Medway Foundation Trust:
Cooling and Quiet Racks Support New Hospital Network

In July 2013 The Rack People successfully bid for a ground-breaking project at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham, Kent. The tender required a range of rack solutions to facilitate deployment of new nodes containing fibre switches which would support a new telephone system and wireless access points. The rack solutions needed to be installed in 28 separate locations around the site.

Medway NHS Hospital, Kent - Entrance After visiting the site and working closely with the NHS Project Team, The Rack People identified the best solution for each location. These solutions featured;

Cooling Without Major Building Works: Unique cooling solutions were chosen which allow removal of the warm air from the cabinet environment without drilling through exterior walls, hence avoiding the expense involved in weather proofing and preventing access to flora & fauna.
Noise Reduction: Industry leading acoustic racks were chosen to prevent the noise from PoE Switches and other equipment from having a detrimental impact on the patients, staff and other people using the spaces, whilst still offering high performance cooling and security.
Resilience: Power supplies required N+1 Redundancy and in some cases the cabinet cooling systems too.
Monitoring: Monitoring of the air temperature exiting the racks in order to control airflow and activate failure alerts in the event of power or fan failure.
Space Savings: Maximising the space available at the location
Safety & Security: The racks were specified to prevent unauthorised access and provide remote alerts in the event of smoke or fire within the cabinet.

In essence there were two types of location, larger peopled areas and smaller spaces.

Peopled Areas

The peopled areas included staff offices, public areas, waiting areas or day rooms. They needed to have cooling, noise reduction and suitable aesthetics. The Rack People's solution provided;

7 kW of cooling. In some locations we provided ducting in order to remove the hot air entirely from the room to dissipate in a ceiling plenum.
Resilience
High levels of noise reduction
A light reflective finish or a real oak wood finish to help the rack integrate visually into it's environment

Small Spaces

The small spaces, such as cupboards or store rooms had restricted air-flow and needed a clever cooling solution. Noise reduction and aesthetics did not need to be considered. The Rack People's Solution provided;

10 kW cooling with heat ducting to remove the heat entirely from the space
N+1 Redundancy

Craig Allen, IT Projects and Operational Manager, says, "The Rack People were successful in tendering to provide cabinets and supporting equipment as part of a major network infrastructure refresh at Medway Foundation Trust. Their range of products meant that they were able to provide a range of solutions to support the network across our main hospital building. The project management, delivery and installation of acoustic and ICAS cabinets to the Trust was handled with a high standard of professionalism and a can-do attitude. The Rack People worked with the Trust to provide or engineer products that suited our specific needs and achieve an environment that will support our network throughout its future development and deployment."