Imagine how long it took to do this..

[video:youtube][/video]

I wonder if the other side is just as pretty?

Looks pretty but will it work? Ty-raps with long parallel runs and trying to patch all that to switches will be a nightmare.

I guess if I had 120 hours just to dress and terminate some drops I could do it real pretty, too. Three whole weeks! Three whole DAYS is what I'm normally budgeted, possible or not. .Most of the time, my dispatcher is banging on me halfway through for a completion time so I can start the next job.

So... what happens in a few years, when all that's in use, and they decide to wire in that last bit at the bottom? setting the next guy up for failure, there...

It's an absolutely beautiful install and should not be criticized. The cost of the install is more than offset by the positive publicity.

Sam

I must be the only one that thinks it NOT a good install.

We NEVER use zip-ties on anything above Cat5e, because it's not the zip ties that are bad for the cable but the cinching can cause damage.

I agree with Sam. This installation is absolutely stunning, even if it was nine years ago. Yes, adding cables later will likely destroy what was otherwise a beautiful installation. As for the cable tie debate: They don't appear to be overly tight and besides that's the least of their worries here. What goes on in front is where the real debacle begins.

I have to agree. Reminds me of the old Bell System days when installers and techs took pride in their work.


Yeah. I want to see the other side after the IT "professionals" got to it.

-Hal

I have seen pictures like that for a number of years. I wonder how far back, along the bundle, does the installer go, to get the cables in the correct orientation? The part we see looks perfect, but that perfection cannot possible go all the way to the other end, can it?

Is it a case of the cables having been terminated at this end, randomly? And then labelled at the far end? How could one possibly get them to look that good, and also be in the correct order?

Inquiring (but not OCD) minds want to know.

I did think it strange that there are no labels on those cables.

-Hal

The labels on on the front of that patch panel...that should be good enough, until...

While I've never done a project nearly that large, my larger ones (typically 100-200 cables max.) were usually marked/taped together in sets of six cables as they were being pulled. This was pretty easy to do as the reels/boxes were set up in groups of six. Since the patch panels we were using had the blocks configured in groups of six, dressing it up wasn't too difficult to do. One guy that I worked with actually made us throw in one odd color per six cables as a 'racing stripe' so that our lacing skills could be quickly critiqued and redone.

We also made it a point to keep the cable length to an absolute minimum, as in within a foot or two of termination. This saved a bunch of sorting time. Lastly, keeping them loosely bundled in groups of six with backward electrical tape made it easy to keep it as 'sortable' as possible when termination time came.

After the cables left the room and into the closed ceiling spaces, it was anything goes. Yes, we even did stoop as low as not following any fixed location numbering order at the station end if it meant that the switch room looked perfect. As long as the jacks were properly labeled, nobody complained.

I concur with Ed on this one. To insist that the station ends be in sequential order would be virtually impossible to do when the patch panel is terminated so remarkably. I also suspect that this install required the use of a cable comb beginning somewhere prior to the observable cable rack.

Nothing wrong with that as long as the numbers match up on both ends.

No matter the end, its satisfying to get your port number and find it in a decent office.

Aisle 1 rack 1, bay 1, port 24. 101.1.24 x 101.2.1.43? Yesss.