For many years the company has worked towards reducing its impact on the environment and in 2011 it announced that its global organisational and operational activities had achieved Carbon Neutral Status in accordance to PAS 2060 – the carbon neutrality standard launched by the British Standards Institute (BSI). Its aim is to reduce its total carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2015.

Brand-Rex recently made a significant step towards achieving this target by announcing that its GigaPlus Category 5e and Cat6Plus Category 6 boxed cable ranges are now completely carbon neutral. From 2009 to 2010 cut the carbon equivalent (CO2e) of the GigaPlus Category 5e cable by 6 per cent to 45.2kg CO2e per 305m box, with an even larger reduction of 9.6 per cent on the bigger Cat6Plus Category 6 cables to 54kgs CO2e.

2012 marks 40 years of manufacturing superiority for Brand-Rex and despite the current economic climate the company recently made a six-figure investment in its production infrastructure, including the redesign of its engineering and technical office space to help it double in capacity. Manufacturing areas have also been reconfigured to make them more efficient and there has also been a significant investment in new machinery and the refurbishment of existing equipment.

This activity was complemented by the appointment of new members of staff to achieve a number of strategic objectives across its operation. This includes a dedicated continuous improvement manager who is in charge of devising and implementing a strategy to enhance stakeholder engagement, reduce operating costs, improve risk management and drive up efficiencies across the entire business.

‘When the votes were counted, Brand-Rex was the clear winner in both categories, and by a significant margin,’ said Netcomms Europe’s publisher, Ian Titchener. ‘I would like to congratulate the company on winning the Green Award and the Award for Manufacturing Excellence and thank all who voted.’

Paul Lines, CEO at Brand-Rex, concluded, ‘I’m delighted that our achievements in these two very important areas of our business have been recognised at the Comms Expo Awards. As the first cabling company to make its operations globally carbon neutral we are very proud of our green credentials. We will deliver continuous improvement in our environmental performance throughout the rest of 2012 and will look at new ways to reaffirm our status as the world’s most environmentally conscious structured cabling manufacturer.’

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10 May 2012
ASA: In terms of protecting the marketing/advertising activities of Olympic partners, what are LOCOG’s key objectives in the lead up to and during the Games?

LOCOG: Since we won the bid to host the London 2012 Games in 2005 we have always sought to educate people about our legal rights, the investment our sponsors make and the damage which ambush marketing can do to a nation’s ability to host the Games. In other words, deterring and preventing ambush marketing has been our priority and it still is. Our guidelines and FAQs remain on our website for anyone to view (www.london2012.com/brandprotection) and we continue to work with industry bodies, like the ASA, to ensure businesses are able to seek advice if unsure about what they can and cannot do.

We have had fantastic support from our sponsors – without them, the Games simply could not happen. Now is the time that the rights they have purchased are the most valuable, and we must protect the exclusivity we have promised them by ensuring their competitors don’t seek to gain an association with the Games. We hope that all of the educational measures we have employed over the last few years pay off but where businesses do undertake ambush marketing we are ready to take swift action to prevent this.

ASA: What top tips can you give marketers planning ad campaigns around the Olympics on how to avoid breaching LOCOG rules?

LOCOG: Our legal rights are very wide and therefore any ‘Olympic’ themed campaign is likely to infringe them – even if it doesn’t refer explicitly to the Games. If a business is looking to undertake a marketing campaign which capitalises on the Games we would ask them to consider the ethics of doing so. Trying to associate a brand with the Games, and to feed off the excitement and goodwill in the Games, when you have not paid the sponsorship fees to do so directly damages the funding for the Games and the British Olympic and Paralympic Teams competing at them. The best way to support the Games and our athletes is to respect the legal framework and not attempt to leverage the Games in marketing campaigns.
To understand the scope of our rights, we would recommend businesses look at the faqs and documents available at www.london2012.com/brandprotection.

ASA: What are the common pitfalls that non-Olympic-partner advertisers run into?

