The challenge
An industrial fabrication company in St. Charles Parish runs its business out of a 40,000-square-foot facility made up of three connected warehouse and office sections. Like many growing industrial operations, the company had expanded faster than the building's technology. The three sections needed to work as one network, and leadership needed better visibility across the site and better control over who could enter each area.
Industrial buildings are demanding places for low-voltage work. Long cable runs, high open ceilings, steel structures and an active production floor all shape how a network has to be designed and installed. The company needed one reliable system that would support both the office and the shop floor now, and keep up as the business grows.
Our solution
SmartComm treated the facility as one connected system rather than three separate spaces, and built four layers that work together.
Fiber optic backbone
Multimode fiber runs from the main equipment room to two intermediate closets (IDFs), tying all three sections into one high-performance network. Fiber carries high bandwidth over long distances without the length limits of copper, which makes it the right backbone for a large, spread-out building. Every strand was fusion spliced, tested and terminated on Corning fiber panels.
Structured cabling
210 Cat6 drops connect workstations, production equipment and devices across the office and the production floor. Each drop runs back to labeled patch panels in its closet, and every cable was tested before handoff, so the company has a clean, documented network that's easy to troubleshoot and expand.
IP video surveillance
31 IP cameras cover the warehouse, office and entry points. Interior cameras watch the production and storage areas, and exterior cameras cover the building and its approaches. All cameras are viewed and managed from a central Genetec video management workstation.
Access control
10 doors are on access control, so the company decides who can enter each area and when, without managing physical keys.
The result
The company now operates one secure, connected facility instead of three disconnected spaces. Staff and equipment have reliable connectivity across the office and production floor. Leadership has clear camera coverage of the warehouse, office and entry points from one screen, and access to each area is managed in one place. With a fiber backbone, tested cabling and a scalable camera platform in place, the facility is ready to grow with the business.
Planning a similar project?
If you run a warehouse, fabrication shop or industrial site with more than one building or section, a few lessons from this project apply:
- Start with the backbone. Fiber between sections or buildings gives you the bandwidth and distance you need now, with room to add later.
- Plan cameras and access control with the network, not after it. Designing everything together avoids rework and keeps all your systems on one well-organized infrastructure.
- Insist on testing and labeling. A tested, labeled network costs less to maintain and is faster to fix when something changes.
- Think about growth. New equipment, new doors and new camera locations are easier to add when the closets and backbone were planned for them.
SmartComm handles network cabling, fiber, video surveillance and access control for industrial facilities across South Louisiana. Call (225) 614-9608 or request a quote to set up a site walkthrough.