Case Study


The Client
Winner of the 2004 Robert Stephenson Award for concept and design and housed in a spectacular Norman Foster building, The Sage Gateshead has world-class facilities for music performance and education, conferences, meetings and a wide range of events.

The Sage Gateshead has state of the art acoustic and technical facilities throughout all of its performance and education spaces and is 'wired to the World' for all kinds of traditional and future web broadcasting.

The Challenge
To ensure that The Sage Gateshead delivers on its promise to encompass state of the art acoustic and technical facilities throughout all of its performance and education spaces, Gateshead Council and its mechanical and electrical contractors, Haden Young, required a comprehensive, structured cabling solution.

It is generally recognised that approximately 70 per cent of network downtime is due to cabling improprieties and since The Sage Gateshead will be ‘wired to the World’ the cabling solution needed to meet current specifications and handle future applications.

The Sage Gateshead required a cabling partner that would consider its full systems requirements including IP Telephony, data and content networking and security. Haden Young believed that as an IP communications provider, Redstone Converged Solutions was the best fit for the job. The Contractor also believed that Redstone would ensure that the cabling solution would be future proofed and optimise the council’s investment in technology.

The Solution
Haden Young contracted Redstone Converged Solutions to supply and install the structured cabling and an Integrated Building Management System.

Redstone Converged Solutions reviewed the cabling requirements of The Sage Gateshead and recommended a solution consisting of Hellermann Tyton Cat 6 cabling with the installation of 1630 information outlets.

The resilient backbone provided by the system would allow The Sage to cope with the ever growing demands of Gigabit speed Local Area Networks, analogue and digital video and IP voice systems as well as Building Automation Systems. With this solution the centre benefits from increased bandwidth and greater investment protection.

The Outcome
Haden Young acknowledged from the outset that structured cabling was the foundation of a successful network and the basic investment on which all other network equipment depends. Ray Henderson, Project Manager, Haden Young comments:

“With this in mind we chose Redstone Converged Solutions as our partner for this project. The Redstone team was responsive and flexible to the complex demands of the project and managed to deliver the project within the deadline and on budget. With a willingness to provide solutions and assist with every stage of the project, I am positive Redstone’s excellent standard of installation will benefit visitors to the centre for years to come.”

A representative from Gateshead Council finishes:

“The unique scale and scope of The Sage Gateshead project necessitated working with a technology partner that not only had first rate project management experience, but that would really add strategic value to the solution we required. It goes without saying that a robust communication infrastructure was critical to the success of the project and Redstone’s knowledge and experience really paid dividends for us in this area.”

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