LOCOG: Some businesses think that if they don’t use any of our logos or refer explicitly to the Games, this won’t infringe our rights. However, the London Olympics Association Right is drafted widely so that any representation which creates an association between a business or brand with the Games (subject to certain defences) infringes the right.

It is also worrying that we are still seeing businesses promoting competitions or prize draws to win Olympic or Paralympic tickets. The terms and conditions of the tickets prohibit all use of tickets for advertising, promotional or marketing purposes without our consent (which we reserve for sponsors). In addition, Section 31 of the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 makes it a criminal offence to “sell” tickets in the course of trade without our consent. The definition of “sell” is broad and can capture use of tickets for promotional purposes where, for example, someone buys a product in return for being entered into the draw.

ASA: Are you actively monitoring for ads that might contravene intellectual property rights?

LOCOG: Yes, we are working with our official market research services provider, Nielsen, to monitor for infringing advertisement.

ASA: Do you provide any advice and training?

LOCOG: We have produced a range of faqs and guidelines (including some for specific sectors such as tourism and betting) which are available at www.london2012.com/brandprotection. We have also spoken at many industry events and held our own events, for example for marketing companies. We are not able to provide individual advice or training for businesses but have worked with organisations like the ASA to ensure they are able to provide advice.

ASA: What sanctions can LOCOG invoke if a marketer gets it wrong?

LOCOG: In relation to adverts which create an association with the Games, LOCOG is able to seek civil remedies including an injunction and damages. In addition, in the case of tickets being used without authorisation, we can void the tickets and where there is an offence under Section 31 of the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 we will refer the matter to the police. Use of Olympic and Paralympic symbols and terminology to promote goods can also be a criminal offence which the police or trading standards may pursue. LOCOG could also refer a case to the ASA for adjudication for issues than can be addressed under the CAP or BCAP Codes.

During the Games, advertising and trading regulations will be in place around venues, meaning that many forms of advertising in the defined ‘event zones’ is prohibited unless authorised by LOCOG. For example, billboard advertisement, leafleting or sampling, give-aways and experiential advertising on the streets around venues will require LOCOG’s consent. Undertaking such advertising without LOCOG’s consent will be an offence punishable by a fine. More information on these regulations is available at http://www.london2012.com/brandprotection

See the original article here: http://www.cap.org.uk/Media-Centre/2012/Marketing-and-the-Olympics-ASA-quizzes-LOCOG-for-answers.aspx

First, they don’t have a sufficient grasp of the technology, the market and the “specialist language” of that market and technology.

Often PR agencies think that it is easy to fit in some trade or tech clients because they think “Well… it’s like general PR – just with a lower budget”.

Frankly they have no idea of the complexities and high-technology bubbling just under the surface of what they see as dull and uninteresting.

But as a marketer in a business-to-trade or business-to-technical marketplace (be it building materials, advanced composites, automotive components, process engineering, IT, telecoms or any one of a thousand other specialist sectors); you know how complex your market and technology are.

And you know that neither the PR account exec nor the PR account director will have much understanding of what you and your people are talking about. Let alone which are the important things to convey to the market through the medium of PR.

Worse still, most marketers in trade and technical markets have already had the dreadful experience that what the PR agency writes will probably have all of your industry’s specialist words and terms liberally sprinkled around – but generally in the wrong place or misused. To a prospect or customer in your sector, this will be hilarious. To you, if this stuff ever saw the light of day, it would be terribly embarrassing!

So for many clients of self-proclaimed Tech PR Agencies, either you have to write/re-write everything yourself, or you decide not to use an agency at all, or worse still you give up on PR as being too difficult.

Secondly, many so called trade and tech pr companies, because they don’t truly understand what is needed will tend to focus all their efforts on trying to please you – the client.

But because they don’t really understand your market, they can’t challenge those of your ideas that might be less than ideal PR for your market or sector. They become “yes-people” and in doing so they feed irrelevant material and pitched to the Editors and producers often leading these poor people to resort to Anglo-Saxon in order to vent their frustration!

