Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1347119
54 I ICT TODAY "Not only did the project require one type of cabling, but the goal was also to conceal the cabling. This required innovative pathways with a 7-inch raised floor system on almost every floor, overhead cable tray in dropped ceiling locations and strategic use of rigid conduit to support and conceal the cabling for devices through- out," says Mobach. "Being able to directly plug into devices like the PoE lighting nodes helped us eliminate visible cables and the need for boxes and outlets." While the use of field-terminated plugs helped ease the installation, the complexity of the lighting system required a unique skill set and coordination among manufacturers and both electrical and low-voltage installers. "Nothing was standard from a lighting perspective, and we had to ensure that we had the right PoE wattage for every fixture. Even where we had fixtures that were the same, we had to calculate the wattage due to different lengths," says Sandman. "While it was unique and complicated, we learned a lot and really became experts in PoE lighting." Because the project used a "PoE of Everything" concept, ensuring superior remote powering support was a critical requirement. This included selecting a cable qualified for mechanical reliability in high temperature environments up to 75° C (167° F), which ensures superior heat dissipation to reduce heat buildup within cable bundles delivering remote power that can lead to performance degradation. Because the connectivity also needed to ensure support for PoE, the jacks selected for the project feature a crowned jack contact shape that allows users to connect and disconnect devices under PoE load with zero risk of connector damage from electrical arcing. Even the field-terminated plugs utilized a fully shielded, 360-degree enclosure and 75°C (167° F) While the use of field-terminated plugs helped ease the installation, the complexity of the lighting system required a unique skill set and coordination among manufacturers and both electrical and low-voltage installers. operating temperature that improves heat dissipation for PoE. The fiber optic backbone infrastructure throughout the facility also had to be robust enough to transmit large amounts of data from the variety of systems throughout the building. A combination of singlemode and multimode fiber cabling systems were deployed from the entrance facility up to the main equipment room on the fifth floor and back down to telecommunications spaces and the four below-grade levels that feature parking and locker rooms. "We needed a 40 Gig backbone to support all of the data, and we were especially bottlenecked by high-end digital signage throughout the facility. We ended up deploying 48 strands of singlemode and 48 strands of multimode for the backbone," says Mobach. "We also implemented complete redundancy with four different service providers coming into the building through diverse entrances with their equipment housed in a separate meet-me room set-up, as well as two backbones coming into each telecommunications room." DELIVERING ON-TIME INNOVATION While the planning and design for a fully integrated intelligent building is challenging enough, it also took a strong partner ecosystem to effectively deliver the solution and meet the owner's unique requirements within the aggressive time schedule. One area of the new facility features a laboratory environment for life science customers, complete with custom, prewired mobile benches. Featuring an open ceiling environment, the cabling runs neatly through custom cable trays and conduit designed to circumvent HVAC, gas, and other systems.