Rendcomb College in the Cotswolds is listed by English Heritage. These strict regulations created their own unique challenges.

Rendcomb College is a traditional English fee paying school, located deep in the Cotswolds. The college houses some 400 students both as boarders and day pupils.

When Rendcomb approached Branch to tender for the provision of an advanced switched gigabit optical network, spanning ten key listed buildings to upgrade their ICT provision, the college knew it was always going to be a challenge with no existing campus interconnectivity.

Without an existing duct structure and with English Heritage to consider Branch elected to handle the civil engineering directly. These works involved creating new pathways across the beautifully manicured grounds, crossing a public road and a Grade II listed bridge.

After extensive negotiations with English Heritage and an extended CAD planning and modeling period Branch proposed an innovative solution to the key essential routeway over the listed bridge. Branch designed and commissioned a new concrete hollow kerb cast to allow the 4 way Blo-Duct to pass through without spoiling the aesthetic beauty of the listed bridge.

After a period of evaluation and visits to reference sites where Branch had successfully installed similar futureproof blown fibre systems, the college specified the Blo-Lite system from Brand-Rex with CAT5E UTP providing 100 Mbps desktop connectivity as their preferred solution.

The fibre was specified as 50um for its increased bandwidth and capability to support Gigabit Ethernet over the extended link lengths dictated by the campus layout.

This decision was based on the ability to add or upgrade the fibre count or grade without additional works outside of the communications closets, which would require further Heritage permissions. Futureproofing was designed into the system from the outset with four Blo-Tubes installed to each location to cater for planned future expansion, and in some instances pre-terminated dark fibre for disaster recovery.

Branch was successful in the competitive tendering process and subsequently awarded the active equipment consultancy and supply. After evaluating all of the available solutions, the HP Pro-Curve Gigabit range was selected as the best compromise between price and performance. Wireless access points were also specified and installed in public areas of the campus.

Cooper B Line Access Racks were selected as best suited to withstand the rigors of the busy public environment. These were then delicately installed across the campus in accordance with English Heritage’s guidelines.

The installation and testing of the optical network and CAT5E flood wiring were carried out in a very tight timescale during the College’s summer holiday period. This ensured compliance with key Health and Safety risk assessments and minimised the impact of these works on the students.

After testing in both directions at both 850 and 1300nm a full 25 Year Millennium warranty was issued to cover the infrastructure, further confirming both Branch’s and Brand-Rex’s commitment to quality and longevity.

A comprehensive package of CAD based as installed drawings, patching schedules and test results was created and issued as both hard and soft copies in addition to the 25-year Brand-Rex system warranty.

Technical Overview

Backbone

• Brand-Rex 50um blown fibre backbone
• Provision of W&Q Access Racks throughout the site
• Dual wavelength & direction testing
• Full 25 year optical warranty issued

Active Equipment

• HP Pro-Curve gigabit core switches
• Wireless access points installed in public areas

Structured Cabling

• CAT5E flood wiring
• Full Class D testing