These Tech PR Agency people couldn’t have it more wrong!

The job of a good PR agency is to concentrate on keeping the Editors and journalists of your key target publications happy. Not you.

Even when I’m pitching to a prospective new client, I mark out the ground rules. “The Editors are our real clients,” I will tell them. “You’re here to pay the bill!”

Now okay, that is a little flippant and is always said with a smile. But our logic at Turtle is simple. Keep the Editors happy and they give us lots of high-value coverage for our clients. And if we get lots of high value coverage – we will have very happy clients.

Turtle Consulting is a PR Agency that specialises in Trade and Technical PR. If you are looking for a PR Agency in these sectors, please contact us today

There is a very strong move towards overhead raceways for both copper and fibre cabling in order to leave the underfloor area free of the big air dams which masses of Cat 6A 10Gigabit/s cables are now tending to form – which have a serious adverse effect on cooling efficiency and effectiveness.

But a major issue with overhead cable trays or raceways is that – if they are not from the same ‘family’ as the data centre racks/cabinets – is that there are a lot of time and effort consuming engineering and installation problems to overcome on site as different fixings and cable entry/exits fail to line up properly.

Even worse, non-family cable trays and raceways can seriously interfere with the roof-section fixings needed for cold-aisle containment or cocooning solutions. This can cause difficulties when both are being installed together. The scope for problems, when it is intended that cold-aisle cocooning will be retrofitted at a future date is immense; a potential engineering nightmare and a risk to future uptime.

To ensure that no such onsite engineering problems are encountered, Cannon Technologies, one of the main suppliers of cabinets and racks into data centres, has launched T4 cable trays for vertical installation within its cabinets, racks and patching frames plus T4 raceways for overhead cable management.

The Cannon Technologies T4 raceways are exactly matched to all of the companies’ wide range of equipment cabinets, racks and frames both in terms of fixings and cable entry/exit points. Available as both ‘single-deck’ and ‘double-decker’ they affix directly to the tops of the cabinets and the double-decker version (as shown in photo) allows route or cable type segregation – for example segregating fibre cables from copper or A-route from B-route.

T4 cable trays and T4 raceways are designed to perfectly integrate with Cannon’s T4 cold aisle cocooning solution – especially in a retrofit situation to guarantee that there is absolutely no need for emergency on-site re-engineering.

Said Cannon Technologies md Matt Goulding “We believe that data centre infrastructure should also be plug-and-play!”

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Now in its third year, the Green IT Awards aims to showcase and reward the technology, tools and organisations that are judged to have made a significant contribution to improving the IT industry’s environmental performance. Many of the awards are decided by public vote, with others considered by an expert judging panel. Elements scrutinised include the quality and originality of the submission, plus evidence of positive, sustainable impact and environmental, social and economic benefits.

In the categories of Product of the Year and Minister for Energy Award Siemon has been nominated for its data centre product IcePackTM. This complete liquid-cooled door system, replaces standard cabinet doors in new build data centres as well as existing sites, to cool up to 31 kW of heat per enclosure. According to Siemon, this is a space saving and energy saving system providing a high level of supplemental data centre cooling with minimal incremental energy consumption and no added noise. It capitalises on the superior cooling power of water, which cools over 3,400 times more efficiently than air and requires less energy to pump and circulate than air takes to blow.
In the classes of Sustainable Design Project of the Year and Team of the Year, Siemon has been recognised for its work with the National Composites Centre. This research hub is home to a variety of organisations developing new technologies for composites products and is one of the UK’s most energy efficient research establishments, opened last year in response to the Government’s Composites Strategy.

Constructed to meet a ‘BREEAM Excellent’ environmental rating, the National Composites Centre (NCC) is built to a best in class standard, using the latest energy efficient systems and renewable technologies. This includes a converged network that carries all data for the facility whilst delivering VoIP capability and providing the backbone of a complete building management system (BMS). NCC selected a Siemon Z-MAX® category 6A shielded structured cabling system to provide the necessary performance to manage the high volume of data transfer required by the centre’s research programmes. This shielded system provides the highest margins on all TIA and ISO performance requirements for category 6A/class EA, including critical alien crosstalk parameters, combining superb performance and unparalleled usability with security and robust noise immunity.

