Project 1: The Community Commons & Café on the Beacon Street Campus

Description: Rapidly installing voice and data cabling, wireless access points and security in the new student lounge and cafe before students return.

Challenge: Tight timeframe

The Work: Getting ready for students to return is a busy time on any college campus. Then add to the mix renovating the community commons and cafe weeks prior to classes starting. That was the scenario when KTS got the call that their expertise was needed, and it was needed immediately. Before the paint was put on the walls, the voice and data cabling work needed to be done at this beautiful brownstone building on Beacon Street in Boston. Additionally, interior and exterior surveillance cameras needed to be wired and installed as well as a card access system. The space would be the community commons and cafe, so wireless access points were essential to offer students a place to relax and be productive.

The Benefits/Impact: KTS quickly responded, getting the job spec’d, permits pulled and the job completed all at the height of busy season when serving the education sector. KTS connected the disconnects to get the job done ensuring the students had a fully operational, secure student lounge and cafe for Fall of 2016.

Project 2: Renovation and Relocation of Primary & Specialty Care Clinics and Optical Dispensary Clinical Training Center on Commonwealth Avenue

Challenges: A complex, multi-phased physical move requiring design of interim and permanent network cabling solutions to ensure both spaces were operational. For this project, KTS was invited to the planning table to work through the complexities and nuances of this multi-phased renovation and relocation. The project was scoped in four phases during which the new space on the first floor would be designed and built out while needing to maintain all network cabling to keep the second floor operational as staff, patients and students would transition over time.

Phase 1 Scope: This phase included KTS designing and installing the voice and data cabling, wireless access points, security systems including card access and video surveillance systems. Given the importance of A/V for this teaching facility, an integrated A/V system was designed and installed to support the clinical training needs of the space.

Phase 1 Challenge: The IT Room required to complete the wiring and network cabling was not scoped to be in place until Phase 2.

Solution: KTS engineered an interim solution so that the cabling and terminations required for Phase 1 could be completed in the absence of an IT room. This interim approach avoided change orders and kept Phase 1 of the project moving forward. This would have caused a significant delay and cost overages had KTS not been involved in review of the phases to have time to design an alternative approach.

Establishing Standards: The KTS team recommended and implemented standards in terms of equipment to achieve technical efficiencies and integrated solutions. Specifically, KTS recommended and installed a new card access system for the Commonwealth Avenue campus that became the standard for the college. A web-based security system was recommended and installed to standardize security surveillance functionality connecting the Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue campuses.

Project 3: Security – Video Surveillance Camera Upgrade

Exterior video surveillance cameras needed to be upgraded at Beacon Street. As part of the solution, KTS designed the placement of the new cameras to improve surveillance and completed the wiring of all cameras to mount on the exterior of the building. Once again, standards were established for consistency across locations and for ease of ongoing support and maintenance. All CCTV equipment was moved to a secure area in the server room to protect the integrity of the surveillance recordings.

Project 4: Security – IP Paging System for Emergency Broadcast System

The college continued its focus on enhancing security by integrating an Internet Protocol paging system with speakers throughout the Beacon Street location so that in the case of an emergency all personnel could be promptly notified. This enhanced security capability eliminated reliance on phone notification.

KTS installed the CAT 6 cables and speakers as part of the IP paging system solution.