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Shop building racks vs. onsite onstruction

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Brad Weber:
Two points to possibly consider.  One is that if you work in some geographic areas then the Union E.C. will be pulling all cable and terminating it.  Period, end of discussion.  Another is that assembling and testing the racks in the shop offers some benefits and is often required by Consultants.  I don't know what your future plans are but if they may involve either of those situations then they could be factors.

I think it may also depend on the systems involved.  For instance, if you are dealing with AMX or Crestron control systems then building racks in the shop and even mocking up some of the connectivity to other components such as projectors can let the control system programming be tested and tweaked prior to going on site.

A division of the Contractor I worked for designed and installed the International Broadcast Centers for the Atlanta, Nagano and Sydney Olympics.  For Atlanta, since it was local much of the IBC was site built, however after the games were over they simply 'Sawzalled' through the cables (something like 16 semi loads worth) at the racks and loaded the racks on trucks.  After that experience, for Nagano and Sydney the venues there were mocked up in a warehouse here and palletized 'modularized' systems were completely built and tested here in Atlanta before being broken into the component modules and shipped overseas to be put back together on site.

Tom Young:
Quote:
Two points to possibly consider. One is that if you work in some geographic areas then the Union E.C. will be pulling all cable and terminating it. Period, end of discussion. Another is that assembling and testing the racks in the shop offers some benefits and is often required by Consultants. I don't know what your future plans are but if they may involve either of those situations then they could be factors.


Good points.

While the work I see on projects done in greater/metro NYC by the electricians can be very good, you do not want them terminatng to the rear panels of the equipment, or rather it is less daunting when they terminate the external wiring to shop-fabricated (and tested) termination panels at the rear of the racks. Our shop folks are more adept at routing, bundling and terminating within rack enclosures and the conditions within the shop allow for more delicacy.

Most of our consultant-designed projects require shop inspection during which we demonstrate that signals derived from within or fed into the rack are present and at appropriate levels, etc. at the outputs of the racks, or groups of racks.

FWIW

Brad Weber:
Tom Young wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 18:10
While the work I see on projects done in greater/metro NYC by the electricians can be very good, you do not want them terminatng to the rear panels of the equipment, or rather it is less daunting when they terminate the external wiring to shop-fabricated (and tested) termination panels at the rear of the racks. Our shop folks are more adept at routing, bundling and terminating within rack enclosures and the conditions within the shop allow for more delicacy.

The other option is to have the E.C. terminate to panels with pigtails out of the rack to those panels.

Tom Young wrote on Tue, 25 January 2011 18:10
Most of our consultant-designed projects require shop inspection during which we demonstrate that signals derived from within or fed into the rack are present and at appropriate levels, etc. at the outputs of the racks, or groups of racks.

Quite frankly, the main reason I require it is after running into a series of projects where the systems were not ready when they were supposed to be due to DOA, improperly operating or damaged equipment that had been sitting in the shop for weeks but was never even unboxed until everything was assembled in the field, at which point it was too late to address the problems in a timely manner.  Build the racks in the shop and make sure everything works and passes signal in advance and you then have time to address any such issues that do come up even if you can't get on site until the last minute.

When I was with a Contractor we built the racks in the shop whenever possible.  Along with better work space, another advantage to this was that it meant not needing to have as much parts inventory on the trucks (blank and vent panels, rack screws, lacing bars, etc.) and less of not having the parts needed at hand.

Al Clayton:
Great discussion guys. Lots of good stuff here. Just what I was hoping for.

Re: Union EC's pulling and terminating, I have found that it's a 50-50 proposition. Sometimes you get a guy who knows what he's doing, other times you get some H.S. dropout, flunky, apprentice who doesn't know a soldering Iron from a screwdriver...which is why I like my guys to do the terminations.

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