Peter Chivers, chief executive of the National Composites Centre concludes, “The UK now has a research centre that leads the way in its field and will offer huge benefits for industry and consumers. Our communications infrastructure is the lifeblood of the NCC and Siemon’s technology, help and advice played a vital part in helping us to achieve our environmental objectives.”

To find out more about the Green IT awards visit www.greenitawards.com.

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NetworksCentre – now one of the major distributors for fibre and cooper structured cabling systems, data centre cabinets and network test equipment – is the only distributor of Fluke Networks testers with a Fluke qualified trainer and the only company in the channel able to provide Fluke certified training.

NetworksCentre’s qualified trainer is technical manager Keith Sawyer and the company is also offering comprehensive training sessions for all Fluke Networks test and measurement equipment purchased, such as the DTX-1800 Cable analyser, LinkRunner AT and the Optifiber™ pro OTDR.

NetworksCentre managing director Duncan Lindsay explains; “As a distributor we see our responsibilities are far more than to simply supply products. In such a crowded market NetworksCentre has technical and logistics teams to advise and support our customers through the entire process of purchasing Test & Measurement equipment as well as for structured cabling and data centre projects. We add real value to our installers and customers. From identifying the appropriate tester and accessories to suit our customer’s needs, to post purchase support in the form of training, extended warranties and gold support as well as telephone support to help with troubleshooting issues.”

The new Fluke Networks OptiFiber™ Pro OTDR is the first handheld OTDR that’s purpose built for enterprise fibre testing. It has revolutionary features such as a touch screen Smartphone interface for ease and speed of use; and a ‘Data Centre Mode’ which automates the process of setting test parameters like wavelength or end detection. All of which allow users to reduce costs associated with premises fibre testing, while enhancing productivity and increasing network reliability – which will ultimately boost profits and reduce downtime.

The combination of NetworksCentre’s exclusive training, expertise and comprehensive aftercare with first in class testing technology provides a multi-layered support platform that can really make the difference when choosing your test solution.

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One of the world’s foremost providers of carbon advisory services and carbon offsets, Carbon Clear has offices in the UK, France, India, Spain, Turkey and the USA. The company’s business development manager, Andy Lowe, commented, ‘Our aim is to shape and promote the low carbon agenda. Businesses choose to work with us because our credibility, operational strength, and consultative approach help them achieve their sustainability goals on time and within budget.’

Carbon Clear counts Brand-Rex as one of its clients and has helped it offset all the CO2 produced during its operations, making it the first company in its sector to be verified carbon neutral according to PAS 2050:2008. Kennedy Miller, development manager at Brand-Rex, explained, ‘We have specifically chosen projects related to our business. This includes one in Chile – where 34 per cent of the world’s copper is mined – which captures the methane from two large landfills that is then flared to prevent its release into the atmosphere, resulting in significant emission reductions.’

When Carbon Clear announced its decision to relocate its UK headquarters to York Way in London, it made a conscious decision to only use products with the very best environmental credentials. This policy extended to its structured cabling infrastructure and having worked with Brand-Rex to make its GigaPlus Category 5e and Cat6Plus Category 6 boxed cable ranges completely carbon neutral, Lowe and his team knew exactly where to go.

In order to provide the requisite future proofing, Cat6Plus was the obvious choice, offering high levels of performance and guaranteed compliance with the Class E/Category 6 published standards as an absolute minimum. Andy Lowe said, ‘As well as being technically superior, the fact that from 2009 to 2010 Brand-Rex managed to cut the carbon equivalent of its Cat6Plus cable by 9.64 per cent was a major factor in our decision making process.’

