AHL: Future-Proof Cabling Skills

We take rapid-fire questions on how AI data centers, Wi-Fi 7, and smart building demands are reshaping structured cabling, fiber, and day-to-day field expectations. We also get blunt about what protects your schedule, your margin, and your reputation when owners change their minds late and the job still has to ship. 

• planning for higher density fiber counts and multi-fiber connectors in data centers 
• leveling up fiber testing by understanding loss budget, not just pass or fail 
• choosing Cat 6A for Wi-Fi 7 and knowing when Cat 6 can still work 
• using the RCDD study handbook to confirm eligibility and map next steps 
• writing specs around performance requirements so AI changes do not instantly obsolete designs 
• treating labeling, bend radius, and pathways as troubleshooting insurance 
• documenting owner-driven changes to manage overtime, rework, and expedite costs 
• standardizing workmanship and building training timelines that new hires can trust 
• picking up networking fundamentals for AV over IP and server or switch configuration 
• improving closeout documentation as digital twin expectations rise 
• updating labor units with real productivity data as crews and skill levels change 
• designing bigger pathways and respecting fill ratios as AI rack density grows 

Go download and read the RCDD study handbook V.15. 

Transcript

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Welcome, HDMI, And Announcements

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Wednesday night 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. That can limit one thing. Live after hours with your favorite RCDD, and you know that's me, Chuck Bowser. Appreciate everybody being here tonight. Got a great show lined up for you tonight. And lots and lots of content to go through. Um, first off, acronym challenge. What does HDMI mean? HDMI. Let me know in the chat box what does that mean? HDMI. If you don't know, stands for high definition multimedia interface. HDMI. That's what you plug your computer in, help you to put A V over your TV, like I'm trying to do. Hey, tip for you. Uh I actually got some good news for you. Bixie is hiring two T DSSs. They are the instructors who teach the Bixie classes. They're hiring two of them. One is local to the Tampa area. Upcoming shows. Make sure you check out the show with Heather Randolph from Newcomb and Boyd. We talk about how to build a successful mentorship program. Also, right behind that, a three-episode series with Mike Pinocchio. He's a network protocol specialist. We talk about common category-rated failures with certifiers. And then don't forget, October 23rd to the 25th, Chuck's going to be at Tech Fest. No, no, no. Tech's giving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Let's just get right into the part of the program.

Skills For AI Fiber Projects

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Questions. Question number one. I'm the only, I'm only good. I can't even talk today. Holy Toledo. I'm only three years into cabling and I keep hearing that AI data centers are changing everything about fiber. And I want to be valuable on those projects five years from now. What skills should I be learning beyond pulling, terminating, testing? I swear I've answered this question before. I swear I've answered this question before. Number one, fiber's getting bigger. 12, 24, 48 used to be the common sizes. Now you're talking about, you know, all the way up to 69, 69, 12, I think it is. Yeah, big, big higher density fiber counts. Also, the changing the uh changing the cat connectors in your enterprise fiber, typically you're gonna be doing LCs, SCs, maybe uh some old STs if you got an old retrofitted job. And in data centers, we're talking MPOs, MTPs, MMCs. We got 12, 24, 36 strands of fiber on one connector. So ribbon fiber, think about that. You also need to be familiar with the testing skills beyond basic pass or fail certification. Because with fiber, it's all about the lost budget. The Sith technician is in the house. Hey, what's going on? The man, the myth of legend. Yes, Anthony's

New Studio Build And Gear Setup

SPEAKER_01 3:34

in the house. I'm having some streaming problems, so I think it's only going out live on LinkedIn. I mean, live on TikTok right now, I think. Uh trying something new. Notice the background has changed. The background has changed. I am no longer broadcasting from my old podcast studio. Everything's all gonna be in the new podcast studio. I got the rack in here. Obviously, I got my tools here, got the ladder, got the rack set in place, moved all the panels and wire managers. Next, I'll be bolting it to the ground. I just put in the anti-static flooring. Make sure you watch out for that episode. And then I'm gonna be putting in the bottoming and grounding for the rack. They're kind of cool. Lots of episodes coming up about the podcast build series. Next

Wi-Fi 7 Cabling And RCDD Steps

SPEAKER_01 4:16

question. This comes from Rachel. Rachel says, We're bidding more projects where the owner wants Wi-Fi 7, but nobody seems to agree on whether or not every AP needs cat 6A. Well, the question answer to that is yes, yes, every for Wi-Fi 7, everything needs cat 6A. That's the simple answer to that. Uh Interior Communication Navy veteran shall should 100% qualify for RCA. Please help us with this. Interior communications Navy veteran should 100% qualify. Please help me out with this. So the first thing is uh the real Z. If you want to qualify for the RCDD, first thing you need to do is go download and read the RCDD study handbook V.15. That is the first thing that you should be doing. Okay. Then you can tell whether or not you qualify for it or not. It even gives you the steps on how to, you know, to pay it, what the what what how the exam structured, minimum recommendation hours for studying, lots of great information. Start there first and then hit me up. Okay. Next

