Thursday 9 August 2012
My London 2012 experience: David Wilson
The UK’s largest multi-dwelling fibre installation to date
2,818 flats in 67 blocks. All served by a fibre infrastructure. And all delivered on time by David Wilson, fibre installation supervisor and his team at the Athletes’ Village.
“The kit we were installing wasn’t the standard white wall box normally associated with a domestic environment,” says David. “We needed four boxes – one to connect the fibre to, one for the electronics, one for the power supply and one for battery back-up.
“Clearly, installing these boxes in a living room or bedroom wouldn’t have looked very neat. In fact, it would have looked terrible. So we came up with an novel solution. We suggested installing the boxes on a hidden shelf unit in the kitchenette of each flat.
“The developers agreed and got the shelf units manufactured with the boxes we needed already attached to them. This saved loads of time when it came to the actual installation. My team simply slotted in the shelves, connected the appropriate fibre to the appropriate box and tested the lines. This standardised approach also guaranteed a consistent installation throughout the Athletes’ Village.
“The way we worked also saved time. We started at the top of each apartment block and worked our way down. Four engineers would install the boxes on each floor. A second team would follow them, to make the connections. And they were in turn followed by two more engineers, who tested the lines.
“My guys did a really fantastic job. I put it down to great teamwork, allied to unrivalled engineering skills and a real will to get the job done in a quality way.”
