Our commercial electricians in Melbourne explain data cabling

Our commercial electricians in Melbourne explain data cabling

At Briggs, our commercial electricians in Melbourne don’t just do electrical work – we’re also qualified data cablers.

Just think about all the phones, computers and connections you find at the typical office nowadays. All of this starts with high-quality cabling and expert installation.

Data cabling is a very broad term and concerns any cables that creates a baseband transmission to a receiver.

At Briggs Electrical, we do it all:

  • Ethernet
  • Landline telephone
  • Fibre optic communication
  • Networking media

Data cabling is one of the many services our commercial electricians in Melbourne offer.

In fact, we like to say: if it’s got a cable, we can help!

Today, we are going to talk you through exactly what data cabling is and why businesses like yours need it.

Need data cabling? Get connected with Briggs

Need a team of commercial electricians in Melbourne to help get your new office connected?

Time to upgrade your communication systems?

Give Briggs Electrical a call – you won’t regret it. Call us anytime on 1300 300 222 or lodge a job online.

What you need to know about data cabling for an office space

As a commercial electrician in Melbourne, we’ve been contacted by many businesses and companies for data cabling installation.

Our team has been responsible for planning, executing and testing business data cabling.

In our experience, there are a few things you need to consider when you installing data cables for an office of business.

We’ve put together a shortlist of the most important ones to help you plan out your cabling.

What are the needs of your office or business?

Most of our customers think this question is as simple as telling us which employees need a telephone and which ones don’t.

To get the most out of your office cabling however, you will need to think about it a little bit more than that!

Some of the things to look at include:

  • How many employees do you have?
  • What phone system do you use? (e.g.: VoIP or landline?)
  • Will your business be growing soon?
  • What is the structure of your building?
  • Do you share with other businesses?

All of these details influence the amount of cabling and the number of ports and sockets you’ll need to that’s needed to facilitate your office operations.

For example, how do you keep records at your business?

If you keep all your files and work on-site with a dedicated server and internal intranet, you’ll need to set up extra cabling and sockets to connect all the computers in your office to it.

By contrast, if all of your files and documents are hosted on the cloud, you eliminate the need for much of the extra data cabling that comes with maintaining a server.

Even if you know the answers to all these questions, we suggest bringing your commercial electrician in early on to provide expert advice as well as insight you mightn’t have considered.

Phone and computer usage

It’s not hard to figure out that the main use of data cabling is for phones and computers.

As such, one of the first things you should be doing is looking at computer and phone usage at your office!

When you call a Melbourne electrician to help you install data cables, you are going to need to know how many phones and computers are going to be used in your business.

What’s more, you’re also going to have to think about whether your set-up requires that much cabling in the first place.

For example, if your phones and computers use primarily wireless, you won’t need that much cabling!

All of these questions are crucial to ensure that your electrician is setting you up with a system that will be able to meet your needs – and importantly, offers room to grow in the future.

And when your commercial electrician has a good understanding of your needs then they will be able to more accurately cater to data cabling needs.

Melbourne electrician

Type of cabling

You don’t need to wrap your head around the ins and outs of data cables.

Transmission speed, maximum bandwidth, shielding… these are things your commercial electrician will sort out for you. 

However, it can definitely help to have a basic understanding of data cabling so that you know what’s going on in your business.

Let’s look at ethernet cables as an example. There are 3 common types of ethernet cabling:

  • Coax – generally used in older computer networks, this type of cable uses an inner conductor, surrounded by an insulating layer and conductive shield
  • Twisted pair – the most common type in Australia, this type of cabling uses a pair of copper wires twisted around each other
  • Fibre optic – using thin glass or plastic fibres, fibre optic uses light-based technology instead of electricity, allowing much faster speeds

What’s more, not all cables are alike – for example, did you know that there are 10 different categories of ethernet cable?

Why does this matter? Simple: the type of cable you choose affects speed and capacity.

Are the computers in your office used for simple web browsing, or do you use them to upload huge files or conduct video conferences?

If you fall into the latter category, you’ll need much more potent cabling!

Briggs Electrical is an NBN electrician

The cabling inside your office is just one of the things you’ll have to consider – just as important is the cabling coming in!

Say all of your office computers and servers are connected using blisteringly fast fibre optic cables. Transferring files between computers and connecting to other parts of the office via your intranet is lightning fast.

However, with an old copper connection, connecting to anything outside your business may see considerably lower speeds!

While not a problem for all businesses, those that deal with large amounts of data may need to think about this.

Briggs Electrical is also a licensed and qualified NBN installer. If you want to connect your business to the NBN, our team is ready to assist!

Our commercial electricians in Melbourne will solve all your data cabling needs

Whether it’s something simple like installing a new phone line or more complex like fitting out a new office with the latest in networking and connectivity, data cabling is the backbone of any modern office.

Our Melbourne electricians have almost 20 years’ experience delivering electrical services and solutions for business all over Melbourne. And that includes data cabling.

As ACRA recognised Master Cablers, we’re the go-to team for all your data cabling needs.

Bring your office into the 21st century – get in contact with our team online, or give us a call on 1300 300 222.

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