AI Design Speed And Why Quality Matters

SPEAKER_01 5:29

question. This comes from Daniel. And he says, I've been in RCDD for about 15 years, where AI projects seem to be moving faster than our normal design cycles. How do we keep specifications from being obsolete before the contractor even gets the material on site? There's no doubt that AI stuff is moving at the speed of light, right? It's got faster and faster and faster, change more changes, more specifications, but you really got to look at the performance requirements versus the product specific, specific designs. Okay. And as with anything with AI, pathways, pathways, pathways. Plan for the unknown, plan for the future densities. You're gonna have bigger pathways in your AI data centers, but you can but you need to put even bigger cable tray than you would for a normal one. Because again, who knows what's coming down the pike in six months when it comes to AI data center? It's all about managing your substitutions without sacrificing your performance. Okay, that's the key. Um, the standards eventually they'll catch up with the emerging technology, but I wouldn't count on that for at least a year. Tyler, Tyler says, I'm a second-year apprentice, and sometimes experienced guys treat labeling, bend radiuses, pathway sports like little details. How do you explain why workmanship standards actually matter? And when the network still seems to work. Okay, small installations is where you where you where you learn your skills. You don't want to wait till a huge project, 10-story building, multiple stories, where you start cabling uh combing cable. You want to start it with the small jobs when it's easy, build up that muscle memory. And then when you get to the big jobs, that small installation, because it's a lot easier. When you make a mistake on a small installation, it's a lot easier to fix than it is for a larger one. And and I I yeah, I hate to say this, but certification does not guarantee good workmanship. Okay, the chances increase, but that doesn't guarantee it. And that's what really spurs the whole certification versus experience debate we always see on the internet. There's good people out there with good work, there's people out there with good workmanship, but no credentials. There's people out with credentials with bad workmanship, it just is. But if somebody has a credential or certification, chances are they're gonna be a little bit better quality. You see, because credentialing and certification helps people get up to that level faster, right? Troubleshooting heavily depends on documentation, heavily depends on so if you're not labeling it correctly when you go to troubleshoot it, you're gonna spend an a whole bunch of time trying to figure out where the cable goes because somebody didn't label it. Next question from Alicia.

Late Owner Decisions And Cost Protection

SPEAKER_01 8:29

As a PM, I'm seeing owners make technology decisions later and later, but they still expect the original schedule. That's called schedule compression, by the way. What's the best way to protect a low voltage contractor uh when late owner decisions start creating overtime rework and expedition expedited material costs? Documentation, documentation, documentation. Document those owner-driven uh changes because they are responsible for those changes, the cost for those changes, not you. The owners don't understand that they don't make that connection that delayed decisions that they they every time they make a delay on making a decision or something, there's costs that go along with that. You don't stop pulling cable, you don't stop terminating cable. Customers don't understand that. So document those changes, and then you got to communicate the impact before they become an emergency. Don't wait until there's a lot of problems. Identify it up front. It's better to get it fixed before it's a tiny little problem than as opposed to later when it's a big huge problem. And uh know when to accommodate uh becomes enabling. You know, you we all want to give give the customer what they want and you know give them great customer service, but there becomes a point where that customer service will cause problems. The question from Andre.

Training Systems, AV Over IP, Digital Twins

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Andre, I've run crews and finding people isn't actually our biggest problem anymore. It's finding people who understand what quality installations look like, and how do we scale training without turning every experienced technician into a full babysitter? Bad news. Every technician is a babysitter, it just the way it is. The key is think about standardizing what good workmanship looks like. Now, a lot of people will default to the the It's a manual, the Bixie Best Practice Manuals. Okay, I get that. But companies can also have their own standardization as well. What they'll accept, what they won't accept. Get that in a document and get that document to everybody so that way everybody's on board and they know what's expected out of them. Maybe even talk about mentoring, okay? Mentoring without destroying that field productivity. Every company should have a mentoring program. And if you want to have to do one, watch next week when Heather comes on. We talk about mentoring programs, okay? Building a reputable technician training systems. So have a have a clear process. When you come on board, within six months, you'll get this training. Within 12 months, you'll get that training. Within 24 months, you'll get this training. And stick to it. The worst thing you could do is promise training to a technician, but then don't deliver it. That's the worst thing in the world you can do. Okay. Um then also you might want to leverage using certification versus internal training. Not every company can afford a Bixie lab. Not every company can afford to send somebody to uh Bixie become a certified trainer. So maybe call Nelson and have them come to your office and do a training.

