Smart Building Basis-of-Design

Initial assessments analyze the current state of an existing Information Transport System (ITS) infrastructure against corporate and industry standards. This comprehensive assessment phase includes:

• Site discovery and gap analysis: Visiting client locations to gather facility criteria and identify critical compliance gaps regarding industry standards and codes.
• Baseline infrastructure audit: Assessing the current environment against project requirements and industry and client standards. This audit inventories equipment and computer rooms alongside engineering drawings to map requirements for:
  • Electrical, mechanical, and security systems
  • Infrastructure cabling and pathways
  • Office and modular furniture configurations
  • New network and infrastructure hardware and components
  • Core construction and architectural readiness
• Remediation and budget reporting: Developing a formal project assessment report based on the collected information that outlines existing conditions, health and safety issues, and standards compliance issues. The report provides actionable remediation recommendations and preliminary budget estimates to bring the infrastructure up to standard.

Planning involves consulting with clients to define and determine “end goal” business requirements and develop a strategic roadmap. This collaborative planning phase includes:

• Personnel and responsibility mapping: Identifying key project personnel and defining clear areas of responsibility.
• Project discovery and design strategy: Evaluating all collected data to establish and guide the overarching design strategies.
• Technical discovery frameworks: Developing targeted informational criteria for gathering additional critical information, including:
  • Physical structure from a communications perspective
  • Expected communications traffic flow patterns and operations
  • Workstation locations
  • Existing engineering drawings and configurations
  • Current equipment inventories
  • Existing network and infrastructure requirements

Audit and code compliance involves visiting client locations to gather essential project design and construction engineering data before initiating any conceptual design work. This critical phase includes:

• Remediation: Negotiating required pathways and spaces with local facilities management as required to ensure compliance with industry standards and local codes.
• Greenfield planning: Collaborating with architectural and engineering (A&E), mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP), and construction management stakeholders to plan required pathways and spaces that comply with standards and codes.

Concept design aligns the client’s corporate standards, preferred products, and industry-proven practices with project requirements to formulate a best-value BoD foundation for the project. Our conceptual design services deliver clarity and structure across the following critical pillars:

• Schematic design: Developing initial sketches, graphics, and general design criteria alongside preliminary cost estimates.
• Construction requirements: Defining essential parameters such as pathways and spaces, power draw, heat loads, room/wall construction, and floor and ceiling requirements (e.g., static-dissipative, clean/dust-free, hard deck/on-slab, raised access floor, lighting).
• Network parameters: Mapping out infrastructure requirements for design development by defining the number of outlet locations, the number and type of subnets, the size of the network backbone, and the allocated spare capacity.
• Site criticality: Evaluating and defining the required levels of system redundancy and pathway diversity to meet the project’s risk tolerance and uptime objectives.
• Technical specifications: Developing detailed project specifications for client review and sign-off.
• Initial drawings: Producing a preliminary set of AutoCAD drawings to serve as the official first design revision, providing a visual blueprint for the detailed design.

The detailed design development phase produces complete design drawings and fully detailed specifications for bidding/tendering the client’s project. These comprehensive deliverables typically include:

• Pathways and spaces: Physical requirements for telecom pathways and spaces across both inside plant and outside plant environments.
• Standards and compliance: Applicable international standards, local codes, construction methods, and approved cabling, rack, and pathway products.
• Project installation requirements: An approved parts list, termination and mounting techniques, room construction/fit-out criteria, and MEP requirements.
• Schematics and layouts: Backbone and pathway schematics, horizontal zones, data distribution layouts, and telecom space layouts with rack elevations.
• Infrastructure administration: Requirements for labeling schemes, grounding and bonding, and firestopping.

To build these deliverables, SPS performs the necessary due diligence to define all aspects of the cable plant installation, material specifications, and Layer 2/Layer 3 connectivity. Documents are continuously refined through collaborative client reviews until a final design is agreed upon and delivered as Issued for Bid (IFB) documentation for the bid package. This detailed design development can be a follow-up to assessment and other BoD services, or a stand-alone request from a customer. It includes:

• Phased engineering reviews: Formal reviews at all phases of completion, including specifications, drawings, project documents, and refined budgetary estimates.
• Interdisciplinary integration: Integrating infrastructure design with other disciplines.
• Value engineering: Continuous design optimization to maximize performance, reliability, and cost-efficiency without compromising project objectives.

During the design phase, SPS investigates opportunities to integrate disparate building systems onto a unified Layer 1 infrastructure. . Key systems that can be integrated to run across a unified Layer 1 infrastructure include:

• Security and access control: IP video surveillance/CCTV, electronic door access control, and intrusion detection.
• Building automation: Building Management Systems (BMS), including energy metering and environmental controls
• Audio-visual (AV) systems: Networked AV-over-IP distribution, digital signage, and conference room systems.
• Smart lighting: Low-voltage power over Ethernet (PoE) lighting and intelligent lighting control systems.
• Life safety: Fire detection and emergency notification systems (region-specific).

Design modifications frequently occur after the bid/tender process is complete. Without a formal and controlled change management process, these late-stage modifications can cause project costs to escalate rapidly. SPS works closely with the client and all stakeholders to effectively manage design changes, strictly adhering to established change management protocols to control budgets and maintain project requirements. This post-tender process ensures total accountability:

• Controlled change management: Validating all design changes against client requirements to prevent scope creep and budget increases.
• Document version control: Documenting all design changes and updating technical specifications and design drawings to capture all approved post-tender modifications.
• Client sign-off: Routing revised documentation for formal client review, approval, and sign-off.
• “For Construction” issuance: Compiling and issuing the final Issued for Construction (IFC) package to the installation company.

Following the release of this final revision, any subsequent modifications are typically managed through specified construction and client change management systems.

SPS also offers expert AutoCAD services to deliver industry-standard technical drawings for remediation, expansion, and new construction projects. Using the latest AutoCAD software, our team creates and maintains precise project visuals in standard .dwg or .pdf formats. Our core AutoCAD services include:

• Graphical project representation: Collaborating closely with project designers to translate technical parameters into comprehensive, accurate engineering drawings.
• Drawing and plotting support: Offering full plotting and printing capabilities to support field operations and submittals.
• Flexible deliverables: Providing high-quality drawings in color or monochrome, tailored to the agreed-upon architectural sheet size and delivered as physical hard copies and/or electronic soft copies.
• Structured revision control: Defining the initial drawing set and number of revisions with the client upfront to include in the baseline cost, while carefully controlling, documenting, and maintaining all revisions in accordance with strict industry standards, for a transparent, audit-ready version history.