Brand-Rex scales the heights at Al Abdul Wahab Gholam Tower

Currently undergoing construction in the prestigious West Bay district of Doha in the state of Qatar, Al Abdul Wahab Gholam Tower will be a state-of-the-art hotel and residential apartment building. As the most recently developed area of the city, West Bay is home to some of its tallest and most impressive buildings, with 40 storeys within its striking design, Al Abdul Wahab Gholam Tower will be in good company.

Located close to the beach in what is the diplomatic centre of Doha, the area attracts some of the city’s top executives and government officials. Al Abdul Wahab Gholam Tower’s owners will be looking to appeal to this demographic and therefore the project’s design consultant, MZ & Partners, is making every effort to ensure that it contains the very best building services infrastructure, incorporating the latest technology.

The consultants, MZ & Partners and main contractor SAK Trading & Contracting recognised early on in the design phase that in order to create an ‘intelligent building’ the correct IT network infrastructure would be vital. They demanded a network cabling system capable of supporting network speeds of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, in order to support a diverse array of building services technology including wired and wireless Internet, IP security and access control.

After completing a tender process, local IT expert, Zerone Technologies, was awarded the contract to specify, design, supply and install a suitable network infrastructure. The company’s senior sales manager, Sourabh Singh, explains, ‘We have developed an excellent reputation for our ability to provide best in class technology for a range of projects and boast a dedicated and highly motivated service oriented team. After listening to the requirements of MZ & Partners I had no hesitation in recommending a solution from Brand-Rex comprising 10GPlus copper for the horizontal connectivity and premises distribution cables (PDC) from the company’s FibrePlus portfolio for the backbone.’

Zerone Technologies has worked with Brand-Rex for many years and, as a Premier Partner, is able to issue its globally renowned 25-year system warranty. Singh comments, ‘We have completed many installations of 10GPlus and have always been thoroughly impressed with its capabilities. The warranty means that our customers have peace of mind that their chosen solution will perform as expected for the lifetime of the installation.’

10GPlus is a 3P (Third Party Testing) approved cabling system that not only meets and exceeds the performance outlined in EIA/TIA for Category 6A, but also meets and exceeds requirements in ISO/IEC for Class EA. The 10GPlus system therefore has unparalleled levels of certification and is manufactured in accordance with ISO 14001 and ISO 9001:2008.

After discussing the relative merits of shielded and unshielded cable, it was decided to use the latter. Asked why, Alaa Habanjar, country manager for Qatar, Kuwait and Levant?at Brand-Rex, replies, ‘Although there was some initial concern regarding the ability of unshielded twisted pair to achieve 10 Gigabit Ethernet performance due to alien crosstalk issues, Brand-Rex 10GPlus U/UTP has a unique Reuleaux shaped cable that reduces interference from adjacent cables and incorporates very highly balanced pairs. Its performance is also independently verified in 100m length testing for both the cable and the channel configurations.’

As well as installing 10GPlus, the specification also called for a fibre optic cabling backbone. Sourabh Singh says, ‘We wanted a solution that offered high levels of resilience and, due to the building’s use, an outstanding level of fire safety performance. The PDC range from Brand-Rex met all of these requirements and more.’
The Brand-Rex PDC products are compact and provider excellent tensile performance. The cables are based on a 900μm tight-buffered fibre. The universal construction enables them to be used internally and externally without the need for transition cable joints. With a low smoke zero halogen (LSZH) construction, they will be installed in the entire backbone of Al Abdul Wahab Gholam Tower’s network and directly terminated at a consolidation points.

With the building programme currently on schedule, the project will be completed by 2016. The final word goes to Zerone Technologies’ Sourabh Singh, who concludes, ‘The network cabling infrastructure we are installing using products from Brand-Rex will ensure that Al Abdul Wahab Gholam Tower is able to offer its occupants the very best communications platform, while maximising the potential of its building services technology.’