Cables, the cheapest cause of delay
No project stalls on a five-euro cable, until it does. This category sits at the bottom of every quotation and at the top of every list of reasons a handover happened a day later.
What falls under it
Five kinds, and one of them is not an order
The first four come out of a box. The fifth needs somebody with a tester.
- Network and patch cablesCat6 or Cat6A, in the length that fits. Too long is as much of a nuisance as too short and is ordered more often.
- Display cablesHDMI and DisplayPort. Over long distances and at high resolutions the cable really is a specification: a cheap ten-metre cable gives no picture and no error message.
- USB and connectivity materialThe category most of which gets thrown away. USB-C is one plug with a handful of different capabilities behind it, and that cannot be seen on the cable.
- Power cablesThe cables at the back of the rack. Colour and length are tools here: a cabinet where cables are coloured by function is minutes faster during an incident.
- Fibre and installation materialPatch panels, wall outlets and the trunk between them. This is installation work, and the handover should include a test report.
When it is more than an order
Three cases that call for a measurement
In all three, "it fits" is no proof that it works.
- New cabling in a buildingAn installation that has to perform at Cat6A should be handed over certified. Without a report nobody knows whether it meets the standard, and a complaint about slowness cannot be traced.
- An existing building with complaintsFifteen-year-old cabling with last year’s switch on it is the most common cause of unexplained faults. Measuring costs a day and saves a guess.
- Long HDMI runs in a hallBeyond ten metres, video is a design question: an active cable, a converter to network or to fibre. Trying it on the spot is the expensive way to find out.
What belongs with this
Cabling is the underlayer of the network and of the rooms.
Cabling that has been measured
Tell us which building it concerns and what is in place now. You get a proposal with, where it is needed, a measurement and a report alongside.
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