Tidy installs, working sites, zero-drama handovers.
Most of our work happens in buildings that can't stop. Production runs, lessons carry on, orders keep going out the door. These are the kinds of projects we deliver and, more importantly, how we deliver them without the site noticing we were there.
Warehouse Wi-Fi and fibre backbone, Lancashire.
The situation
Racked warehouse environments are among the hardest places to get wireless right. Steel racking absorbs and reflects signal, stock levels change the RF picture week by week, and handheld scanners drop connection in exactly the aisles where they're needed most. The usual response is to add more access points, which frequently makes things worse — more radios in the same space means more interference, not more coverage.
The site also had distance working against it. A warehouse of any size exceeds the copper limit from a single comms room, so the design question was never just about access points; it was about where the distribution points sat and how they were fed.
How we approached it
We started with a predictive survey modelled from the building drawings, then validated it on site with survey kit — walking the floor with racking loaded, not empty, because an empty warehouse gives you a heat-map that bears no relation to how the building actually behaves.
That gave a defensible access point count and placement rather than a guess, along with antenna choices suited to aisle coverage rather than open-plan. The backbone went in as fibre between distribution points, with Cat6A backhaul out to each access point position, so the cabling supports the PoE draw now and has headroom for whatever replaces the hardware later.
Working around the operation
The warehouse didn't stop. Works were phased zone by zone and scheduled through nights and quieter shifts, with high-level containment installed using MEWP access outside picking hours. Each zone was cut over and proven before we moved to the next, so at no point was an area left without coverage.
At handover
Validation heat-maps showing actual measured coverage, certification results for every copper link, OTDR traces on the fibre, labelled patching and as-built drawings. The site's IT team got documentation they could use to manage and extend the system themselves rather than a set of credentials and a shrug.
01 · Warehouse
HQ refresh — meeting rooms and telephony.
The situation
Meeting room AV fails in a very particular way: it works when someone technical is in the room and doesn't when they aren't. Rooms accumulate adapters, trailing cables and a laminated instruction sheet nobody reads. Meanwhile the phone system is one of the ageing platforms that has to move before the PSTN and ISDN switch-off completes in January 2027.
Doing both at once makes sense — the cabling, the containment and the disruption are shared. Doing them separately means paying for the same access twice.
How we approached it
Rooms were specified around how they're actually used rather than around a product list. Display size to the room, microphone coverage to the seating, camera framing to the table, and a control approach simple enough that anyone walking in can start a call without help.
On telephony, the migration was planned around number porting first — that's the part with a lead time and the part that causes real pain if it slips. Handsets, hunt groups and call routing were configured and tested before anyone's extension changed.
Working around the operation
Room works ran over weekends so no meeting was displaced. The telephony cutover was staged rather than flipped in one go, with the old platform kept live until the new one was proven — meaning no window where the business couldn't take a call.
At handover
Labelled patching, certification results, tidy cable management and a documented rack — plus a short walkthrough for the people who actually use the rooms. The measure of success on a job like this isn't the install photos, it's whether anyone needs to phone us in month three.
02 · HQ refresh
Campus structured cabling, multi-block upgrade.
The situation
Education sites carry a combination that punishes weak infrastructure: very high device density, a rising number of PoE-powered devices on the ceiling, and blocks that were cabled at different times to different standards as the estate grew. Add safeguarding-driven CCTV and classroom AV, and every one of those devices wants power over the same cable.
The constraint that shapes everything, though, is the calendar. The work has to fit a holiday window, and there is no version of "we'll come back next week."
How we approached it
Survey and design were completed well ahead of the break so that materials were on site and the programme was fixed before day one. Cat6A throughout — not because every outlet needs ten gigabit, but because the PoE load in a modern school generates heat in bundled cable, and Cat6A's larger conductors hold their performance where Cat6 starts to struggle.
Cabinets were positioned so each block could be served within the copper distance limit, with fibre carrying the backbone between them. Spare capacity was designed into the containment deliberately, because school estates change every year and the next addition shouldn't require a new containment project.
Working around the operation
Delivered inside the holiday window, with the programme phased block by block and enough contingency built in that a single delay didn't cascade. Every operative on site DBS-checked as standard.
At handover
Full Fluke DSX certification results per link, labelling schedules, cabinet elevations and as-built drawings — handed over before term started, not chased down in October. The manufacturer warranty was registered on completion, which is only possible because the installation was certified and documented properly.
03 · Education
Fibre backbone and resilience, distribution centre.
The situation
A distribution centre stops being a building and starts being a system. Sortation, conveyors, scanning and warehouse management all depend on the network staying up, and the cost of an hour's downtime is measured in trailers that didn't leave. A single backbone path through one route is a single point of failure sitting under the whole operation.
Sites like this also grow. New production and pick areas get added, and each one needs feeding from a backbone that was designed before anyone knew where they'd go.
How we approached it
The backbone was designed as a resilient ring rather than a set of spurs, so that a break in any single route doesn't take a distribution point offline. Fibre core to cabinet throughout, fusion spliced, with diverse routing where the building allowed it — because two paths following the same tray aren't two paths.
New areas were brought onto the ring as part of the same programme, with spare cores pulled deliberately so the next expansion is a patch rather than an installation.
Working around the operation
The site ran throughout. Splicing and cutover work was carried out overnight against agreed windows, with each link proven before the old path was retired. High-level containment work was coordinated around vehicle movements and picking routes so nothing stopped moving.
At handover
OTDR traces and insertion-loss results for every core, as-built drawings showing the ring topology and route diversity, and a labelled patching schedule. The documentation is the point on a site like this — when something does fail at three in the morning, the person fixing it needs to be able to read the network, not reverse-engineer it.
04 · Logistics
The site keeps working. That's the job.
Different sectors, different technologies, same discipline. Every one of these projects ran in a building that couldn't afford to stop, and every one was handed over with documentation the client's own team could work from. Thirty-plus years of doing this is mostly thirty-plus years of learning how not to get in the way.
Survey properly
Model it first, then validate on site under real conditions — loaded racking, occupied floors, live plant.
Plan the access
Nights, weekends, shutdowns and holiday windows agreed up front and built into the programme, not negotiated on the day.
Phase the cutover
Prove the new before retiring the old. No window where an area is left without service.
Document it
Certification results, labelling and as-builts handed over at completion — so the system stays maintainable.
Send us drawings and we'll come back with a fixed quote.
Manufacturing, logistics, education, healthcare or commercial — if the building can't stop while the work happens, that's the sort of project we're built around. An engineer will come back to you the same working day. See the full range on our services page.