What's in a Wi-Fi survey report
Most people commissioning a Wi-Fi survey have never seen one. That is a strange thing to ask somebody to spend money on — so here is exactly what lands in your inbox, section by section.
A document you can build from, tender from and budget from
A survey report is not a certificate and it is not a sales document. It is a working specification. Three different people should be able to use the same report for three different things: a facilities or IT manager to understand what's wrong, a finance director to approve a number, and an installer — ours or anybody else's — to build the network without a single clarification email.
If a report can't do all three, it hasn't done its job. That is the standard ours is written to.
Everything is delivered as a document you keep. There are no proprietary file formats you need our software to open, and if you want the raw survey data for your own records, you can have it.
If you would rather see the shape of it before committing, the plain-English reference walks through the same structure with the terminology explained, and the pre-survey questionnaire shows the questions a report is built from.
More on how to read one: Wi-Fi heatmapping.
The seven parts of the report
This is the structure of a real SEGwifi survey report. A troubleshooting survey adds a diagnostic section; a validation survey adds a pass or fail against each design target.
1 · Introduction
Objectives, requirements, scope and constraints — stated at the front so everybody agrees what was covered and, just as importantly, what was not. Areas excluded from the demise or out of scope are named here.
2 · Test equipment and method
Exactly what was used and how the measurements were taken: the survey adapter and software, the reference access point, and the position-by-position method. It is what makes the findings checkable.
3 · Assessment considerations
The thresholds the design works to — signal strength and signal-to-noise — and why those levels. Every plot that follows is drawn against them, so nothing in the report is ambiguous.
4 · Access point placement
The core of it. Per floor and per band: signal strength plots and signal-to-noise plots, with every proposed access point position marked. A 2.4 GHz picture and a 5 GHz picture, because they behave differently.
5 · Placement photographs
A photograph of each proposed position and of the comms room. It removes the ambiguity that otherwise turns into a variation on site — the installer can see the exact spot, the mounting surface and what is around it.
6 · Neighbouring networks
What else is transmitting around you, on which channels, and how strongly. In a dense building this is often the single biggest constraint on the design, and it is entirely outside your control.
7 · Recommended bill of materials
The costed equipment list with part numbers. So the work can be tendered on identical scope and quotes compared like for like — including quotes that are not ours.
What you can do with it
- Approve a budget. The costed kit list and cabling schedule give you a defensible number rather than a range.
- Run a fair tender. Every bidder prices the same scope. You stop comparing an eighteen-access-point proposal against a thirty-one-access-point proposal and guessing which is honest.
- Hold the installer to a standard. The design states the thresholds. A validation survey measures against them.
- Phase the work. Where the budget won't stretch, the report identifies which areas to do first on operational impact rather than convenience.
- Take it elsewhere. The report is yours. If you want somebody else to install it, that's a legitimate outcome and the document is written so they can.
How it's delivered
You get the report as a document and the plots at full resolution. We'll walk you through it — on site, on a call, or in front of whoever needs to approve it — because a report nobody has explained tends to sit in a folder. That walkthrough is included; we don't charge for explaining our own work.
Common questions
Can we see a full sample report before commissioning?
Ask and we'll arrange it. Full sample reports are shared on request rather than published, because even anonymised they contain enough detail about a real building to be worth protecting. If you're evaluating suppliers, ask all of them for one — it's the fastest way to tell serious survey work from a sales visit.
Do we get the raw survey files?
Yes, on request. Some clients want them for their own records or to pass to a future supplier. We'd rather you had them than felt locked in.
Is the report written for technical or non-technical readers?
Both, deliberately. It opens with a plain-English summary for the people approving the spend, and the technical detail sits behind it for the people delivering the work. You shouldn't need a network engineer to understand what you're being asked to buy.
How quickly do we get it after the survey?
Typically a few working days for a straightforward site, longer for a large or multi-building estate. You'll be told the timescale when the survey is booked. If something urgent shows up during the survey we'll tell you on the day rather than waiting for the document.
Can the report be used in a tender pack?
Yes — that's one of the things it's designed for. The access point schedule, cabling schedule and kit list give every bidder an identical scope to price. We don't ask for exclusivity on work that comes out of our own survey.
See what your building is actually doing.
Book a survey and you get all eight sections, a walkthrough with whoever needs to approve it, and a specification you can take anywhere.