From a VAR perspective, keeping customer costs down can be frustrating because customers always want more--and for less. Taking the approach of a global retailer that pushes its suppliers to cut quality and compromise on product to afford lower prices isn't going to work either.
I've noted before that I love the smell of new construction. New construction work is a lot different than renovation work or adding to existing infrastructure. In the work itself, there are still processes that can be improved without sacrificing quality or compromising the product. The balance is trading off costs, and this is where you must carefully examine the costs of labor vs. tools and whether those tools or methods provide an advantage, so that you can deliver a solution for lower cost.
In a prior post: Campus Paging: Introducing Algo, I commented that, "Physical installation can be a challenge that adds labor, and of course depends on how well concealed the patch cord, jack and cabling is in each location." This labor is what drives cost up, and being prepared for the installation environment is what can help deter those costs, by knowing the materials or the construction type such as the walls: drywall, brick or block. Since we do a lot of (school) campus work, there's a lot of block work and different kinds, dating from the 1940s to newer era, and there's a difference.
We installed emergency alerters for a test drive, and since then we've decided on how to deploy masses of alerters in a campus. Using a single-gang surface-mounting box on the wall, we use a cordless DeWalt 20V hammer drill with some nifty drill bits to knock out two holes in minutes for mounting the boxes. The surface mount box provides stability against the block or brick surfaces that is hard to achieve from direct-mounting the alerters. We then attach the alerter directly to the mounting box and leave the jack insert, cable bundle and 1 foot patch cable inside the box. Panduit (plastic or metal) is easily connected to the mounting box to house and conceal the cable from the ceiling.
In new construction, when cabling is laid, some cabling contractors are repeatedly making key mistakes when providing drops in the ceiling grid. The drops are for overhead short-throw projectors and WiFi access points. First, they fail to terminate the cable at the endpoint using a modular 568-B/568-B insert with a biscuit jack. Instead they terminate the cable with an end, and this is unacceptable for a structured wiring plant.
The other issue is not providing a label on the ceiling grid to note the location of the drop. This can add up to as much as an additional 15-20 minutes, with an installer moving a ladder around trying to find the drop.
The last note about access points is the type of cable used. Access points will be another moving target, meaning they will get replaced sooner than later. Unfortunately, as the capabilities of the APs grow, will the cable connected to them be able to support the new and improved APs? As a minimum, the cable needs to be plenum rated regardless of the fire code; it's an old song worth repeating: heat in the grid and walls decreases performance using PVC. Then should you use Cat5E, Cat6, Cat6A or something else? Because bandwidth and throughput will improve/increase, moving to higher grade cabling for WiFi access points is prudent.
For companies that install cable, I've used Bergstrom Manufacturing's "The Pole" and it's a time-saver and a well-thought-out product that uses a "loop" to attach the cable. Additionally, the rods are smooth and don't splinter like some fiberglass rods. The first rods to attach are lighter and as you attach more rods they become heavier and without a lot of effort I could easily push to 36 feet.
When I heard about Berk-Tek's new SmartPak, a 1,500-foot length of LAN cable in-a-box, I wondered why 1,500 feet and not the traditional 1,000. Berk-Tek says that there is less scrap, less labor, and that more drops can be installed with a 1,500-foot box of wire than a 1000-foot box of wire. Their online savings calculator is here.
Another really cool minor innovation is when ICC came out with the EZ Connectors that are modular jacks for LAN, and had two changes. First, the jacks can be purchased in bags of 25 vs. jacks in individual bags, and then the wire-pair layout on the jacks is faster because of the color sequence used and because of the improved jack design.
These are subtle things and yet with the right tools, the right materials and the right method of installation, costs can be decreased
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