Sunderland College
The City of Sunderland College is one of the six largest colleges in England, with approximately 30,000 part-time and 3,500 full-time students.
The college is a multi-centre establishment, with main sites throughout the north east of England. The College has also entered into partnership with local schools and its three main centres to create three new Sixth form colleges. In September 2006 the College opened its brand new £10 million campus at Usworth in Washington, with state of the art facilities.
The challenge
The college network had expanding over time with the network consisting of Category 5 and OM1, 62.5/125 fibre optic cabling.
In order to allow for migration to new and growing technology, an upgrade of the existing system would be required to allow investment in new technologies including Voice over IP, IP CCTV and Gigabit to desk.
Work would require carrying out in its old Victorian style Bede centre, the Hilton centre, Shiney row centre and the new Usworth college site.
The install would be during normal teaching times.
The solution
The system was initially installed at Bede centre where Brand-Rex Category 5e cable was installed supported by a new OM3 fibre optic star topology. All of Advantex engineers have been police cleared to work in education environments.
New inter cabinet Category 6 links were installed allowing gigabit connectivity from the servers to the existing network switches.
Following on from this, expansion work was carried out at all other sites including Usworth where new category 6 was installed.
At Shiney Row, new containment was also required to contain the new data and the power, also installed by Advantex.
All work was carried out working closely with the colleges IT and Communications and Estates department to enable access to class rooms around the classes to reduce disruption to classes and teaching times.
Cables were finally commissioned using Fluke DTX 1800 testers and Optical Time Domain reflectomitor (OTDR) for fibres.
All works were covered by a 25-year manufacturers and labour warranty
The results
New Gigabit certified networks are now implemented to allow the supporting of existing and new technologies.
As the college looks to expand and invest in IP technologies, including Voice over IP, and IP CCTV, the system can grow and expand with the college enabling seamless integration of these new technologies on one IP infrastructure.
Advantex continue to work closely with the College on supporting and expanding the network.
End-To-End Inc
The US Defense Commissary Agency, based in Fort Lee, Virginia operates a world-wide chain of retail sites supplying hundreds of thousands of military personnel, veterans and their families with goods and services in secure surroundings, including dozens of shops and leisure facilities at European military bases.
It outsources the responsibility for all storage handling and data capture capability at these bases, including hundreds of inter-linked cash tills, stock taking and inventory equipment, to US cash-handling giants NCR Corporation.
The challenge
In 2005 a strategic decision was taken to upgrade existing systems to incorporate advanced Cisco-based wireless stock-taking and inventory technology at all the US military bases in the UK and Europe – a total of sixty sites, including six in the UK and 35 in Germany.
The work had to be done within a tight ten month timeframe, overlapping with existing systems to provide seamless integration and with the minimum of disruption to base operations.
The new systems had to be extremely robust, technically sound, cost effective and reliable to cope with heavy 24/7 use by Commissary staff. They would also have to work first time around – low revisits to sites to fix problems and carry out repairs was simply not an option.
The solution
NCR brought in US manufacturer of electronic systems, cables and wired technology, End-To-End Inc to source a European-based partner to install the infrastructure that would carry Cisco Systems’ high speed wireless LAN technology.
It appointed Advantex, who deployed a team of highly trained engineers using the latest AirMagnet laptop-based software to survey every base complex to test signal strength and install the signal relay points in the best places to ensure that the new wireless LANs would operate to maximum efficiency.
Cable infrastructures were then installed to support the Cisco 1200 series WLAN and fully tested utilising Fluke DTX 1800 scanners.
Engineers also fully tested each installation once it had been completed. The 12 month contract was finished ahead of schedule by a six-strong team of locally-based engineers who travelled out to work at each site for periods of up to one month at a time.
The results
The new IT and Communications infrastructure has enabled NCR to migrate to using state-of-the-art hand held wireless scanners to improve the quality and reliability of its automated stock-taking and re-ordering processes at each military base. This has led to savings and greater efficiencies in the logistics supply chain.
The installed WLAN and LAN has also allowed more flexibility for future adds moves and changes within the organisation.
ScS
ScS has been established for over 100 years, and specialise in the sale of lounge room sofas and chairs with over 80 stores nationally.
The upholstery styles and fabrics are now increasingly influenced by the fashion industry. Colours and designs seen on the catwalks of Paris, Milan and the U.S.A. will be reflected in the suites sold by ScS. The selling of fine leather furniture is a particular strength of the Company with over 60% of our turnover being leather sales.
