One lesson to learn is that some installations require living with the imperfections that are inherent to the site. Perfecting the installation process doesn't necessarily mean perfecting the implementation. Recognizing what works and leaving it alone is often a requirement.
A recent implementation was a day's work, and preparing for it didn't mean doing a site survey, but a swift analysis over the phone. The customer's old system was doing a daily dance of rebooting and then shutting down stations during different times of the day, and replacing it meant doing it soon to avoid further disruption to business.
In busy downtown Washington, D.C., this gourmet establishment is popular and remains busy from 7am until just after 2pm. The cashier stations barely have room for phones that are stowed beneath a shelf at each station. Luck was smiling on us that day. We used phones that have a retractable base and easily fit into the snug shelves. The cashiers asked if these phones would slow down the credit card processing and the answer was no, the credit card machines are still operating on POTS lines. We suggested 3G terminals since the site doesn't have adequate wiring and all the network and telephony gear resides two floors below grade. Running a cable was no easy task. All in all, adaptive reuse isn't just a historical application for buildings; it also applies to reusing what's in place when it comes to telephony simply to get service back.
The deli and kitchen areas with phones had surgical waterproof tape around the jacks. We replaced the jacks but put the tape back in place since these phone locations are subject to spillage. We do use a black waterproof tape that ships with network cameras, and it has the same effect of keeping the jacks dry, but the deli manager wanted the white opaque surgical tape because it wasn't overly visible.
Testing and toning one station at a time and then flipping wire pairs over to the new system took a few hours. The wiring was sub-standard and definitely not suitable for IP phones. The riser cable used along with some dedicated drops meant finding and using one good pair of wires for each telephone. This is not atypical of many SMBs that really need a working telephone system.
The system is IP-ready, meaning we can connect via SIP to their other offices and locations. We built the system, loaded the licenses, software and programming the day before arriving onsite to save time and minimize disruption. Again, luck was upon us because we had Siemons 66-blocks with Amphenol to modular connections that made swinging over jumpers fast and then connecting modular cords to the system easy and painless. We half-tapped the phone lines and had two working systems simultaneously. All the gear and connections were made two floors down in a crowded meter room. The system and battery backup is side mounted to plywood instead of a 19-inch rack due to space limitations.
While I prefer everything rack or cabinet mounted, that's not always the reality of the job and environment of many companies. Then, restrictions with space are often challenging in the confines of many utility and meter rooms. There is no standard in tenants keeping gear in their suite or locating it in building-controlled spaces. The trend is to keep the gear in tenant spaces, but there are still a number of tenants with gear residing in the shared spaces of buildings.
After the training session we discussed their next project being a total renovation. The customer plans a complete makeover and we reviewed suggestions. However it turns out we may end up improvising again. Digital proprietary phones, I don't think, will disappear anytime soon. Making things work the way they are isn't something too likely to change either, and as long as we have the same expectations and same conditions, digital desktop phones will remain a staple item in inventory. Once again we were reminded that IP isn't the only solution, and not just in rare cases but oftentimes simply because IP phones won't always fit nice and neatly into every business environment.
