Client: House of Fraser | Sector: Retail | Duration: Roll Out
Data installation for Wifi Roll Out
A new data installation was required as part of a national upgrade for their public access WiFi. In association with Custom Communications we were tasked with installing the cabinets, fibre optic cabling and Cat6 cabling for the wireless upgrade
The new installation involved a whole new wireless map of access point locations. Therefore all new data cabling was required and thus disruption to the existing areas of the stores. In addition the stores remained open and therefore the scheduling had to take this into account
Out of Hours Data Installation
The data installation had to be undertaken in stores that were open long hours and were not planned to close at all. To this end the installation had to be undertaken out of hours. Thus evenings from 8pm to 8am were set as the installation window
Coupled with prior route planning and design this eliminated a majority of the safety risks compared to installing in a live shop. However the complications of carrying out the works were still present.
As a result of working when the shop was closed specific security protocol had to be followed. In addition the stores had to allocate additional security and planning to ensure compliance and safe working
In the same way that the cabling installation had to be out of hours so did a large part of the project management. A detailed work progress update had to be specifically created each evening and submitted to the client at the end of each install period. Accordingly any areas of concern had to be highlighted at the same time for resolution by the next evening
Data Cabinet and Fibre Optic Cabling
The upgrade for the WiFi involved installing new cabling to totally new access point locations. For this reason new data cabinet locations were required to house these new data cables. Furthermore the new cabinets would be required to ensure that every data cable was a maximum of 90m from any one cabinet.
To link these new cabinets to the existing communication room new fibre optic cabling was required. Likewise this was required to be installed out of hours. However this presented different challenges.
In contrast to the WiFi mounting and Cat6 cabling the fibre cabling was required to run between floors as well as across floors. Hence clearance was required to access riser doors and routes across floors that were not required with the standard data installation. In addition several of the runs required access across secure areas and store involving specific security clearance
Cat6 Data Installation and Wifi Mounting
Once the new data cabinets and fibre optic links were in place the new Cat6 data cabling could be installed. Compared to the fibre optic routes these only required to be installed back to the new cabinets on its own floor.
The routes were generally always across the store floors. Therefore great care had to be taken to follow walkways to avoid the merchandise. Since this wasn’t always possible when cable routes had to cross displays care was taken to protect and minimise disruption to these areas. In most cases the ceiling were solid with access hatches spread throughout. Thereofre a maze of sorts had to be followed to achieve the cabling installation
The schedule required that all the Cat6 cabling had to be first installed, terminated ad fully tested. Subsequently the sign off would then allow us to mount the WiFi access points for the WiFi specialist to program
Finally the old access points were removed so as not to interfere with the new installation
You can read more about our Retail data installation services at our dedicated Retail Page HERE