Moving to a new building

[mark1980]

Hi everyone,Looking for a bit of advice or some tips regarding relocating to a brand new building. Having worked in schools for nearly 20 years now I've always worked in old buildings and never had the opportunity to be part of a new, fresh install. I'm one month into my new role as ICT Services Manager and am now looking at the schools upcoming move to a brand new building in September 2019. Its all very exciting and just looking at the plans have me rubbing my hands together, but for those of you that have been through this before, what am I letting myself in for? Do you have any advice or tips on what pitfalls that may arise? Or things I should be looking out for?Any words of wisdom will be gratefully received

[unixman_again]

Make sure that you have plenty of power sockets in each room. I reckon that you need at least 6 per person, and not scattered evenly, put clustered. At my first school, we had a new IT office built and the architect said there would be 10 plugs in our office - two each, one for the printer, one spare and two for the cleaners. I pointed out that I was using 5 and the other two techies 4 each. I wanted to get rid of four ways on the benches.

[southhamster]

Make sure you have enough high level network ports for AP's and projector/screens.

Don't put ICT suites on the south side of the building.

Don't put the network server/cabs in the dirty, hot insecure plant room.

If you have laptop trolleys where are you going to store/plug them in, ideally each socket on separate RCBOs so they don't trip a single ring main.

Good luck!

[Bedders]

Lot of good ideas posted in a similar thread http://www.edugeek.net/forums/behind-red-door/196817-so-im-going-involved-new-school-project.html.

[RobD]

If you're having a room full of kit, make sure there's no windows in the room and has AC.

 

Also check what the building is made of, we had a new building recently that had stone cladding on the front which required a metal mesh to support it. The metal mesh meant that every room acted like a faraday cage, so no wireless or mobile signal.

[pete]

In addition to the "more sockets and ports". If teachers are of the "I'd like my desk at the front of the class" (as opposed to tucked into a corner) variety. Underfloor channelling to run AV/ethernet/power.

 

Oh, and make sure they leave extra pull cords in.

[southhamster]

Another we've had recently. Our new prefab building has walls that can't support the weight of touchscreen/projector. (They are basically foam). At the design stage they added extra ply layers which was great ....until staff wanted a second screen fitting in another place. The only option then was wheeled trolley.

[theeggmaster]

Is the new building going to be built from scratch, or are you fitting out an existing building?

[mark1980]

Is the new building going to be built from scratch, or are you fitting out an existing building?

Its being built from scratch - work has already started so the layout is almost fixed in place already - on paper things look ok - so I hope there are no major flaws there that I'm missing because I think we will be stuck with it if there are...

[mavhc]

Talk to everyone involved, learn the plans. Just take over the whole thing because everyone else is useless.

 

Find out which way round the classrooms should be, where will the sun shine in over the day/year. Don't put the whiteboard there.

 

Server room, AC, but as that will leak water, not too near the equipment. Make sure the power for it isn't bundled in with everything else. Own fuse box please. For security.

 

Get internet installed asap, because there's always a 3 month delay.

 

Insist all network points are tested and labelled correctly, don't pay them until they are.

 

Network points in all rooms/corridors (or at least a cable into the ceiling for later installation)

 

How will people walk to the printers, where will the printers be. Generally how will people walk around the building, therefore where should store rooms for computer stuff be.

 

Speakers in ceiling, speakers and boards wired into mains, 1 less problem.

 

Access point in every room, but where....wall is said to be better than ceiling.

 

VoIP phones obviously, so double network points, or gigabit phones with passthrough.

 

IP door entry, thus IP video for door entry, therefore you can unlock door via smartphone.

 

IP CCTV, IP everything really.

 

LED lighting, if anyone's installing less they're insane, IP light switches and heating would be great too

 

Network and power points for digital signage.

 

Solar panels and solar water heating.

[fiza]

Talk to everyone involved, learn the plans. Just take over the whole thing because everyone else is useless.

 

Find out which way round the classrooms should be, where will the sun shine in over the day/year. Don't put the whiteboard there.

 

Server room, AC, but as that will leak water, not too near the equipment. Make sure the power for it isn't bundled in with everything else. Own fuse box please. For security.

 

Get internet installed asap, because there's always a 3 month delay.

 

Insist all network points are tested and labelled correctly, don't pay them until they are.

