Teletext Goes Category 6 With Siemon
Teletext, the national TV and web information services company, has installed a state-of the art Siemon category 6 structured cabling system at their new sales, marketing and customer services offices in Chelsea, London.
The network cabling project, completed in time for Teletext staff to move into the building in late February 2000, was designed, managed and installed by cabling specialist Network Cabling Installations (NCI) Ltd of Bookham, Surrey, which is one of The Siemon Company's leading Certified Installers.
The new, prestigious Teletext offices are part of the renowned, very stylish, London, Chelsea Harbour development on the north bank of the Thames. Teletext occupies the whole of the third floor of a six floor building, in a part of the development known as The Chambers. In good company, near-neighbors on the site include The Design Centre and the Conran Hotel.
In order to give the level of high speed, fully integrated communications that Teletext requires for their sales and customer services departments, they stripped out and replaced the existing floor and ceilings, added the new network and built a new communications room. The whole of the third floor was refurbished with new décor throughout, which included new offices, lighting and an air-conditioning system. Ceiling-hung monitors throughout the building keep personnel in touch with the latest Teletext information. The main walkways have exposed, polished wooden floors which complement the modern office furniture to provide a very slick, working environment.
"NCI, which has been a network installer for Teletext for some years, chose Siemon's System 6 as it is the first system to achieve certified, independent verification to the category 6 specification."
NCI, which has been a network installer for Teletext for some years, chose Siemon's System 6® as it is the first system to achieve certified, independent verification to the category 6 specification. The Siemon category 6, System 6 network for Teletext comprised of some 750 floor mounted voice and data outlets flood wired in clusters of four, and Siemon MAX® 6 Modular Outlets wired initially for two voice and two data outlets per floor trap, all patched to the central communications room. The floor traps also contain mains power points. "There seemed little point in using any system of a lower specification than category 6," says Gordon Kossick, Teletext IT Manager. "We wanted a future-proof system and one that we knew would readily satisfy our demands."
Siemon System 6 exceeds all category 6 specifications. With bandwidth being one of the single most important communications demands at present, Siemon System 6 achieves 2 times more bandwidth than its category 5e predecessor, by providing in excess of 250MHz. It also provides robust application support for today's most advanced networking applications, such as gigabit Ethernet, lending it to future developments.
Siemon was the first company world-wide to provide a fully test-certified, complete category 6 system that meets and exceeds the proposed category 6 standards for both channel and interconnecting hardware. A 20 year extended warranty, covering product, installation and application guarantee, is given when installed by a Siemon Certified Installer such as NCI. The Siemon universal Certified Installer training program is applied within the UK through Siemon Limited at their Woking, Surrey premises, where they have a Training Academy with full time training manager and training staff to provide practical, hands-on product experience, combined with use of the latest audio visual aids. Siemon Ltd has tailored a series of courses that run throughout the year. They are geared to give comprehensive, practical and theoretical training to suit a mix of disciplines across industry, from the intensive Certified Installer course, to shorter courses devised for specific sectors of the industry. For example, they offer separate courses designed for Consultants/Architects and IT managers, to mention but two.
Established in 1903, The Siemon Company has grown to become probably the largest company world-wide, exclusively concerned with all aspects of structured cabling system design, test, manufacture and installation. System 6 has a number of technical innovations with patents pending - the company has over 300 patents currently active.
NCI was also responsible for the design layout and installation of the Teletext Chelsea Harbour communications room which contains a neatly housed, typical mix of passive and active floor cabinets. Each cabinet has an attractive all-glass front door with a steel door at the rear. The patching cabinets use category 6, Siemon HD® 6 Patch Panels, which are believed the highest performing Patch Panels commercially available, and Siemon MC® 6 Modular Cords. The active cabinets contain CISCO 6509 gigabit switches, connected via a BT 100 megabit Lan Emulation Service. The servers are from Compaq, with very neat fold down and away TFT screens.
"We are delighted with our Chelsea Harbour set up. As a company in the communications business, it's vitally important we provide the very best in communications capability. The Siemon/NCI installation ensures we do just that."
NCI was selected as the preferred installer because of their proven track record with Teletext and, importantly, because they could provide a fully 'test-certified' Siemon category 6 system. "We are very impressed with the efficient and very neat NCI wiring installation, particularly in the communications cabinets where cabling is visibly exposed," says Gordon Kossick.
The Teletext overall floor layout comprises two large, open plan office areas with one of them including the main reception. Stylish, individual, glass-sided offices and meeting rooms are centrally located between the two open plan arrangements and also at either end of the building. The communications room is situated mid-way between the two open plan arrangements which enables the most efficient routing and management of the network. NCI also installed an extra 12, 24-way underfloor distribution boxes (currently vacant) to give Teletext maximum flexibility with any future change in desk layouts.
"We are delighted with our Chelsea Harbour set up," adds Gordon Kossick. "As a company in the communications business, it's vitally important we provide the very best in communications capability. The Siemon/NCI installation ensures we do just that."
Since Siemon made available the first certified category 6 cabling network system in early 1999, there has been a steady increase in demand. The Teletext site is now one of several Siemon category 6 cabling systems installed by NCI with some 300 other category 6 sites currently across the UK and Europe already completed by Siemon Certified Installers.
(2000, UK)
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