Kennedy Miller added, ‘Getting to a point where we can describe Cat6Plus as carbon neutral has been a complex but highly worthwhile exercise. By establishing the emissions we create – from the sourcing of the base materials, through to transportation and manufacture, and finally to delivery to Carbon Clear – we can ensure that we offset this with investment in projects that produce fewer greenhouses gasses.’

The Brand-Rex cables also carry carbon footprint markings, while the boxes that they are delivered in have also undergone a significant redesign and are now made of extra strength low carbon cardboard. Furthermore, over the next few months Brand-Rex will be phasing out its HDPE plastic inserts and replacing them with a recycled pulp alternative, making all the components of the boxes fully recyclable.

A total of 90 ports were installed throughout the new offices, along with Brand-Rex 24 port angled Snap-In-Jack patch panels that helped to streamline the installation process. The new infrastructure will support the company’s completely cloud based IT platform and will enable voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), video and power over Ethernet (PoE) devices to operate over it.

‘We know that Brand-Rex structured cabling is the leading product of its kind, however, being able to install a system that has been certified carbon neutral helps us maintain our own highly prized environmental credentials,’ concluded Carbon Clear’s Andy Lowe. ‘I firmly believe that as CO2 reduction gets higher up the procurement agenda, cabling manufacturers with carbon neutral products and a verified carbon reduction agenda will be viewed more favourably than those that don’t.’

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In fact, because most trade journals actually have a staff of only one and bit (the editor and a part time advertising sales rep), they are almost totally dependent on material submitted by companies. So if you’re providing a flow of high quality press releases and feature articles, or case studies, they’ll use it. If you don’t, they’ll use your competitors’ material instead.

Running, as I do, a PR division, you’d probably expect me to tell you at this point that PR is a really difficult black art. But it’s not. Granted, we at Turtle Consulting have learned a trick or two over the years which help, but the core skill is simple hard work and gentle sales technique.

The B2B PR game plan is:

(1) Analyse the journals in the sector (remember that many are online magazines these days) and understand what the editors want.

(2) Brainstorm the subjects on which your company has something to say and then speak to the relevant editors.

(3) Write and distribute press releases on any real news stories you have – but don’t send rubbish. This way, editors will come to know that your releases will be worth reading and they won’t get binned along with the hundreds of dreadful non-stories they receive every week.

(4) Keep a steady flow of material heading towards the editors. Properly done, you should be able to feature in the key titles 10 months out of 12 – maybe even 12/12!

(5) Use a cutting service to make sure you pick up on all the coverage you obtain. And don’t just file it; you can reprint into a direct mail, put it on your website or hand out items, which makes excellent and authoritative ammunition for the sales force.

(6) If you don’t want to do all of this yourself, then consider using a PR agency but only one that specialises in your sector. Ask one of the Editors for his/her recommendation.

Cost Effective

B2B advertising is far from cheap with a typical colour page costing from £1700 to £2500 plus the cost of producing the advert. To be effective, it needs to be regular and in several magazines. Budgets need to be in the hundreds of thousands to be effective. B2B PR on the other hand can start from £zero if you do it yourself and as little as £15k a year using an agency. You can achieve editorial coverage valued at many times what you spend.

We regularly calculate the Advertising Equivalent Value for our own clients and frequently achieve Return On Investment from 1000 per cent and upwards.

Of course, there are also good reasons to advertise – particularly when you need to get over a message which is not “news”. And of course if no-one advertises there won’t be any magazines left for PR to work in. So it is a responsibility to support sector magazines with advertising too.

If you would like more information on our B2B PR Service, please contact us

The scope of work is enormous and provides the entire structured cabling system for a modern, progressive, multi-function network in a brand new, state-of-the-art medical facility delivering high standards of medical care. Using Brand-Rex products, CGC will install, test and commission a range of network services for telephone, data, TV, CCTV and access control. In addition, other areas will be provided with additional network services including video surveillance, building automation, and a fire alarm system. At the heart of this advanced network will be Brand-Rex 10GPlus Augmented Category 6 U/FTP, tight buffered premise distribution multimode and single-mode fibre, and single-mode steel tape armoured multi loose tube fibre optic cables.

