Re-cabling a live head office to Cat 6A, with the office open throughout.

The head office ran on Cat 5 cabling across two building sections, each with a ground and first floor. It needed more bandwidth and room to grow.

The office had to stay operational the whole time. Existing furniture limited cable routes, and the server room itself had to move.

How we planned it

Missan surveyed the site, mapped the existing cabling and routes, and planned the link between the two sections. New Cat 6A cables were terminated at the user end first while the old Cat 5 links stayed live, so nobody lost their connection while the new network was built behind them. Night shifts were used where needed.

What we delivered

Missan delivered:

• 162 network cables pulled and 152 terminated in patch panels, covering user data, voice, access points, fax and dedicated executive phone points, plus 5 spare runs for future access points
• The server room in section 1 moved to a new room as the main distribution frame (MDF), and a new server room built in section 2 as the intermediate distribution frame (IDF)
• The internet provider's line moved to the new server room
• A fibre backbone between the MDF and IDF, spliced and tested
• New racks, patch panels and switches installed, with every cable labelled and tested with a Fluke tester
• 5 Wi-Fi access points, a Yeastar IP PBX with Yealink desk phones, and a temperature-monitoring system with alerts in the server room

The outcome

Users were moved to the new network in a single cutover after testing, and Missan's project record notes no downtime during the transition.

Data and voice points, Wi-Fi coverage, the fibre link, PBX extensions and temperature alerts were all tested before the client signed the completion report in November 2025.