to that, some of the offices that needed to be connected were on opposite sides of the cathedral itself and radio waves do not readily pass through 1,300 year old stone structures. A further complication was that the Diocesan Office was to be included in the network with a link to its training centre 500 metres away in the middle of Lichfield.
Cost was also a factor. As David Wallington explains, 'We could not have justified the cost of a commercial turnkey solution that would have involved spending several times our annual IT budget on one project.'
An answer was offered by Reference Technology through one of Nokia's distributors, Nighthawk Electronics. In return for allowing the cathedral to be used as a reference site for Nokia, the company offered an attractive package.
Significant though this offer was, it only meant that the first hurdle had been overcome. There was still the question of arranging a combination of access points and small subnetworks to provide the coverage that the Chapter Office needed.
It was a far from straightforward operation. The cathedral itself is a problem. It lies in the middle of the Close and prevents line-of-sight connections between most of the buildings that needed to be connected to the network.
Photo © Alan Williamson care of the Lichfield Mercury
Access points
The problem was overcome by placing two access points on the cathedral itself, one of which had two aerials. One access point below the central spire was connected to an aerial on the north side to connect to the Deanery and the Cathedral School, and one at the east end to provide a link to the Chapter Office and the Diocesan Office. Another access point was installed above the Great West Door to provide connections to the bookshop and other buildings.
The access points themselves are small, measuring only 22 by 15 em. Even so, they had to be unobtrusive. Nobody wants to see a plastics box bolted to the outside of a 1,300 year old building, and apart from that there's the whole question of fixing them in a way that ensures there is no damage to the fabric of the cathedral.
Tests proved that the access points could operate through glass. That was a surprise and a great relief, as it is difficult to get radio signals through glass, especially old glass.
The access points on the cathedral were connected using cable running in the roof space above the ceilings of the nave, the choir and the north transept. Nobody visiting the cathedral will be aware that any modern technology has been installed.
The access points in the offices have also been installed inside windows to avoid any visual impact on the exterior of the buildings. In some cases, an access point is connected directly to a computer. In others, it provides a link into a subnetwork which has several computers connected to it.
Buying second-hand computers allowed the installation of a full server network which is used to run, among other things, church- administration software from Data Developments. 'This is extremely useful,' says David Wallington. 'It provides us with accounting and office- administration functions, rolls of volunteers, and systems to deal with covenants and gifts.'
Costs have been further reduced by using FreeBSD software which is a Unix-based platform for networks. The network can still run Microsoft Office applications. The Chapter Office has several licences for Office and, had users had to get used to different software, the cost savings made by using FreeBSD would have been much less attractive.
The Chapter Office now has its own e-mail connection through the network. This will be a significant step forward since, at present, e-mail can be provided only by installing modems in individual computers.
The one disadvantage of a wireless network is that it is potentially slower than a hard-wired system. A normal Ethernet network can send information at a theoretical speed of 10 or 100 Mbit/s, depending on the equipment and the number of workstations. The Nokia access points are restricted to 2 Mbit/s at present, although the technology filters the traffic to make sure that it goes only from one point to another instead of from one point to all the others on the network as happens with a hardwired network.
This means that there is very little discernible difference in speed unless somebody is sending large files over the network. Even so, Nokia is working on an upgrade that will raise the speed closer to the rates for a hard-wired network.
In its 1300th year, Lichfield Cathedral is going digital in a manner that has minimised the impact on the fabric and character of the buildings. David Wallington is very happy with the result. 'It has taken a great deal of discussion, effort and creative thinking to come up with a solution that suits our needs, suits the buildings and was completed within a tight budget,' he says.