May 1, 2007 -- Range Resources Corporation of Fort Worth, Texas announced that it has selected CommScope'sSystimax GigaSpeed XL copper structured cabling platform to outfit its new offices in Fort Worth's City Place (the former "Tandy towers") with the power and speed needed to support Voice over IP (VoIP), large file transfers and bandwidth-intensive applications. KRK Technologies, a Systimax business partner, designed and installed the platform.
According to a press release, after RadioShack Corporation moved out of the Tandy Center, the historic towers, originally built in 1976 and 1978, lay dormant for almost two years. Today, the building's cores have been dismantled in order to modernize the interiors of the buildings, which have been re-developed by Range Resources and dubbed City Place, a mixed-use complex with residential, commercial and office space.
This April, Range, an independent oil and gas company, was set to become the first tenant in the commercial tower; the corporation has pledged to use the Systimax structured cabling platform to support VoIP and high-bandwidth engineering programs.
"When we outgrew our existing offices and made the decision to move into City Place, we knew that we were going to need VoIP in the new offices," says Joe Hale, IT director for range resources. "But our existing solution just wasn't going to support it. We knew we needed not just an end-to-end solution, but one that we could rely on for the next five to 10 years. We looked at several products and at four other contractors, but after KRK took us on the tour of Systimax 's lab, and when we saw the technology, what went into it and how well it worked, we knew we'd found the right solution."
KRK Technologies installed 80,000 feet of the GigaSpeed XL 2071 plenum copper cabling in the horizontal and 5,000 feet of the GigaSpeed XL 2081 plenum cabling in the backbone. Both types meet the TIA/EIA 568-b.2-1 Category 6 and ISO/IEC Category 6 specifications and provide the added performance margin required to support high-bandwidth applications - suitable for Range Resources' applications, which include reservoir and 3-D seismic simulations.
"We wanted to make sure that Range Resources had a sophisticated infrastructure and design that would support its more bandwidth-intensive applications," comments Mark Guajardo, RCDD, operations manager for KRK Technologies. "Systimax Solutions is the leader in our industry, and it just made perfect sense to use the GigaSpeed XL for this installation. The solution will enable Range Resources to run its simulations and send and share large image files that you'll find at any oil and gas company."
The Category 6 copper cabling will also support VoIP, a quality valued by Range Resources, as the firm has 650 employees located in offices in Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In addition, the cabling system will support network line speeds in excess of 1 Gbit/sec for all 140 employees, on all five stories, in the Fort Worth office.
"Systimax Solutions has a long history of providing top-quality, complete solutions that meet, and often exceed, industry standards and specifications," concludes Mark Peterson, senior vice president of enterprise global marketing at CommScope. "That's why our business partners, like KRK Technologies, and our end-users, like Range Resources, know they can turn to us for reliable solutions they can count on for years to come. We are excited to be a part of this historic move, and we look forward to continuing to support Range Resources in its endeavors."