 

Network points in all rooms/corridors (or at least a cable into the ceiling for later installation)

 

How will people walk to the printers, where will the printers be. Generally how will people walk around the building, therefore where should store rooms for computer stuff be.

 

Speakers in ceiling, speakers and boards wired into mains, 1 less problem.

 

Access point in every room, but where....wall is said to be better than ceiling.

 

VoIP phones obviously, so double network points, or gigabit phones with passthrough.

 

IP door entry, thus IP video for door entry, therefore you can unlock door via smartphone.

 

IP CCTV, IP everything really.

 

LED lighting, if anyone's installing less they're insane, IP light switches and heating would be great too

 

Network and power points for digital signage.

 

Solar panels and solar water heating.

I thought the recommendation for APs was centrally placed on the ceiling rather than on a wall?

[FishCustard]

I thought the recommendation for APs was centrally placed on the ceiling rather than on a wall?

 

It is. The signal can get reflected off the walls causing destructive (or just plain confounding) interference.

 

Also, general recommendation - get double the number of network points you could ever conceivably need. You'll need them one day, trust me.

[theeggmaster]

Its being built from scratch - work has already started so the layout is almost fixed in place already - on paper things look ok - so I hope there are no major flaws there that I'm missing because I think we will be stuck with it if there are...

 

That's great. Is it through the Priority Schools Building Programme, or through another scheme?

[mark1980]

That's great. Is it through the Priority Schools Building Programme, or through another scheme?

No its not through the Priority Schools Building Programme, we are a brand new trust with 2 brand new schools

[mark1980]

Ok I have a question regarding this - I'm just talking to different broadband suppliers regarding a new connection into the school. What else at this stage (contract wise) do I need to be sorting out as a priority? We have just over 10 months until we move in...

[mavhc]

Installing cupboards and filling them after a wifi survey will change the results, so that's fun.

 

Get the core switches in so that door systems, alarms, climate control can all be connected and configured on their own VLANs. Install FreePBX and get the new phone system running with a temp number, then port the number across when you move

[sat_s]

Ok I have a question regarding this - I'm just talking to different broadband suppliers regarding a new connection into the school. What else at this stage (contract wise) do I need to be sorting out as a priority? We have just over 10 months until we move in...

 

Our schools have 2 lines coming in. One from BT and one from Virgin. One is the main line and one is the backup line in case the main ISP goes down. This should keep your broadband up 99.9% of the time

[Reboot_IT]

If you are in control of the budget, try and keep some back in preparation for refresh further down the line! Think about the direction of the school/trust before deciding on device types as things can very quickly become not FFP!

 

I had an experience where we had a bit of a surplus and money was thrown around thoughtlessly so it didn't disappear into the unknown .

[RichardZh]

Could you give more details about the new environments? That matters a lot for the whole network cabling.

[theeggmaster]

That's good news. You'd be tied down to certain ratios for network points if it was through PSBP. One thing I'd add is find out how your server room/comms rooms is locked, and get it on a separate system to the rest of the school doors. We have an 'IT' key, which does the same as a normal teacher, but also has access to the server room and our two comms rooms.

[MatthewL]

Done many new builds and lots of things have been covered, can never have too many network or power points.

 

One thing to consider is do you have anywhere to locate MFD's if you have them, rather than printers in room, is there space in corridors or alcoves for them to be located without causing any issues with foot fall and also to help reduce printers having MFD's located one on each floor or one at each end will save money.

 

I would be looking to do away with keyed locks on door and have some form of access control, cheaper in long run with no keys, can control who gets what, auto unlock, audit who has gone in where.

 

Enough space in a server room for expansion, no air con units right on top of cabinets, ducting in to enable external suppliers to bring their feeds in.

[peej2k]

Ok I have a question regarding this - I'm just talking to different broadband suppliers regarding a new connection into the school. What else at this stage (contract wise) do I need to be sorting out as a priority? We have just over 10 months until we move in...

 

At the absolute latest you want to have signed a contract by February. Get it in by May giving you a term to make sure everything is working on your terms before you go live.

[mavhc]

100% of the buildings I've tried to get fiber into have been late. Only reason one of the 2 I ordered recently was almost on time was the fiber was already installed from a previous usage, so they just had to change the label, still took a month longer. Other one is about 3 months since we ordered it, and still delayed