unknown 11:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Or send some of you guys to Tampa. Also make sure that you have accountability without discouraging new workers. I talk about this every time I do a QA. Identify the good stuff first and then say, hey, we this we could have done a little better. And um, here's how we can change our next time, and here's why we need to do it that way. Those simple little steps are gonna help help that your your quality increase. Nicole from Signal Flow wants to know I'm about seven years into A V, and A V over IIP keeps pushing us deeper into networking. At what point does an AV technician need to become a network technician? And what networking skills are becoming non-negotiable? Look at CCNA classes. If you're a wire monkey and all you want to do is pull cable, fine. But at some point you will be setting up servers and switches and connecting things and having to having to log into devices to configure them. Just know those fundamentals, right? Because it goes well beyond pulling cable. Evan, on smart building projects, everyone talks about creating digital twin, but the as build information we receive is nowhere detailed enough to support one. Are digital twins forcing contractors to completely rethink closeout documentation? My answer there, my simple answer is no, it's not. Field data is becoming operational building data, and it puts up more of an emphasis on accuracy requirements, especially for digital closeouts. And bin modeling, uh building information uh management is really, really giving us a lot of information up front, but somebody's got to maintain it. Who owns it? Who owns that digital twin? And pricing documentation again, that's got to be done as a real deliverable because customers are going to be expecting that. Jasmine C wants to know, I'm a lead tech working mostly in schools, and budgets are always tight when a district wants Wi-Fi 7, but has older Cat 6, how do you decide what can stay and what really needs to be replaced? You know, Cat 6 can do 10 gig up to about 55 meters. So if your runs are shorter than 55 meters, then you may not necessarily have a problem there. But if you start getting longer than that 55, by the way, 55 meters is uh uh 55 times 3.28, that's 150 feet, something like that. If your runs are 150 feet, you could probably still do Cat 6A, but you are maximizing the bandwidth on that Cat 6. Okay, and that could cause problems, and that's where you run problems with Wi-Fi 7. You got to prioritize those AP locations for those upgrades, and then talk to the customer and come up with a balanced budget against realistic future requirements, okay. Schools are really, really tight on the uh on the Ryan is in the house and says, Ryan, legend in the industry. Appreciate the training you do. I appreciate that, Ryan. Um, is there anything in particular you want to see me do a show about? Just let me know. I'm kind of doing multi-streams here, and and I'm also having problems with my stream, so I don't even know if half of the stream is going out, but there you go. There you go.

Labor Estimating And AI Pathway Capacity

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Question number, I got lost track. From Greg H, uh, from Greg Low Voltage Ops, after 20 plus years in the operations, I feel like our biggest estimation problem isn't material pricing, it's accurately predicting labor. And that is a tale as old as time, by the way. Labor is always the big the biggest risk. When you have tighter margins and less experienced crews, how should contractors rethink their labor units and productivity assumptions? Just know this historical labor units may be outdated, you've got to keep on top of them, and especially if if you have turnover within your company, you might have had six, eight technicians that were fantastic, they were quick, but they left to go somewhere else. And now you got 10 people who are mediocre. If you're still applying the same labor units, saying, Hey, it's gonna take two minutes to do a jack with the new crew, and it's taking them 10 minutes to do a jack, guess what? You are going to lose money, right? So, as an estimator, you need to be going out and doing audits about once a month and go to different crews and just be do there, you know, as a under the guise of doing a QA and start timing how long it takes them to do things. Or if you have a company that tracks productivity on the via project management, that's good because now you've already got those numbers documented in timesheets, provided they are putting those estimates, I mean those times in their timesheets accurately. Technicians aren't known for filling out their their timesheets very well. They just want to get their eight hours and then they'll just make up a bunch of numbers that total up to eight hours. They gotta be accurate because if you're gonna be bidding estimates off of those labor units, you could start losing products, right? There you go. All righty. Um, next question. This comes from Sophia. She says, I specialize in data centers, and we're seeing fiber counts and rack densities that would have sounded ridiculous a few years ago. With AI campuses getting bigger, do you think the pathway capacity is becoming more important than the cable itself? And I AI, as I said this earlier in the show, AI needs more fiber, bigger fiber, that's a lot more density. I mean, you're pulling bigger fiber in that could damage the other fiber in the cable trace systems. So, yes, pathways is extremely critical, extremely critical, almost to the point. I don't want to say past it yet, but almost to the point of the actual cable. Pathway congestion is becoming a constraint because of data centers. They're trying to put more and more fiber in them so they can get more processing. Every time you use Google Maps, every time you use Chat GPT, you are using an AI data center. And that requires bandwidth. So, in order to be successful here, Sophia, you need to plan the expansion before you reach the fill ratios of those systems. Right? So, and there and the standard tells us about this all the time: 50%. Initial fill ratio, 25%. That gives another 25% to the maximum of 50%, which gives us room for growth. Okay. AI data centers are probably a little higher because of the uh extremely dense environments and how critical that physical infrastructure is. And what happens, the unknown here is what happens if that data center loses partial bandwidth. So those are the big questions right there. And those are the only

Final Check Of Chat And Sign-Off

SPEAKER_01 18:58

questions I had this week. I only had five or six of them, so I knocked them out pretty quickly. Well, almost pretty quick. It's 624. Let me check the chat, the TikTok thing, see if anybody's got any questions in there. Doo do do do do do do. Alrighty. Alrighty, alrighty, alrighty. I did not see any questions in there. I'll give you a few seconds to figure out those questions. And uh I'll go ahead and hit the stop record on on that. I don't even know if it's going out or not, but I know it's going on TikTok because I see the I see the uh the comments coming across, so I know it's coming out there. So any other questions from my TikTok peeps before I log you guys out? Alrighty, I guess not. Till next time, everybody. Remember, knowledge is passed.