We just recently opened a new classroom building on our campus. Like Thomas from Austin College, we had our wiring vendor and wireless reseller involved in the process very early and the construction team and architecture firm were very good about sharing drawings during the final design revisions. Our wireless reseller provided a predictive survey (using AirMagnet, I think) and provided information back to the construction team and architect team, so everything was noted on the drawings before shovels were in the ground. The wiring vendor was good about leaving generous service loops and in the end we didn't really need them -- the initial placement of the APs was very accurate and there was very little movement after the install. The wireless vendor did a survey the day before the building opened to the public for final radio settings and then came back and did a survey in the middle of a regular academic day and in the end there were no changes needed.
We are in the pre-construction phase for another new building and we are approaching it the same way. The access points and network drops are already on the drawings for the conformance set and we expect that the install and testing will go just as smoothly as the last building. Hope this helps, Christopher Christopher Butler, CETL Assistant Head of School for Information Services St. John's Preparatory School http://www.stjohnsprep.org On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 11:25 AM, Thomas Carter <[email protected]> wrote: > We did this a couple of years ago – we shipped CAD drawings of the > building being built to our vendor with info about construction materials, > room use, etc. They gave us back a detailed layout of APs. Once installed, > they came back and did 2 surveys – one with the building empty and one > later with the building under normal use. This was all part of the bid for > wireless for the building. I will say the initial design was pretty > accurate; we had to make minor changes because we forgot to include ceiling > information, and some were moved from hard ceiling locations to dropped > ceiling locations for easier use. > > > > Doing this earlier in the project allowed the cabling for wireless APs to > be included in the network cabling bid so there already was a cable (with a > generous service loop) in the ceiling when we were ready for installation. > The vendor also pre-configured the APs on our controllers prior to > installation for smoother install. This allowed us to do the mounting of > APs ourselves; two people put up 65 APs in about a day and a half and all > were working correctly when they were done. > > > > Thomas Carter > > Network & Operations Manager > > Austin College > > > > *From:* The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Eriks Rugelis > *Sent:* Wednesday, April 13, 2016 9:12 AM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [WIRELESS-LAN] WLAN planning strategy for new buildings? > > > > I would like to hear opinions from this community about how to approach > WLAN planning for new construction projects. We are in the midst of a > constructing a series of new buildings and I am not pleased with the early > results. > > 1. Do you take a stab at a best-guess predictive survey from construction > drawings (AutoCAD) and then do post-build survey and adjustments? (Can > result in sub-optimal initial deployment requiring re-work. How do you > estimate the re-work cost?) > > 2. Do you wait until the new building is standing to create a post-build > survey and deployment? (Can be costly in terms of implementation budget as > well as elapsed time to running service.) > > FWIW, we have several years of internal experience with Ekahau Site Survey > for predictive surveys. However, our ESS-literate staff resources are > spread very thin. So far, we have had trouble identifying competent > contractors to hire for creation predictive surveys on our behalf. It > seems most of them do not understand high-density client workloads such as > are found in typical university buildings. Worse, some do not really > understand Wi-Fi at all. > > 3. If you use ESS: > a) Can you describe your experience with making use of its > auto-import feature for reading AutoCAD files? > b) Can you describe your experience/success with obtaining AutoCAD > models (from your facilities dept.) which classify building materials into > unique layers to ease auto-import by ESS? > > The latest Big Think in the construction industry is BIM (Building > Information Modeling.) Our Facilities Development department has adopted > AutoDesk's Revit tool for creating/managing BIM for new buildings. While > Revit has an export function to create AutoCAD .dwg files, there is a > terrifying degree of flexibility in how this export can be done. > > 4. Do you have any experience in creating AutoCAD exports from Revit BIM > which are suitable for import by Ekahau Site Survey? > > Thanks in advance for your input. > > Eriks > > "In God we trust; all others must bring data." - attributed to W. Edwards > Deming > --- > *Eriks Rugelis | Manager, Network Development | University Information > Technology* > 010 Steacie Science and Engineering Library | York University | 4700 Keele > St. , Toronto ON Canada M3J 1P3 > T: +1.416.736.5756 | F: +1.416.736.5830 | [email protected] | www.yorku.ca > > York UIT will NEVER send unsolicited requests for passwords or other > personal information via email. Messages requesting such information are > fraudulent and should be deleted. <http://www.yorku.ca/> ********** > Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent > Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. > ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE > Constituent Group discussion list can be found at > http://www.educause.edu/groups/. > > ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
