University of Brighton gets top grade with 3M structured cabling

“In one of the university’s newest building on our Falmer campus, Mayfield House (which is part of the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, a joint partnership between the universities of Brighton and Sussex), we have had around 1,600 3M connection sockets installed and in the three years that the network has been operational, there has not been a single fault in the structured cabling system,” states Charles. “We also strictly adhere to current, proven standards and only use expert installers who have been thoroughly trained in installing to these standards.” Fred Rossington, MD of Computer Networking & Cabling (CNC Ltd) - the company that installed the voice and data cabling in Mayfield House and a long-established supplier to the university - comments, “I believe that 3M makes the best termination equipment on the market. Its simple design mechanics gives consistent quality and it has the least failure rate in terminations compared to any other make I have tried. Coupled with the thinner Cat 6 copper cable that 3M supplies – which enables increased cables to be run in any given trunking - I can be confident that the networks we install using the 3M range of products will meet both the required capacity and level of reliability expected by the most demanding customer.”

The University of Brighton is renowned for its Arts Faculty and Medical School, both of which can involve students and tutors transferring very large files across the structured cabling network. For Mayfield House, the university opted for a fibre optic structured cabling ‘backbone’, linking the three floors in the building with the connection sockets distributed around Mayfield House, for data and voice traffic linked to routers in the communications rooms by Category 6 copper cabling.

Rather than students thinking there was a problem with the network if they plugged into a spare socket that had not been wired up, the university now has a policy of connecting all socket outlets to the data network, unless another service has been specified for an outlet. The network reaches everywhere, even including the groundsman’s hut and canteen.

“In addition to being mindful of industry recommendations for the density of sockets per unit of floor space, our aim is to ‘future-proof’ the network by going for the maximum install within budget, so that any changes in the use of the rooms or building layout can be accommodated without major re-wiring” says Charles. “This is called ‘flood-wiring’ and we look to install an average of three structured cabling sockets for each work space. In addition, we ask for each room to have two further sockets as spare.” says Charles.

With such a density of sockets, clear organisation is critical. The university’s communications rooms on each floor of the building are full of racks of patch panels, so CNC’s thorough and consistent labelling of every connection, not to mention making sure that work is carried out tidily, is essential.

The Mayfield House network comprises of approx 80,000 metres of copper cabling, 70 patch panels and 3,200 connectors supplied by 3M, yet until the year 2000, neither the university nor CNC were using the 3M structured cabling products.

“We had been considering moving to 3M structured cabling solutions for a while and when we enquired about the availability of 3M Cat 6 products and described the predicament we were in, the response was incredible”, says Fred. “All the stops were pulled out, existing product movements were diverted and 24 hours later, the required 3M cabling and termination products were delivered on site!”

“It was the first of many 3M Cat 6 structured cabling networks that CNC has since installed, and indeed was the first 3M Cat 6 installation at the time too. Combined with excellent technical support and training from 3M, we have never looked back since that day. Our relationship with Brighton University has strengthened on the basis of our ability to deliver reliable structured cabling networks.”

 “We want suppliers we can trust to ‘fit and forget’” concludes Charles. “In other words, we like installers who can give us a network that is unnoticed and just works, guaranteed.”