Structured cabling in Calgary. Tested means a light went green. Certified means we measured it.
Most cabling quotes stop once the cable is plugged in and finished off. Ours ends with a certification report for every drop, measured against the standard on a Fluke Versiv DSX-5000. That report is what tells you the cable will still carry what you put on it in five years.
Four numbers a cheap tester will never give you.
Against the 90m limit
A permanent link has a hard limit on length. A run that goes over it works fine until the day it does not.
Margin in decibels
How much spare signal is left above the standard. When there is little spare, the fault turns up months later, once the network gets busy.
Every pair, in order
Split pairs and swapped wires pass a simple continuity test. They fail a real one.
Insertion loss curve
We measure it across the whole frequency range, not at one point.
Planned, labelled and documented.
- We work out how many drops you need, meaning the cable outlets on the wall, from the drawings and from what will plug in. We add spare capacity for the desk you move in a year.
- Cat 6A is our default cable. It costs a little more and carries a lot more.
- We label the patch panels to match the floor plan, so a port number means something to the next person.
- We comb the cable runs out neatly instead of bunching them, and keep them away from anything that would push electrical noise into them.
- We work out the PoE budget, the power the switch sends down the network cables, before we pick the switch. Not on the day we turn it on.
- A rack you would be happy to open in front of a landlord, an insurer or the next IT company.
Every jack, by hand
On a hotel tower in Calgary every single jack in the building was terminated and certified on the Fluke. The reports came out the same way yours will. One per drop, yours to keep.
Before you ask.
Is Cat 6A worth it over Cat 6?
On a new install, usually yes. The cable is a small part of the cost and the labour is the same either way, so you get the extra headroom for the price of the wire. On a short retrofit run it matters less, and we will say so.
Can you work in an occupied building?
Yes, and it is most of what we do. At design stage we find the rooms that cannot go offline during the day, and we work around them.
Do you do fibre as well?
Yes, including fusion splicing and OTDR testing. When a run is too long for copper, or has to cross between buildings, we design the fibre in from the start rather than bolt it on later.
What if a run fails certification?
We fix it and re-certify it. That is the point of testing to a standard rather than to a green light.
Start with the drawing.
We place every drop, work out the PoE budget, and build the install quote from that plan instead of guessing.