June 27, 2014July 22, 2014 by Matt Seaton

London Central Build Blog – Week 24

Week 24 has seen major headway made on the installation of power and network containment systems which run from the buildings core through to each data hall. Great care was taken during the design phase of this project to ensure cable runs were accessible, free flowing and direct. The cable basket which is being employed throughout the facility provides an incredibly flexible method of cable distribution, from centralised core services right through to the rack level.

Spine basket for data runs to ground floor cold corridor

Another look at containment in the electrical intake room

Overhead cable containment installation in electrical intake area, for generators and UPS power feeds

Cable basket as it nears the data floors

This week has also seen the undertaking of roadworks outside of our facility, as Virgin Media Business become the first of our multiple fibre providers to enter the building. VM Business will be supplying us with major high speed fibre services, which will form a large part of our highly resilient core network and global connectivity services.

McNicholas engineers undertaking roadworks outside our London Central facility, for Virgin Media fibre

McNicholas engineers undertaking roadworks outside our London Central facility, for running VM Business fibre

Engineering works by McNicholas

Our new private road-side ducting and manhole

June 19, 2014July 8, 2014 by Matt Seaton

London Central Build Blog – Week 23

Works continue in earnest this week, with completion of the ground floor lighting and fantastic progress on shell construction on the first floor. The lighting rig is now active on its occupancy detectors, part of our green lighting commitment.

Once structural works have been completed on the first floor, an almost identical work set will be carried out, including the installation of the ceiling, lighting and containment systems. From there forwards, the pace of things coming together will speed up dramatically, with decoration and technical works running ahead with no interruptions.

Lighting installed into ceiling grid

First floor shell works continue

Klik boxes which allows for highly flexible lighting connections

Ground floor lighting switched on and tested

June 13, 2014July 7, 2014 by Matt Seaton

London Central Build Blog – Week 22

Progressions have been made in the ground floor data hall and warehouse areas this week, with the installation of the hung ceiling and the lighting system.

The main lighting conduit installed above the ceiling void

A look at the junction points towards the front of the data hall, with the laser alignment tool in view

VOIP phone and key switch points in ground floor data hall

PIR motion sensors to control zoned lighting system in an ecological fashion

Cabling run into lighting rig conduit

Coiled lighting power cables ready for routing back to power distribution room

A look at the containment installations above ceiling void

A look up the developing lift shaft to the first floor data hall

Construction of shell continues on first floor

Tile installation begins in ground floor ceiling grid

Tile installation reaching completion

June 6, 2014July 7, 2014 by Matt Seaton

London Central Build Blog – Week 21

Structural works in the first floor data hall are really taking shape now, with completion of the shell expected in the next two weeks. This will be a huge leap forwards in terms of site readiness, and will lead directly onto technical installations such as the cooling and fire suppression systems.

Our network technicians have also been hard at work pulling and terminating the structured cabling in the office / non-technical side of the facility.

Ground floor data hall as ceiling is installed below bulkhead

Completed ceiling grid in ground floor data hall

Delivery of materials for first floor data hall structural works

A look across the first floor data hall as works begin

Assembly of rear enclosure for air intakes beginning to take shape

The first floor windows are being replaced with custom made louvred panels

Customer access points ready for termination in Customer Lounge

Cat6a ready for termination using new tool-less technology

Top of lift shaft installed over first floor data hall entry point

A look across the first floor data hall as structural works progress

Weather proof board is used in ‘cold-corridor’ sections as cold external air will be processed and cleaned here

One of the side walls being fully enclosed

May 29, 2014July 7, 2014 by Matt Seaton

London Central Build Blog – Week 20

Works on technical areas in the facility have begun in earnest this week, along with continued structural works such as the installation of our vast hung ceilings on both data floors.

Custom cable junction for exterior signage lighting

Cable basket installed to create data artery for non-data floor spaces

This section runs over the Customer Kitchen and will supply data to over 70 locations at the front of the facility

Installation of further tray to create paths back to our network core

Tray to link various arterial data paths

Basket to link various arterial data paths

One of 4x 500m Cat6a cable drums which will feed the front of the building alone

Temporary coiling of first 5 pair runs, before splitting away from the main artery

A look at the basket as it begins to fill with Cat6a cable

Reception door area prepared for access control systems

Brushed Netwise House signage in place above main entrance

With almost 2 kilometres of Cat6a cabling to supply the front house operations alone (discounting CCTV and access control, estimated at a further 2km), the scale of a data centre project comes into sharp focus. The technical spaces have been designed to be fully modular, which will limit initial cable runs on the data floors and allow for a scalable deployment of services over time.

We will keep updating our readers with progress snapshots as cable pulling reaches completion and termination begins.