Scottish Police Authority

Scottish Police Authority

Contract Value: c.£300,000 per annum
Location: Throughout Scotland

At the start of 2011 we entered a three year contract with the Scottish Police Authority to upgrade the network infrastructure in police offices throughout the Strathclyde area.

The infrastructure originally in place was quite dated and they wanted a system that was at the forefront of cabling technology. After looking at several solutions the one that stood out was the Systimax GigaSPEED XL® cabling solution, GigaSPEED XL® is a Category 6 solution which can support network line speeds in excess of 1 gigabit per second.

The first major roll-out began in January 2011 in which eleven sites were to be cabled throughout. The sites ranged from 100 data outlets up to 300 data outlets, the sites also required the installation of multicore telephony cabling to provide voice over data. The sites were to be completed at a high standard with basket tray installed throughout the buildings filled with rubber matting for extra protection.

The eleven sites had to be completed before the end of March due to budget costs which was successfully achieved.

Throughout 2011 several minor jobs were completed which ranged from four data outlets up to forty data outlets. In 2011 surveys were carried out for the next major roll-out due to start in January 2012.

In January 2012 saw the start of the next major roll-out in which additional sites were scheduled for an infrastructure upgrade. These sites ranged from 50 data outlets to over 500 data outlets and also included up to 400 pair telephone cables. Some of the sites also required the provision of fibre optic cabling and we used the Systimax Teraspeed and Lazrspeed fibre.

January 2013 was the start of a new project for the Scottish Police Authority. This was for the Special Branch department of the Scottish Police and was to be carried out on sites throughout the whole of Scotland. The project was to deliver fibre optic cabling to the desk, which ranged from four 8 core fibres up to forty-five 8 core fibres. Due to the sensitive nature of the project the fibre optic cabling had to be installed using transparent trunking and in some cases steel wire armoured fibre optic cabling was requested.

Over the last two and a half years we have built up an excellent and trusting relationship not only with the SPA but also with police officers at all levels which has assisted us greatly, when working in sensitive areas.

The customer is very pleased with the work that has been carried out over the last two and a half years and we are in the process of negotiating an extension to the contract.