Cover Story

Race to the Finish

The Alameda County Fair Association knew it needed a long-term infrastructure solution to solve its antiquated network issues.

The country's oldest one-mile horse racetrack sits among 267 acres of lush fairgrounds maintained by the Alameda County Agricultural Fair Association. Today, jockeys and trainers run their horses on the same grounds once used by champion racehorse Seabiscuit. Each year, this Northern California site 30 miles outside of San Francisco opens its gates to the Alameda County Fair, which has attracted people from around the county since 1858.

Though history is part of the fairgrounds' charm, its age was creating obstacles as the association sought to incorporate new technologies into the fairgrounds' antiquated copper network. Dropped calls, connectivity failures and slow-loading network applications were taking their toll on the association's daily operations.

Limited bandwidth and monthly DSL service charges created additional inconvenience and expense. Though he had part-time help from an external IT company, fairgrounds maintenance supervisor Ed Johnson needed a long-term infrastructure solution.

"I like to be self-reliant," Johnson says. "I don't want to wait for help."

Johnson had his work cut out for him. The copper-structured cabling system lacked a central backbone to connect the more than 30 buildings scattered throughout the fairgrounds. Upon inspection, Johnson discovered that about 30 percent of the copper wiring was unusable, while about 20 percent was in marginal condition.

"It was a matter of are we going to pull all this old wire out and start from scratch, or are we going to work with what we have," Johnson says.

The association's needs went far beyond structured cabling-system improvements, which compounded the challenges. Each year, more than three million people pass through the fairgrounds' gates to participate in one of its estimated 300 expos, festivals and concerts. Because the fairgrounds handle a significant amount of cash from vendors and parking attendants, the association also wanted to modernize its security systems.

Enter Randy Magee, chief financial officer of the Alameda County Agricultural Fair Association. Like Johnson, Magee wanted an upgrade to improve overall business operations, but he also saw an opportunity to generate additional revenue.

With more than 131,000 square feet of convention space, the facilities are booked every weekend with special events. Magee began receiving requests from vendors for high-speed Internet access. In addition, he and Johnson wanted a solution that took them away from having to rent audio equipment for paging and public-address services.

"While we provide great space for events, our technology was outdated and network slowdowns were an inconvenience to our employees," explains Magee. "By upgrading, we could address this inconvenience, plus provide additional services to our vendors."

Though Johnson had read about the benefits of fiber-optic networks, it was not until Magee did some interpersonal networking of his own that a solution emerged. Magee coaches his daughter's basketball team. At one of the team's games, he spoke with Darrell McLaughlin, account manager for Graybar, whose daughter also plays for the Eagles. During the conversation, Magee mentioned the fairgrounds' near-future plans for a fiber-optic network.

In January 2007, Magee and Johnson sat down with Graybar representatives to discuss the voice, security and data needs of the association. After thorough evaluation, the Graybar team recommended a fiber-optic network that would provide a reliable common backbone that could support the fairgrounds' needs.

"The fiber-optic network was logically the first step for us to take to improve our operations," says Magee. Fiber was the choice for its increased bandwidth, high performance and support for legacy and new technologies.

The looming festival season beginning in June put the project on a fast track, and the association chose a network supplier based on ease of installation and deployment speed. Because the association did not have an in-house IT technician, Graybar assigned a network system specialist to help Johnson and Magee choose the right products for the project.

"We wanted a solution that didn't require us to hire an IT team," says Johnson. "We wanted to do the deployment on our own."

Self-reliance was not the only issue affecting the design choice. The site had limited space, and the fairgrounds' sprawling acreage exceeded the distance limitation for Gigabit Ethernet over multimode fiber.

Johnson quickly ruled out a home-run design in which individual fiber-optic cables would run from the equipment room to each remote building on campus. Although a high-strand-count backbone cable that dropped off 12 strands to each remote building made sense, this type of deployment typically required the help of an IT contractor.

