Moving, adding, and changing - Technology Information

Communications News, June, 1999 by David Ebreo

MACsys combines office-system furniture with structured cabling.

If you think back just a few years ago prior to structured cabling, it was very simple to install new telecommunications cabling. There were no stringent distance limitations, no pathway constraints, and no closet requirements. With the introduction of cabling standards--specifically, TIA/EIA-568 and later 568-A and 569--an installer was required to meet more stringent installations standards to protect the integrity of the cabling system and to eliminate the need for constant recabling with the addition of each new application.

As a result of the standards, many companies now have well-defined, structured cabling systems as an integral part of their building structure. While cabling-standards compliance saves an end user from expensive recabling each time a new application is added, it has not addressed the need for flexibility in offices that are subject to constant work-area reconfigurations. That is, until now.

When the Elgin, Ill., school district officials decided the facilities in three high schools--Streamwood, Larkin, and Elgin--needed to be upgraded, they looked to overcome two major concerns for their solution needs. The first concern was the need for an upgraded cabling solution. The second major concern was making sure the system the district chose would be able to accommodate future changes. The answers were found with Design Resource Group International, Inc. (DRG) and The Siemon Company.

In 1993, DRG was formed to fill a market need for high-quality, low-cost office-system furniture with advanced cable management capabilities. The Siemon Company, in business since 1903, has been a world leader in cabling and telecommunications while helping to define today's cabling-industry standards. Together, the DRG/Siemon Company partnership provided the Elgin school district with the perfect solution to meet its needs.

The first challenge the Elgin school district faced was to upgrade the current cabling infrastructure to meet the proposed industry standards tot Category 5E cabling. The next challenge was to incorporate a modular-furniture solution that would accommodate these cabling requirements. Initially, the school system considered separate proposals to support the modular furniture and cabling upgrade. That is, until its administrators looked at DRG which offered one solution for both the furniture and the recabling.

In 1997, DRG and The Siemon Company teamed together to develop MACsys--an integrated solution of modular office furniture and structured cabling. (MACsys takes its name from the industry acronym for Moves, Adds, and Changes.) MACsys offers a series of patent-pending interconnect brackets that mount directly within the furniture panels. Connectors concealed behind removable panel covers provide a neat appearance and convenient access. Brackets can be configured in various port sizes and accommodate Siemon's S110, S210, CT, or MAX series connectors providing a complete line of multimedia options.

MACsys was designed to support the technology needs of today's networked office environment. It can accommodate open-office environments by providing a consolidation-point or multi-user telecommunications outlet, two cabling configurations that are defined in TIA/E1A TSB75. These cabling schemes are supported by MACsys to provide businesses with powerful design alternatives to save time and cost of installation and subsequent office reconfigurations. The standards-based consolidation point supports various media including UTP, ScTP, coax, and fiber. In addition, space within the modular framework for cable service loops allows it to support future relocation efforts.

The Elgin school district project entailed three separate buildings, consisting of 34 rooms comprising a total of 397 workstations. The primary applications that the Elgin school district needed to run were voice and Ethernet. "Initially, the Elgin School district officials were apprehensive about MACsys and DRG, but when they actually got to see MACsys in action, they were extremely impressed with the wiring capability that was wide open for adjustments," says Jim Pease. Pease, from the Larson Equipment & Furniture Company, handled the sale of the furniture system to the school district. "DRG offered an equal or superior product at a price that was considerably less than the competition."

Each workstation was cabled with one Category 5E cable and one Category 3 cable, terminated to Siemon's S110 patch plugs connected to the rear of Category 5E angled CT couplers for plug-and-play capabilities. Each consolidation point was set up to service four to 12 users.

Attention to future moves, adds, and/or changes attracted the Elgin school district to MACsys. The Elgin school district is a growing region, one that sees annual increases in school population. Naturally, with an influx of students, the school district must keep up with faculty numbers and computer resources. "When maintenance in the Elgin school district couldn't keep up wan continuing expansion, Lohbauer Electric was brought in to handle the major expansion. Now, maintenance will be able to perform moves, adds, and changes due to the ease of MACsys," says Mike Kimbro from Lohbauer Electric, Inc., which does all of the installations for the school district. "We were installing 20-25 mobile classrooms a year due to the rapid expansion of the school district. For four years, we had a second shift just to do moves, adds, and changes."