Things we don’t know that we don’t know. This is going to be a short post about an experience I had working with one of our cabling/installation vendors. This particular situation occurred on an outdoor access point installation project I was involved with. The vendor is a vendor that regularly performs installations for our infrastructure groups and also does a significant amount of work for our facilities group and is therefor well versed with the organizations policies and procedures.
We designed wireless coverage of a but parking lot to facilitate the offload of video stored on a DVR on the installed on busses. When the busses parked in the lot, they would connect to the Wi-Fi and offload any new video that was recorded since the last network connection. The systems on the busses were designed to stay powered on for 30 minutes after the ignition was turned off on the bus providing ample time for video to be offloaded. To facilitate Wi-Fi coverage we chose a location on the building that would provide adequate coverage to the bus lot and asked our vendor to install the access point accordingly. Knowing this vendor had done extensive work for us before, we gave them authority to locate an appropriate path from the nearest network closet and mount the access point where it would cover the parking lot. Given that establishing cable paths to external locations can prove difficult, especially in situations like this where stairwells are located on the edge of the building. Unfortunately, the installers chose to mount the access point on the external siding rather than the brick facade because it presented an easier path to the network closet. Being that this was new building and the siding was a warrantied item, a kerfuffle arose over whether the installation would void the warranty of the siding due to the possibility of leaks. The general contractor for the project was still onsite completing punch list items and noticed the access point. A back-and-forth entailed between our facilities group and the GC and the technology division over who was ultimately responsible for the device being installed on the siding. Ultimately, everyone involved was responsible as no specifics where defined during the design process. In the end the warranty was not voided, but we were nothing short of lucky in this scenario. Chalk this up to experience that even a couple of feet can make all the difference.
The point here is, take nothing for chance when installing equipment or using contractors to install it. Regardless of how well established the relationships are, how well versed they are with policies and procedures, or how trivial and insignificant you think something could be. Always ask first and receive confirmation in writing. It could save you or your customer a significant amount of time and money. No one involved in this installation was aware that the siding was a warrantied item that could possibly be voided. Fortunately, things worked out in this scenario, but the outcome could’ve been much different.