A new outside plant plug-and-play system designed by Corning Cable Systems made this deployment possible because of its easy-to-use, preconfigured features. Similar to data center plug-and-play products, Corning builds the Plug & Play AnyLAN system to specification, with the fiber-optic cabling cut to the appropriate length, spliced, terminated and tested at the factory. For the fairgrounds, the most appealing feature is that installation does not require an IT technician.

To benefit from the customization, the fairgrounds needed to provide Graybar with measurements of the distance between the buildings. Johnson did not have a blueprint that indicated these lengths to scale, so he provided Graybar designers with a rough map.

From this, Graybar provided designs for a star topology network that included five high-strand-count, single-mode fiber-optic trunk cables terminating at the grandstands located in the middle of the fairgrounds. From each tether attachment point (TAP) on the trunk cable, a harness cable connects the surrounding buildings, providing the distribution of 12 strands to each drop point.

While Johnson's map provided enough detail for the preliminary plans, Graybar and Corning needed exact distances to process the trunk-cable order. In February 2007, Corning engineers traveled to the fairgrounds, where they showed Johnson and his team how to measure the distances between buildings by pulling True Tape through the conduit.

With the exact numbers in hand, Graybar and Corning created the documentation for the new infrastructure. Today, these plans have enabled the fairgrounds to deploy remote sites on its own as its capacity needs grow.

Although the design process created minor inconveniences, "We greatly valued the self-installation features made possible through customization," according to Johnson. The customization also required careful planning for factory lead times, which Graybar built into the project.

With the backbone laid out, Johnson turned to Graybar for advice in designing the telecommunications enclosure for the remote buildings. He opted for a 2'x 3' wallmount cabinet that housed a fiber-optic enclosure, a modular patch panel with Category 5e connectivity, a horizontal wire manager, a 24-port Gigabit Ethernet power-over-Ethernet switch and an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

The new design enables the association to upgrade its existing horizontal cable plant within the new enclosure, while the UPS helps keep the entire network up and running when the occasional blackout strikes.

In July 2007, Graybar representatives and Corning engineers trained Johnson and his team of electricians, landscapers and administrative staff how to deploy fiber-optic cabling and install the UPS and switch devices. Without an IT department, fairgrounds employees worked together to install the trunk cables, harnesses and fiber jumpers that created the backbone of the new fiber-optic network.

Corning and Graybar continued to provide guidance in designing the telecommunications rooms, mounting racks, pathways and enclosures, and in verifying the fiber performance.

The event marked one of the largest deployments of outside plant plug-and-play for an enterprise customer in the United States. It was a major accomplishment for the Alameda Fairgrounds, as well-Johnson's 30-member team deployed more than 13,000 feet of cable in just under a week.

Today, data services are up and running in five buildings. Applications that once took more than five minutes to open, now take a fraction of a second, thanks to the transition from 768K DSL to Gigabit Ethernet.

"This was a project that we needed to do to improve our overall operation," Magee explains. "We did not project an ROI for the network, although we do see many opportunities to reduce our expenses, increase our revenues, improve security and upgrade the public address system we have been renting."

Magee anticipates broadband availability will make the park more attractive to vendors looking for a venue capable of processing electronic-payment transactions and of accommodating elaborate interactive displays. Such amenities are important to the nonprofit fairgrounds, says Johnson. "What we make on shows is what we have to spend. We're doing everything to keep the costs low."

Over the next five years, Johnson and Magee plan to connect the remaining buildings and add a security component to the network. The two are also investigating migrating car-counter electronics for the fairgrounds' access gates, as well as access-control equipment for its campsites and RV storage lots-all of which the new network can support.

About Graybar

Robert A. Reynolds Jr. is chairman, president and CEO of Graybar Electric Co., a distributor of electrical, telecommunications and networking products, and related supply chain management and logistics services. After serving as senior vice president, electrical business, Reynolds was appointed president and CEO in 2000. He also sits on the boards of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) and the National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED).

With more than $5.25 billion in revenue in 2007, and through its network of more than 250 North American distribution facilities, Graybar offers products from thousands of manufacturers. One of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, Graybar holds the top spot among diversified wholesalers on FORTUNE magazine's 2008 America's Most Admired Companies.

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