£1.2m ICT install at Birmingham City University’s Institute of Art and Design

The project represents the first ICT phase in a £250m redevelopment initiative at the university and was awarded to NG Bailey by main contractor Willmott Dixon.
NG Bailey has delivered a complete IT fit out to the art and design facility, including the implementation of a Cisco fibre network backbone throughout the building that also connects the Institute to the university’s legacy mainframe infrastructure.

A variety of cutting edge media facilities such as TV and radio studios and editing suites have also been installed and the building’s core operating systems including security, access control, fire together with its building management system, have all been migrated to a centrally monitored and managed all-IP environment.
David Stanley, Assistant Project Director at Birmingham City University said: “The building is fully commissioned and we are reaping the full benefits of NG Bailey’s robust and resilient IT installation. The university now boasts some of the best art, design and media facilities in the country, which gives us a huge draw; we are attracting the highest calibre candidates from around the UK and indeed internationally.”

In addition, NG Bailey was tasked to refurbish and upgrade the university’s primary data centre in order to meet current requirements and address future demand. This included the redesign and installation of new cabinets to reduce the datacentre’s footprint and enable immediate expansion. New technologies to drive green efficiencies have also been introduced, including a Hot Aisle Containment system, power distribution units and temperature sensors that enable each individual cabinet to be monitored. Together these measures have contributed significantly to increasing capacity, reducing the university’s energy consumption and increasing its cooling efficiency by more than 30%.

Indi Sall, Technical Director, for NG Bailey’s IT Services division comments: “Our team was uniquely positioned to deliver an infrastructure that has transformed the way the university can provide its ICT solution to staff and students.

“The combination of NG Bailey’s broader knowledge of building, electrical and mechanical engineering with its specialist expertise in ICT systems gives our installation team a keen awareness of the wider building context, enabling us to anticipate and resolve installation challenges before they cause scheduling delays. Many of the building’s systems were pre-assembled and configured offsite, for example, in order to accommodate additional time needed to stabilise each room’s conditions, including humidity, lighting, heating and power delivery, all of which are needed before ICT installation can begin.

“This flexible and collaborative approach enabled us to progress despite fluctuations across multiple building delivery schedules and helped to ensure the project was delivered on time and on budget.”