Modular Office System Offers Flexibility and Fosters Faculty Member Collaboration

As noted by Arlyn S. Powell, Jr. in the May 1999 issue of Cabling Installation and Maintenance, the open office has emerged as one of the major problems facing the communications cabling industry. Work areas are being designed on the modular concept with movable partitions that can be changed at will to accommodate new tasks. But each move, add or change (MAC) in workstation floor plans can require substantial and costly MACs for the cabling infrastructure supporting power, telephones, network computing, e-mail, printers and other intelligent peripherals.

As noted by Arlyn S. Powell, Jr. in the May 1999 issue of Cabling Installation and Maintenance, the open office has emerged as one of the major problems facing the communications cabling industry. Work areas are being designed on the modular concept with movable partitions that can be changed at will to accommodate new tasks. But each move, add or change (MAC) in workstation floor plans can require substantial and costly MACs for the cabling infrastructure supporting power, telephones, network computing, e-mail, printers and other intelligent peripherals.

The Elgin Experience

These concerns were very much on the mind of Elgin, Ill., school district officials as we embarked on a plan to upgrade work areas for faculty members. Plans called for dedicated areas where teachers of like curricula can meet and interact, yet have their own private workstations equipped to access internal and external information resources.

The first task was a complete upgrade of each school’s cabling infrastructure. We looked for a solution based on the industry standards for category 5e cabling to support Ethernet LANs (local area networks). Each faculty member’s work area was to be equipped with high-speed access to the Internet and the district’s own information resources, with a phone line and ample power supplies.

Like most of the nation’s school districts, Elgin is growing, meaning a like growth in the faculty and its need to access information resources. This called for a flexible system that allows office configurations to easily adapt to expanding requirements. For this reason, we decided on modular office furniture. At first, our plan was to separate the cabling project upgrade from furniture procurement. That changed when our vendor, Larson Equipment & Furniture Company, introduced us to a solution that incorporated TSB75-compliant cabling in a high quality, economically priced, modular furniture system.

Larson’s Jim Pease said that until recently, the modular office furniture industry has either ignored or inadequately addressed the tremendous influx of technology into the workplace. He explained that many systems on the market today have cable management capabilities based on the way offices were designed 10 or 20 years ago. The result is that wiring and cabling quickly become unmanageable. Because of this, MACs are not only costly, they can result in damaged cabling systems and substandard network performance.

Cable Management

The furniture we decided on is called MACsys. It is the result of a partnership between Design Resource Group International (DRG), Carlstadt, N.J., and The Siemon Company in Watertown, Conn. MACsys takes its name from the MACs it accommodates through a straightforward plug-and-play design. According to DRG’s president Mark Bassil, it is the first system on the market that fully complies with all current horizontal-cabling standards, including TSB75. The Siemon Company, established in 1903, is a leading manufacturer of telecommunications cabling systems and connecting hardware.

The voice, data and power cable management capabilities of this design were particularly attractive to the Elgin school district, especially when coupled with a very competitive price. We were familiar with the significant costs that are incurred when MACs are made to accommodate new personnel or department expansion. Indeed, for four years our local cabling contractor had a second shift dedicated to these activities. Now, instead of rerouting or installing new cables from a telecommunications closet to the work area, a technician can access the pre-installed service loops of cable slack built into the panels and reroute from that point. This eases the installation of added work areas and decreases the cost and time spent on additional installations.

The MACsys design incorporates a series of interconnect brackets mounted directly within furniture panels. These brackets can be configured in various port sizes and can accommodate either a Consolidation Point (CP) supporting a zoned infrastructure, or a Multi User Telecommunications Outlet Assembly (MuTOA) type of architecture. Cabling interconnections are concealed behind removable panel covers to provide a neat appearance while allowing convenient access. Ample space is also provided for cable service loops to support future relocation efforts.

The Elgin project uses a zoned cabling design. Horizontal cabling is extended from work area outlets to consolidation points — the interconnect brackets located within panels that make up the workstation clusters in each faculty office area. The CPs, in turn, interconnect with the school’s horizontal voice and data cabling infrastructure within telecommunications closets. The unique "plug and play" design is so simple it can be quickly mastered, meaning that school maintenance personnel can handle in very short order the MACs that previously required hours or days by trained technicians. This means significantly lower operating costs over the lifetime of the installation.

Conclusion

The Elgin School District project provided 397 workstations in 34 faculty rooms at three high schools. Each workstation is cabled with one Category 5e cable for Ethernet to provide high-speed data access and one Category 3 cable for phone service. These cables terminate in interconnect bracket consolidation points mounted in the furniture panels. Each consolidation point services four to 12 workstations.

The facilities themselves have proven to be a hit with faculty as a place to interact with their curricula peers and as a dedicated private office from which to conduct school business. Financially it has been a smart move as well, with top tier design and construction at a very economical price. Perhaps most importantly, as the inevitable MACs mount up, the cost of accommodating them will remain low.

Richard Long
Director of Business Services
School District U-46, Elgin, Ill.


 

Contact Information:

DRG International
www.drginternational.com

Larson Equipment & Furniture,
Palatine, IL.
(847) 705-0460

The Siemon Company
www.siemon.com

Featured

  •  classroom scene with students gathered around a laptop showing a virtual tour interface

    Discovery Education Announces Spring Lineup of Free Virtual Field Trips

    This Spring, Discovery Education is collaborating with partners such as Warner Bros., DC Comics, National Science Foundation, NBA, and more to present a series of free virtual field trips for K-12 students.

  • glowing padlock shape integrated into a network of interconnected neon-blue lines and digital nodes, set against a soft, blurred geometric background

    3 in 4 Administrators Expect a Security Incident to Impact Their School This Year

    In an annual survey from education identity platform Clever, 74% of administrators admitted that they believe a security incident is likely to impact their school system in the coming year. That's up from 71% who said the same last year.

  • horizontal stack of U.S. dollar bills breaking in half

    ED Abruptly Cancels ESSER Funding Extensions

    The Department of Education has moved to close the door on COVID relief funding for schools, declaring that "extending deadlines for COVID-related grants, which are in fact taxpayer funds, years after the COVID pandemic ended is not consistent with the Department’s priorities and thus not a worthwhile exercise of its discretion."

  • pattern of icons for math and reading, including a pi symbol, calculator, and open book

    HMH Launches Personalized Path Solution

    Adaptive learning company HMH has introduced HMH Personalized Path, a K-8 ELA and math product that combines intervention curriculum, adaptive practice, and assessment for students of all achievement levels.