We're joined today by Nick Pigeon of visualisation, Nick you've just been
doing a fantastic presentation for visitors to the show on rack design and
builds. What we're looking for, what our viewers need to know is - where do we
start with the design? What are the considerations in design? What are
the tips and techniques of building a good rack, a serviceable rack, one that's
gonna work for a long long time? And if there are upgrades to be made how
we can design those in early on? The key really is to think about the design rack
design prior to the actual build. I think too often everyone's focused on the
build and hasn't considered everything they need to in the design phase. So
working with AVIXA and the standards group - we've looked at it as process inputs
- they're all considerations that you should think about. That doesn't
necessarily mean that they all have an effect, some of them may not actually be
required but we need to consider them. And from there we can work out what our
conclusion is - what documentation we require, what rack type we want to specify,
how many racks, the depths, the space planning. Okay so where are we going to
start? If we've got a system, do we need to design the rack first or do we
need to redo the entire system? I think it's key to start with the system and
so when we're thinking about it we split it into two. There's
prerequisites at a very much system design, it's not rack design - so you
should know your equipment list, a hell of a lot of material from your equipment
list based on thermal management. Things like that, the heat load - that will give
you all the information that then feeds into the next piece. You should
definitely have thought about your system design itself. Does it actually
work? There's no good trying to design a rack to
find your missing key ingredient isn't there. So we need a certain amount of system
design in place before everything about the rack design and the rack
elevation layout. Is it always best to build rack off-site and then deliver
straight to site? I would always like to certainly that's predominately our way.
There is times when you can't generally site constraints access to the building.
We've worked across commercial resi and anything and in between you can't always
get that rack to its final destination once it's built, but nine times out of
ten you can. The key to that is you can build it off-site where you've got
everything in your facility you need. There's no just running out to the van
to get this, come back the next day because you didn't have it. There's the
ability to test it off-site before you ever got there and its ability to build
it in the environment and deliver it when the site is ready. I'm sure
everyone's been there where in that back room the carpet layer wants in,
there's dust around you, you're on and off on, on off. So wherever possible build
off site, test off site, bring it in when the projects ready for it. You're talking about ventilation being
important of course, there's a lot of heat to dissipate, is small always
best? Shall we try and cram all of our equipment into the smallest
possible cabinet? I know we're going to try but what do we need to consider? So that's
all around space planning. So where is that rack going? Once you've worked out
your total rack units you can start thinking about how big that rack needs
to be. You should be thinking about ventilation space for each piece of
equipment, but what I always say is go bigger. We tried to build into the AVIXA
standard - a percent rule, but my advice is always take as much room in that space
as you can. So height even width - more and more often racks are getting narrower and
narrower but where's the cable going in the back of those racks. If they're only 19
inches wide. So depths quite key and width is quite key. So bigger is better in this case
and the more space you can allow for future
proofing, we've always been there you get the job done and then we need to add
something. If you haven't allowed that space, that's when we start stacking back
to front squeezing units of that squeezing space in.
You're talking about cabling really really important, I guess it can be quite
easy to make a rack look fantastic from the front yeah and then there's a whole
rat's nest going on in the back of it. But then at the other end of the scale
you can see a lot of racks where the cables have been tied together to
look incredible yeah but in actual fact there are there a negative sides - to
cabling it really really tight everything running together, yeah, explain why
getting that cable in the back right is important? I think it's down to serviceability -
if it's neat and it's tidy, you can see what you're looking at, you can service
it. I think that's the initial - you do need some service loops and that
varies depending on what you work on it. So you may have a wall mount back and
you can't access the back. So we call that an equipment service leave, but it
should be enough left to pull that piece of equipment right out and unplug
it. In an ideal world you'd be able to access the back and then you still need
to be thinking about service loops that are long enough to returnate those
cables should there be any problem and that's the case. Then really if you
can't get behind the back but you can pull it out - we'd have what we
call a rack service loop, which is bit like a tail where you
swing the whole rack out. So it's all about serviceability, reach determination
the same things really. Then still on that cable management piece,
there's times when we need to do took and loop things like that now so that
they're not crushing, certainly catching the cables, digital cables
and that will needs to be taken into account. What about future proofing? I
guess once you've designed a rack, yeah racks ready to go, build the rack, it goes
in but then I don't know two three years down the line there is new technology
people want to add new sources, add new distribution. How often do you
find that you're going back to a rack and adding more equipment and do you
need to leave space for it? So I think in a residential environment - yes seems to
be the way it goes there's always something so try and build in space
within your source section of the rack, build in space within your amplification
section. Some people certainly on an MDU project will actually plan a
hell of a lot space where they've put base level infrastructure and then when
the project's sold to the client the client company says well okay I want to
do this. So that's key, commercially not so much. They're very much systems
that are designed, kept in place and actually we sometimes see the same racks for a
project come back around three or four times over a 10/15 year period. But we're
usually doing a full core upgrade rather than adding bits and pieces. Go into the
rack itself, the actual cabinet, there are a lot of product out there and you know
at first glance they all look exactly the same. So what makes for a good cabinet or what do
we need to look out for? So I think there's two things, do you want to try and stick
to a single brand across your business? You don't need to you're probably better
off not so that you've got flexibility on cost-effectiveness - that's always key
to everyone. But certainly use, so when we talk about
rack types: we've got back to a solid sides which are great for managing
airflow. We've got frame racks which are great for
passive if you got passive environment and let that heat dissipate.
We've got pull-out racks that you can mount in a cupboard and swivel, so there
really is a rack for every use. Don't think it's one rack fits all - think
again about the space, what it is used for, the more room you've
got the better you can plan that rack around. Excellent stuff! And Nick let's just
talk about are there any other tips that we need to consider? Do you see
any mistakes that you find that you're having to fix over and over again?
Or is there just tips that when people are starting on their first
racks that they should consider? I think certainly I always stress pre-plan that rack
elevation before you've been built. So many people are thinking about the rack
elevation the day they start the build and we've all been there. Every
session I teach I ask people and they all chuckle because you get halfway up and
what you thought was gonna fit doesn't quite fit and then you strip it all out
start again. Just take that time to plan it and we've always said what
products and you can use as little as an Excel spreadsheet to work out new
spacing and work out a plan you get it wrong you delete it and build it again.
It saves so much time when you get that back. I guess finally from me,
other things to consider one insecurity let's say in a commercial
environment, but then in a residential is there a need to design out that
hands on accessibility do you think? So commercially I think there's two sides
of it - there's security for theft. We do a lot of higher education in our business
and quite often you don't want people stealing from the racks when they're
left in the room. But the other one is tampering you don't want people fiddling
with settings. So you might want to use security fixings to stop someone
physically removing the kit from the rack, but you may want to use a tamper
panel to stop people changing settings on there. In the residential world not so much
there certainly is always that you don't as much as it's the clients kit you
don't really want the client fiddling with it. But that's more into the
ergonomics of the design of what's there for them to access, what's not, what do
they really need to get to and what they don't. But does it need to be locked
away I would probably say not. Nick some great tips there thank you so much for
helping out. Plenty more advice at HowToAV.TV on audio-visual installation and
system design join us again soon.