After years of development in the field, the SmartShroud™ concealment product for small cells is the latest telecom product being launched by Sabre Industries. For the last 10 years, Sabre has established itself as a manufacturer for small cell infrastructure, utility structures, telecom infrastructure, coatings and equipment enclosures.
The SmartShroud™ is a pole attachment or ground-mount enclosure that conceals a variety of small cell equipment, such as radio units, passive equipment, and power disconnects. The small cell enclosure is large enough to handle necessary equipment, but small enough to pass muster with local zoning regulations.
“You want to have a robust platform that you can deploy on small cells so they can be future-proofed for new technology upgrades. However, it needs to fit well into most municipalities’ wireless ordinances,” Bryan Kearse, Director of Sales and Product Management, told Inside Towers.
Small Cell Size Matters
To be within the key volumetric dimensions provided in most cities’ zoning standards, currently the largest SmartShroud™ measures 21 cubic feet. Although, Sabre has seen requests for 24 to 26 cubic foot designs.
“For a pole-mounted shroud, we always want to leave a little buffer for the attachment of additional equipment down the line,” Kearse said. “The 21 cubic-foot size is typically good for one operator, but we can also co-locate two operators, if that’s the intent of the site.”
Sabre reviewed several ordinances that were more restrictive and created specific sizes for those markets. Four additional sizes, 17-, 13-, 9-, and 5-cubic feet are now available.
Flexible Pegboard Frame Accommodates Equipment Changes
Inside the SmartShroud™ is a patented, pegboard-style mounting frame. This frame allows brackets to be placed in different locations to adapt to different radio configurations, as well as other equipment. This allows the small cell to be set up to meet the initial equipment needs of the carrier and to be easily changed when the small cell is upgraded.
“We can go in and move around or change several brackets; then we’re able to reconfigure the equipment inside of the shroud. Although we need to be careful to maintain the proper spacing between equipment for thermal compliance,” Kearse said. “The changes can be simple and economical, which is important.”
The SmartShroud™ features vents on the doors and on the top and bottom plates to provide maximum ventilation, while maintaining an aesthetically pleasing look, according to the company. “The SmartShroud™ has a nice, concealed look, but we’re moving a lot of air through the enclosure,” Kearse explained.
Multiple utilities have approved the SmartShroud™. Additionally, the products have been tested and approved for the Telcordia GR487 standard for the durability of electronic equipment cabinets in a variety of outside plant environments and applications including wireless.
“The GR487 battery of tests is long and rigorous,” Kearse said. “You certainly want to keep the equipment up and functioning, but you also want to maintain a long lifecycle.” One test pits the SmartShroud™ against the corrosive environment common in coastal areas.
New for 2024: C-band Small Cell Overlay
Carriers are looking to put C-band spectrum to use in high-density areas that are served by small cells, now that it has been deployed on the majority of macro towers. Small cell deployments of the mid-band spectrum will bring needed capacity. “We will not necessarily see a lot of new small cell sites go up this year, but we will see an overlay added to existing small cell sites and I believe that’s where the site volume numbers really start to get interesting,” Kearse said.
Sabre sees the C-band overlay as an opportunity for the carriers to upgrade existing small cells, some of which may not have concealed their radio equipment when they were deployed. “When they upgrade equipment at the small cell and add C-band spectrum, clients can pre-integrate a SmartShroud™ with the new equipment and hang it back up on the pole,” Kearse said. “Pre-integrating the shroud prior to deployment allows the contractor to raise their site quality metrics and increase close-out repeatability.”
A New Segment in a Broader Series
The SmartShroud™ is the latest product in a series of smart small cell products, which includes the SmartStack™ concealment pole – a sleek, modular radio and power integrated pole, and the SmartPier™ Foundation, which is a precast pier foundation designed to minimize site disturbance and reduce construction time for a small cell.
“The Sabre Smart product line is designed to increase deployment speed, enhance site quality and flexibility, and simplify the deployment of small cells. That is what is needed most to make small cells more economical,” Kearse said. “With CAPEX expenditure being restricted some at this time, we want to make it an economical piece of street furniture that our operators can use, time and time again.”
For more information, contact Bryan Kearse: by phone (984) 297-7551, via email [email protected], or visit https://www.sabreindustries.com/.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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