Client Background
Newcastle University is a higher education establishment providing courses including but not limited to science, business and media. The creation of the 24 acre Helix Campus meant there was plenty of new space for the university to develop and expand their teaching and learning resources. The £35 million Teaching & Learning Centre was re-named the Frederick Douglas Centre in honour of the 19th-century anti-slavery campaigner.
The Challenge
The Frederick Douglas Centre has four floors and a total of 1121 ports and the building features a 750-seat auditorium with an unusual curvature. The design of the auditorium had to be considered when producing the plans for the cabling, ensuring a high-quality installation.
What UCS Technologies Did
UCS Technologies were able to provide a turnkey solution for the Data Comms infrastructure. Not only is UCS a key partner to Newcastle University, but has extensive knowledge of the campus, that enabled the main contractor to deliver site-wide connectivity and tier 1 solution for the project.
The Technical Solution
UCS installed a total of 5 comms rooms. One dedicated to each floor and then an additional ‘satellite’ comms room was added on level 1. Each comms room is linked with dual single-mode fibre optic backbone cables in a ring topology.
External single-mode fibre optic cables are installed from existing campus buildings to the ground floor and third floor. Each comms room is also linked with a 50 pr telephone cable from the ground floor in a star topology. External 100 pr telephone cable is installed from existing campus buildings to the ground floor building distribution panels.
Individual cat6a cables were installed to the relevant comms rooms on each floor for distribution of services. Cat 6a cables were installed for each location as defined by the client's Wi-Fi survey design, UCS undertook the installation of the client issued access points to each location.
Key Features
- Cat 6a F/UTP Cabling (with B2CA cable)
- 48 core OS2 single-mode internal fibre optic backbone
- 48 core OS2 single-mode external fibre optic backbone
- 50 pr internal telephone backbone cables
- 100 pr external telephone backbone cables
- Eaton access range comms cabinet
- 25-year Connectix warranty
The Outcome
“Liaison between Connectix and the installation partner UCS Technologies was seamless and helped to enable successful building completion and opening date commitments. The installation itself was of a very high standard and Connectix conducted a post site installation survey to confirm the quality of the install and that it was in accordance with their installation guidelines.”
Andrew Fisher, Newcastle University, Telecoms & Cabling Manager.