The challenge.
ScS required a new network cabling infastructure for its stores and a security and monitoring system for its warehouses to allow managers to check stock levels and warehouse space remotely and also for internal and external security for the warehouses and a number of stores.
The system would be installed UK wide with images for the security system being archived back to the head office in Sunderland of an evening when the WAN usage by other applications was minimal.
Infrastructure work also needed carrying out to enable access to CCTV images anywhere in the organisation.
The solution.
Following recommendation from Advantex, ScS chose an IP system to allow quick deployment of the systems and adding on of cameras to the system in line with ScS rapid expansion plans.
Advantex initially supplied and installed several Mobotix and Axis IP camera systems at ScS’ Doncaster and Seaham sofa warehouses.
This was followed by further installations at warehouses in east and west London, Edinburgh, Stoke, Coventry, Warrington and Bristol. Plans to put systems into ScS’ network of branches are also being considered.
With its high resolution of 1.3 million pixels and its true colour imaging system, the MOBOTIX network cameras attain a resolution that is twelve times as high as on analogue video systems that are commonly using CIF format. MOBOTIX also features three digital zoom levels and panning.
Following on from the successful implementation of the cameras, new Connectix network cabling infrastructures were installed at ScS Preston, Lincoln, Harlow, Durham, Bridgend, Ipswich and other UK sites. A disaster recovery site was also created at Seaham, county Durham.
The results.
The Mobotix cameras utilise the very latest Internet Protocol (IP) recorder and video management and surveillance technology to provide high quality images and site monitoring.
They will enable recorded images to be downloaded daily to a PC located at each ScS site and then sent via a secure internet link to the firm’s head office in Sunderland where they can be viewed and assessed by management.
This will significantly improve the monitoring and surveillance of unlawful warehouse entry, while leading to improvements in overall security and a significant reduction in the theft of sofas and other furniture from site.
The new network cabling infrastructure allowed reliable connectivity for the data network, the IP CCTV and new IP telecommunications, being implemented throughout 2007.
The Wilton Centre
Voice and Data systems including IP Surveillance.
The Wilton Centre, located next to the Wilton International site is a major process industries complex that was developed as a world-class research and technology facility for its petrochemicals, plastics and advanced materials businesses.
In 1999 the Centre was sold to a property development company and since then has been managed as a multi tenanted technical and business centre.
In 2010 an unused Technical Development Area (TDA) was developed into state of the art Incubator units. Housed within the new facility were ten specialist laboratory/pilot plant units, with associated equipped communal laboratories and meeting rooms, as well as office space for SMEs working on new business opportunities.
The challenge.
The incubator units needed to share the latest IT and Communications facilities fed by the Wilton Centre, however each unit needed separate secure networks suitable for each tenant to operate individually and the project required these systems installing ready for occupation.
There was a requirement to work in conjunction with the Wilton Centre and the main contractor onsite (Mansell Construction) to install this network infrastructure and IT and Communications Systems.
The IT and Communications requirements for this project would require a broad range of experience and skills to deliver Network cabling, Network Switching, IP Surveillance, Network IT Security and Audio Visual systems.
The solution.
Advantex worked closely with Mansell Construction and The Wilton centre to install the network infrastructure which was to support all of the new proposed systems.
Close to completion of the building, Advantex would:
- Install the entire network cabling into the Incubator building extending the core Wilton Network with a high speed fibre link.
- Install and configure managed network switches to securely integrate the Incubator network into the existing Wilton Centre network allowing for Voice, Internet and management of the network from the Wilton Centre.
- Expanded the existing Aruba Wireless Systems to incorporate the Incubator building
- Install all the IT Audio and Visual equipment
- Expand the existing Wilton Centre Mitel Telephone system to include the Incubators
- IP Surveillance systems would be installed to enable state of the art security onsite to allow access to the images anywhere onsite for Wilton centre site.
- Advantex would configure each incubator unit to have a protected virtual network with secure internet access.
The results.
Wilton Centre were able to offer potential Incubator clients a state of the art network infrastructure with access to high speed secure internet access, secure file sharing and storage, IP communications and collaboration, access to presentation systems and network surveillance systems. Advantex were able to provide the Wilton Centre Incubators with all of these facilities.