Fibre connectivity will exist between the Central Energy Plant (CEP) and each building, where a fibre backbone will be installed from the main distribution frame (MDF) to an independent distribution frame (IDF) on each floor. In turn, each IDF will use CAT 6A U/FTP to connect over 20,000 access points. The detail is shown in table 1.
System Women’s Hospital Ambulatory Building Hospital Physical Medical & Rehab Transitional Research Institute

Telephone System 1455 943 1035 736
Data System 4606 4214 3005 2710
Digital TV System 456 410 325 310
CCTV 90 96 86 31
Total 6607 5663 4451 3787
Total No. Of points 20,508

Table-1

A wide variety of Brand-Rex Optical Cable types will be deployed, including 4, 6, 12 and 24 core single-mode, 4 and 8 core multimode, and a 10GPlus Augmented Category 6 U/FTP cabling system. 42U Cabinets will be installed into which the 10GPlus cables will be terminated using the unique V12 Angled Patch panel, while fibre cables will terminate using preloaded fibre patch panel.

Brand-Rex Country manager Alaa Habanjar said, ‘’Hamad Medical City requires a highly resilient and robust cabling infrastructure for a wide range of essential services. The critical need of a hospital made the selection process thorough and stringent, including proof of capability, and detailed technical data.”

Hamad Medical Corporation is responding to economic growth in Qatar by providing citizens and residents with modern health care services. What was originally the ASIAD village, created in 2002 for the 15th Asian games has been redeveloped to create this impressive and modern medical facility with 1,600 employees, over 1,000 beds, a 40 bed day care unit, a 300 bed nursing home and dialysis facility.

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Part of the company’s innovative FibrePlus portfolio, MT Connect SuperSet provides a reliable foundation for today’s Ethernet, Fibre Channel and Infiniband technologies and will future proof the physical network infrastructure for the emerging 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet transmission speeds. Although it can be used in the enterprise backbone, it is ideally suited for installation in the data centre where multiple, point-to-point fibre connections between racks can be quickly and efficiently installed, maintained and changed.

Developed using only the highest quality products, it is based on high bandwidth superior performance, bend insensitive OM3/OM4 multimode and OS2 performance singlemode cabling,

The set comprises fibre optic cables and patch cords, ultra high density panels, connectors, assemblies, faceplates and adaptors. These standards compliant, precision engineered components maintain the integrity of the transmission line, supporting the requirements of higher speed technologies, while offering unsurpassed levels of reliability.

They are designed and manufactured to conform to the ISO/IEC 11801, EN 50173-1 and TIA 568C structured cabling standards, as well as the IEC 24764, EN 50173-5 and TIA 942 data centre cabling standards.

Utilising advanced MTP technology the connector is a multi-fibre ferrule product that accommodates up to 12 fibres in a single row and 24 fibres in dual rows. Fully compatible and intermateable with MPO connectors, the MTP has excellent optical performance and low loss is facilitated by precision alignment of the fibre array using a pair of metal guide pins in the male MTP connector, which mate with corresponding holes in the female MTP connector. It also uses a simple push-pull latching mechanism for easy and intuitive insertion and removal.

On-site installation does not always lend itself to a high performance network and the smallest speck of dust or dirt can have a huge impact on how well a fibre optic based system will perform. Pre-termination eliminates this problem as the module cassettes are made in clean, static free, factory conditions with all the necessary testing equipment and tooling to ensure that every port performs to the necessary standard.

‘Simple to install, operate and maintain, MT Connect SuperSet is the perfect solution for those looking for maximum levels of future proofing and the highest possible performance from their fibre optic based infrastructure,’ stated Ken Hodge, chief technical officer at Brand-Rex. ‘This technically advanced high density system will streamline the move towards 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet and the fact that it is pre-terminated ensures fast and reliable installation.’

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