Cabling Must-Haves for Your New Office Building
Have you thought about moving offices? Making a good decision on your data-structured cabling service is an often overlooked aspect when someone is building (or moving into) an office. It’s more important than every other room, so it should be considered.
It’s essential for businesses to consider voice and data cabling, even though this sector is often neglected when it comes to setting up a new office. Worry not; we’re here to help!
Points to Consider Before Moving to Your New Office Space
Check if you have the blueprint
Do you have an office space plan or a set of blueprints? If so, you should have a diagram that illustrates where your voice and data connections can be placed safely and according to the building code. Your structured network will flow across the entire office infrastructure. It will not be limited to an assigned data center.
If your project is large, it would be best to contact a data cabling service or an engineering firm specializing in communications. With a blueprint of the network layout and building infrastructure, the data cable installer will proceed to identify the physical requirements. This includes the number of additional devices, cables, and bandwidth. A professional will take into consideration an infrastructure to protect the cables from wear and tear, dust, and temperature variations.
Multiple connections for voice and data can become quite complicated if you don’t know what you’re doing, so make sure that you contact the professionals!
Before you move forward with an installation, making a plan is essential. This will help avoid any rough patches in the future.
Make room for your network room
Apart from this, when designing your network or wiring room, always make sure you have the right amount of space. Future growth is inevitable, and without enough space, you’ll end up cramming all your equipment into a small area, leading to problems down the line.
When figuring out how much space you need, it’s essential to make sure you have an open stepladder to access all sides of the rack. Adding more shelves or cabinets with time is also a good option. Don’t forget to account for that in your initial allotted space.
Choose the correct cable type
There are many types of cables, but Cat 5e and Cat 6 are essentially the same. There is one difference between the two. Cat5e is for networks where bandwidth needs to be at 100MHz or less, whereas Cat6 is for networks where bandwidth needs to be at 1Gbit/s or higher.
With the cost of Cat 6 cable not as different from that of Cat 5e, you have an added measure of future-proofing, and your data transmission will keep improving.
Decide your office network type
Office IT networks use either wireless, wired, or hybrid networks. Depending on the specific requirements, you can choose the one that suits your office environment best. To make it easy for you, we are going to discuss each network cabling type in brief:
- Wired: Wired networks require physical connections and cables, which can be faster than wireless but more challenging to arrange in your workspace. Out-of-office setups would be more difficult to set up too.
- Wireless: Wireless networks are run off on a radio wave called Wi-Fi. By taking away cables, the coverage area for Wi-Fi is much better overall. It allows you to place access points that can be customized so certain areas within your building can have better coverage.
- Hybrid: A hybrid network cable combines the best of both worlds by combining all the different tools in your arsenal and putting them to use in an efficient, easy-to-manage way. On the one hand, employees can take advantage of trustworthy speed when necessary, such as sending large files or working during prime internet traffic hours. Not only can they move around freely, but remote work is also easier to manage and less stressful to organize.
Contacting experts is a good choice
It can be an intimidating task to create the correct network cabling setup for your business. The many aspects involved require strong IT skills and planning your devices plays a significant role in the future of your office and the budget. Professionals are proven to give small businesses a lot of benefits. These benefits typically include faster network speeds, data cable management, maintenance requirements, reliability, and performance improvements in other areas.
What You Need to Set Up Your New Office
Structured cabling
The total quality of your business’s need for a structured telecommunications infrastructure has become necessary. Structured cabling is easy and takes less time to have a setup that fits your specific needs. Structured cabling provides a wide variety of uses. For example, this cabling system can be used to connect telephone services and data transmission through a computer network.
Network cabling systems should not be device dependent and have features for flexibility and scalability. The future of your business will require stable, scalable solutions that can adapt to any future changes in the industry, and structured cabling will help you achieve that.
Voice and data cabling
Communication is vital to any organization. Voice, video, data, and electronic cabling are all essential cabling systems that you will need. Connection speed can be frustrating when slow or spotty. You want fast and clear communication, so make sure you have a sound system installed, and it is done correctly.
Server rooms
Your server room is often isolated and dark. But that doesn’t mean it’s less important than the rest of your business. In fact, IT staff need to have access to vital services like backups, maintenance, and upgrades. Systems built on a cheap and weak foundation like this often cost you more in the long run and put your equipment at risk. They also tend to slow down quickly and offer low-quality service.
Voice and data cabling
Communication is essential to any business. For internal and inter-office communications, voice, video, data, and some types of electronic cabling are all important. Any loss of connectivity can interrupt workflow, and therefore data cabling installation and equipment must be up-to-date and correct.
WI-FI access
As the next generation of data users emerge, so will the increased need for a Wi-Fi solution for your office or facility. A great way to ensure successful Wi-Fi deployment is a Wi-Fi survey. A Wi-Fi survey will provide information about the environmental and technical aspects needed to devise a successful team leader for this project.
The right cables
Coaxial cables are the most common cable used in homes and offices. They provide a way to transmit signals between different devices with the help of an electric current.
The right cables are essential for every home and office. It is also important to know that not all coaxial cables are created equally. There are various coaxial cables, each with its specifications and use cases.
Some coaxial cable types include CAT (Coaxial Cable Assemblies), shielded twisted pair, etc. Shielded twisted pair is a cable that consists of four pairs of wires twisted around each other to protect from external interference and noise.
We know that setting up your new office is not an easy task. Hiring an IT service expert can help you with all your office needs. They can help you save time and have fewer chances of facing setbacks in the future.
Follow the outlined points above, and you’ll be up and running in no time!
There are a lot of factors to be considered when shifting to a new office. Other than the internal cost of convenience, there is something else to keep in mind: parking availability, hot water availability, and electricity costs.
Have you thought about moving offices? Making a good decision on your data-structured cabling system is an often overlooked aspect when someone is building (or moving into) an office. It’s more important than every other room, so it should get the same consideration.
Worry not; we’re here to help! Contact Priority Networks Inc today for your networking and data cabling needs!