Aaron Nygard’s expertise is one of the reasons our clients rely on us to ensure that low voltage design plans are executed correctly. Aaron is a Field Engineer in Northern California, and his responsibilities include onsite inspections of telecom infrastructure and cable installations during the construction of new multifamily developments. 

During an inspection of a project in Emeryville, Aaron discovered that the recently installed CAT5e ethernet cable did not meet the specifications outlined in the service provider contract to install CAT6 wiring.

To the casual eye, both cables look very similar and have the similar appearing termination points, but the biggest difference is CAT6 performs better and offers greater bandwidth at certain distances with the potential to support 10x the bandwidth of CAT5e. The net impact – of possibly having limited bandwidth speeds to certain units – would be obvious to residents within the affected units. 

CAT6 wires are preferred for future-proofing multifamily developments, especially given the density of 500+ residential units with thousands of devices connected to the internet.  

By making this discovery during his first inspection, Aaron gave our client the opportunity to correct the matter and have the subcontractor replace the errant wiring before the walls were closed and pre-leasing efforts commenced.