Case Study — Rural Hospitality Networking

From dead zones to full coverage: connecting a 50-acre event venue in rural Texas

How Nodalwire LLC brought enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, VoIP, IPTV, and cellular backup to Hummingbird Hollow — a historic wedding and events estate in Palestine, TX — with no existing broadband and a mandate to preserve the beauty of every building.

ClientHummingbird Hollow
Location680 County Rd 446, Palestine, TX 75803
Property50 acres · 8 buildings
CompletedOctober 2025
Delivered byNodalwire LLC
Aerial view of Hummingbird Hollow showing all 8 buildings and WAP locations

Aerial site map — all 8 buildings, P2P microwave backhaul links, and wireless access point positions across the 50-acre property.

8
buildings connected across the property
6
P2P microwave backhaul links deployed
8
wireless access points installed
64
Mbps Starlink download speed achieved
2
redundant internet paths: Starlink + LTE

A stunning venue. Zero connectivity.

Hummingbird Hollow is a premier wedding and events estate in rural East Texas — a 50-acre property of restored historic cottages, a grand marriage hall, an open-air theater, and lush gardens. Couples and their guests travel from across the country to celebrate here.

Beneath the charm lay a serious operational problem. The property had no reliable high-speed internet, virtually no mobile signal anywhere on site, and its eight buildings were spread across open grounds with no structured network at all. The owner was managing a growing hospitality business — bookings, IPTV, VoIP phones, security cameras, outdoor projectors — all without the infrastructure to support it.

An additional constraint: the buildings are historic and architecturally precious. Any installation had to be invisible — no cable trays on decorative woodwork, no unsightly hardware breaking the character of century-old interiors.

Main Office building exterior

Main Office (MO01) — original internet source, measuring just 24/10 Mbps

Marriage Hall exterior

Marriage Hall (MH01) — tallest structure at 20 ft, identified as the network hub

Site survey and network planning

Nodalwire LLC began with a full site survey: a building-by-building walkthrough, line-of-sight analysis from aerial imagery, speed tests, obstruction mapping, and a review of existing phone and electrical infrastructure.

The main office had an existing broadband connection measuring 24 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up — barely adequate for a single room. The Marriage Hall, at 20 feet the tallest structure on the property, had clear line of sight to every other building. That made it the natural distribution hub. Starlink was selected as the primary internet source: a sky-view analysis confirmed unobstructed satellite access, and an on-site speed test returned 64 Mbps down, 26 Mbps up, and 24 ms latency. For backup, a site walk identified a specific outdoor point with usable LTE signal; a Cradlepoint failover path was designed in from day one.

Starlink dish on rooftop

Starlink dish — cable routed discreetly over the terrace

TP-Link P2P radio

TP-Link P2P backhaul radio at Main Office

Starlink speed test 64 Mbps

On-site speed test: 64/26 Mbps — 2.5× the existing connection

A full-property network — built without touching a single decorative surface

Starlink was installed at the Main Office rooftop with cabling routed over the terrace and stapled flush to wood trim. A Grandstream 16-port PoE switch formed the distribution core. Six TP-Link point-to-point microwave links then carried connectivity from the Main Office to every building across the property — the Marriage Hall, all three guesthouses, the warehouse, and the open-air theater — without laying a single ground trench.

At each building, a Grandstream WAP was installed at ceiling height, on covered porches, or inside existing millwork cabinets. The open-air theater received a dedicated pole-mounted installation: a P2P radio and outdoor-rated WAP, all cabling weather-sealed, with the projector connected and live-stream tested on-site. VoIP handsets were provisioned at every building. Smart TVs in all guesthouses were connected to the network, replacing individual cable subscriptions. Security cameras were brought online for remote monitoring across the entire estate.

Property grounds rear view

Rear property view — P2P microwave links connect all visible buildings wirelessly

Warehouse barn building

Warehouse / Barn (WH01) — WAP08 installed via P2P link

Guesthouse 01 exterior

Guesthouse 01 (GH01) — WAP02 and Grandstream switch SW03

Guesthouse 02 exterior

Guesthouse 02 (GH02) — WAP mounted flush to exterior eave

Switch and WAP at Marriage Hall

Marriage Hall — Grandstream SW02 + WAP06 installation

WAP at Guesthouse 01 porch

GH01 — WAP under porch ceiling, coverage across the grounds

Outdoor pole-mounted WAP at Open Theater

Open Theater (OT01) — pole-mounted outdoor WAP05, projector connected

Full solution stack

Internet — primary
Starlink satellite — 64/26 Mbps, rooftop mounted at Main Office
Internet — backup
Cradlepoint LTE failover, antenna at optimum signal location on property
Backhaul links
6× TP-Link P2P 3.2 GHz microwave links connecting all 8 buildings
Distribution
Grandstream 16-port PoE switches at Main Office, Marriage Hall, and all guesthouses
Wireless access
8× Grandstream WAPs — indoor ceiling, covered porch, and outdoor pole configurations
Voice (VoIP)
VoIP service provisioned across all buildings; cordless handsets usable anywhere on the estate
IPTV
Smart TVs in all guesthouses connected to network, replacing individual cable subscriptions
Security
Existing cameras migrated to network for centralised remote monitoring estate-wide

A fully connected 50-acre estate

Guesthouse 03 WAP and switch in cabinet

GH03 — WAP04 + switch SW05, installed inside a covered outdoor cabinet

Starlink speed test result

Final verified speed: 64 Mbps down · 26 Mbps up · 24 ms latency

“The owner can now walk anywhere on his 50-acre estate — the gardens, the open theater, the guesthouses — and make a call, stream a film, or check his security cameras. That’s what good network design looks like: infrastructure that works invisibly, so the experience stays beautiful.”
— Surendran Natarajan, Founder, Nodalwire LLC

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