atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Picture of Good Work

Hiya folks,

I noticed in a different thread that Hal stated that patch panels should never be used for voice. I found this really interesting and was wondering why? I was also hoping someone could post a picture of what a text book good install would look like. All the sites I work at our such a mess I realized I have nothing good to compare it to.


thanks,
Vicky

I'll add to that and say CAT 5 or 6 should never be used for voice nor should 8 position jacks (commonly referred to as RJ-45).

This is really a debate between the geeks and the phone guys. Geeks only know patch panels, CAT5 and 8 position jacks, phone guys know better.

This thread should give you a good idea of why I take this position.

-Hal

Hal sums it up pretty well. Patch cords always end up becoming real messy, usually because someone's in a hurry or they're too lazy or incompetent to go get the proper length patch cord for the job. This applies to both telephone & data panels.

In reality it's more a question of "lack of professionalism" on the installer's part.

I agree that patch panel should not be used for voice but we have done it on occasion when our hands are tied.
Below are some pic's of one that come's to mind. This particular location has about 1200 wires, 600 of which we installed after our customer moved to the building. The existing was all wired with at least 2 cat-6 to each location. The customer want to continue the trend to all the new cubes that they installed.

This is the racks with all patch cords installed.


This is the back of the center rack. It has a 600 pair cable terminated with one pair per port patch panel port.

This is what you end up with if you need to add a modem line to where there is an existing digital line.

It seems that every time I stop by this site I fix a few patch cords that are not in the wire management that was installed "temporary".

Contrast having to have the proper length patch cord to a spool of cross connect wire and you can see why patch cords are not a good idea just from a practical standpoint.

-Hal

Indeed! Notice how the patch cords were "ty-wrapped"? I hate when I go into a site & the x-connects are ty-wrapped!

Velcro ties are okay, but they usually end up on the floor...

Here's my $249.99 on the subject of patch panels and it has absolutely nothing to do with the level of professionalism.

It is the fact that most customers who insist upon having patch panels for voice and data do so with the silly thought that they will be able to place their own connections.

We all know that the least technical person in the company ends up being responsible for the phone and data systems. The very person who answers her phone calls with "this is her" and can't even record a voice mail greeting without technical support.

Imagine this same person moving patch cords? The boss never wants to have any involvement in that stuff, the high school receptionist has no clue, so what happens? They pay for a technician to come out and move a patch cord.

I've never, I mean NEVER installed a system with patch panels for voice that didn't end up this way. With that being said, what exactly is the point except to buy what is yet again a CG buzz word?

I should just stop here, but I am sure that you get my point.

I like to give a little more detail of the job I posted the pictures of above. All the data cables stay within the same rack(for the most part). All the voice patch cords were custom made by us for length. I must admit that is was my idea originally but I don't know that I would do it again as it was very time consuming.

Just to clarify, I would not recommend patch panels for voice. For instance at this location the other end of the 600 pair feed is terminated on 110, the time it takes to make one patch cable at the rack, I could have ran 10 x-cuts on 110.

As for the tyraps comment above, if it was referring to cable ties, the only cable ties are on the back of the patch panels that have the feed cable installed. Those pairs are to never be moved.

All the voice patch cords were custom made by us for length.

Doesn't that kind of defeat the whole patch panel/patch cord reasoning? I mean, the purpose is to make connections easily reconfigurable. Something like that might as well be hard wired because as soon as you move a patch cord it most likely either won't reach or will be too long.

-Hal