Case Studies

Infrastructure

­Able Data Installations is delighted to have completed the installation of the structured cabling system for Cass University Business School's prestigious new building at Bunhill Row, in the City of London.

Able successfully tendered for this project through consultants PTS Consulting and was awarded the contract to provide some 5,000 outlets of Excel Cat 5e cabling, in a highly flexible grid design. Able have worked with Mayflex, a major leading UK supplier and distributor of structured cabling systems and networking components, for many years.

Change to Cass University Business School offers a full range of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and has extensive executive education programmes. With over 2,000 students and staff, an impressive list of former students, including the head of the Bank of China and the founder of Easyjet, the School undertakes research of international significance. The Bunhill Row building will provide a leading edge resource for management education.

Adrian Hall, Cass Business School's IT Manager who has to provide the IT infrastructure to support a world class operation, commented, "Becoming the intellectual hub of the City of London has led us to look there for best practice. PTS Consulting has a substantial City client base and Able have worked with them on previous major City projects. Able's comprehensive yet flexible proposal was a significant factor in the awarding of the contract".

Christine Hatton, Able's Business Development Manager, was delighted: "The awarding of this contract shows that professionalism and dedication to quality can be rewarded. This was an extremely competitive tender and the client was impressed with the way Able approached the entire process."

Able's professional project team is headed by Alex Hudson RCDD. "Alex and I rapidly developed a good working relationship - crucial to meeting our specialist needs" says Adrian Hall of Cass Business School.

"The dedication and responsiveness of the team, especially on-site, was key to meeting those needs”. Adrian worked closely with Alex and his team, with PTS Consulting providing QA oversight, during the installation.

Able commenced work on site in March 2002, finishing in October. Alex Hudson commented: "By installing a highly organised, flood wired system, Cass Business School will benefit from the flexibility, reliability and high performance such a system will provide. Providing outlets in the lecture theatres provided the greatest challenge, requiring the coordinating fixing of outlets with building of the ramped seating."

All of the Excel 5,000 computer/telephone outlets in the eight floor complex are home run to one central equipment room, where they are terminated on to RJ45 patch panels mounted in an open frame, along with over 3,000 links to equipment cabinets and voice frames. This allows complete interconnectivity between all equipment in the building, so computers, telephones and other equipment can be quickly moved around.

At the floor end, the Excel computer/telephone outlets are mounted into four-way metal boxes attached to the end of five metre lengths of loose tubing. The boxes can be mounted in floor boxes or fixed to desks, providing a completely flexible arrangement. At the end of each classroom outlet, Able installed RJ45–RJ45 inline couplers.

Whilst still providing Cat5e performance, this will allow the simple repair of outlets ‘worn out’ by constant connection of laptops.

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