Wise Music Group, London: comms room relocation
Wise Music Group, a leading force in music and publishing, recently undertook a comprehensive upgrade of their London headquarters—the nerve centre for its digital and media initiatives. At the heart of this transformation was the creation of a cutting-edge recording studio, designed to support the company’s innovative approach to new media and internet-driven projects.
Wise Music Group, London: comms room relocation
A staged five-floor comms room relocation, completed during normal working hours with zero network downtime.
Wise Music Group needed to free its existing comms room for a new recording studio while protecting the active network serving five occupied floors. ACCL mapped every connection, migrated the infrastructure in controlled stages and recovered 23 years of legacy cabling without interrupting the working week.
The result
ACCL relocated Wise Music Group’s entire comms room to a new location within the building, without a single interruption to the working week. The completed project provided Wise Music Group with:
- A fully relocated, tested and documented comms room
- Space reclaimed for a new recording studio
- Every floor’s cabling traced, labelled and re-certified
- As-built GA drawings and a full Fluke test report
- 23 years of legacy cabling removed and recycled
- Zero disruption to day-to-day business operations
Services delivered
Overview
Wise Music Group, a well-established name in music and publishing, was upgrading its London head office, the operational centre for all its new media and internet activity. Central to those plans was a new, state-of-the-art recording studio. The space earmarked for it was the building’s primary comms room, which supported the network infrastructure for all five floors.
That meant the project was never just a decommissioning job. Every switch, cable and connection serving five floors of live business had to be traced, relocated and recommissioned in a new location, all without the rest of the building noticing.
The challenge
How do you relocate a building’s entire comms room without disrupting a five-floor operation? Wise Music Group needed the existing comms room decommissioned and every piece of active network equipment and cabling it carried moved to a new location, while maintaining uninterrupted service throughout. Wise Music Group asked ACCL to deliver:
- Decommissioning and relocation of the existing network switches and cabling
- Cable tracing, labelling and documentation of every structured cabling connection from floor port back to the comms room
- As-built GA drawings showing outlet presentation and numbering
- A full Fluke-standard test report for every network cable, on every floor
- A patching schedule and cabinet elevation for the new location
- Recovery of legacy cabling once the migration was complete
- Zero downtime or service interruption throughout
A staged, floor-by-floor migration
ACCL worked closely with Wise Music Group’s IT and facilities teams to build a detailed, phased migration plan, mapping the existing cabling infrastructure in full and identifying the best new pathways to the relocated comms room before any physical work began.
The project then ran one floor at a time, during normal working hours. On each floor, every structured cabling connection was first traced from its floor port back to the comms room, and precisely labelled and documented. Only once that audit was complete were the existing cables carefully pulled back to the local riser and reinstalled along new tray work to the new comms room, with a clear sign-off from Wise Music Group at the end of each stage before the next floor began.
Recovering 23 years of legacy cabling
Once all five floors’ active infrastructure had been relocated and tested, ACCL turned to what the old comms room had left behind: 23 years’ worth of legacy cabling, still routed through the building’s risers and pathways. Recovering it decluttered those routes and removed a stack of unnecessary points of failure for any future upgrade work, and every metre removed was collected for recycling rather than sent to landfill.
Zero downtime delivery
Throughout the migration, strict protocols and contingency planning ensured Wise Music Group’s network services were never lost and operations were never interrupted. The client’s own account of the project put it plainly: the business users did not know what was going on in the building while the work was underway.
Project context
Music publishing · Five-floor London headquarters
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Technologies used
Related guidance
Foreword by Wayne
“Wise Music Group came to us with a precise problem: five floors of ageing cabling quietly slowing down a company that depends on fast, reliable connectivity to serve some of the biggest names in music publishing. What made this one satisfying wasn’t scale. It was precision. Every cabinet, every run, had to be planned around a live, working office. It’s a good example of the kind of careful, low-disruption project we do best.”Wayne Connors, Managing Director, ACCL
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank you, Wayne and the team for such an excellent and professional implementation. The organisation was fantastic and the way you worked within the building was great. The business users did not even know what was going on in the building. We would definitely not hesitate to use you guys again.”Rita, Wise Music Group
Frequently asked questions
Why did Wise Music Group need to relocate their comms room?
Wise Music Group wanted to install a new recording studio, and the space earmarked for it was the building’s primary comms room, the room supporting network infrastructure for all five floors. ACCL had to decommission and relocate the room’s entire contents to a new location without losing service to the rest of the building.
How did ACCL avoid downtime during the migration?
ACCL moved the network floor by floor rather than all at once, during normal working hours. Each floor’s cabling was traced, labelled and documented back to the comms room before anything was touched, then carefully pulled back and reinstalled along new containment to the new location, with sign-off from Wise Music Group at every stage.
What happened to the legacy cabling that was removed?
Once all five floors’ active infrastructure had been migrated and tested, ACCL recovered 23 years’ worth of legacy cabling left in the building’s risers and pathways. All of it was collected for recycling, decluttering the routes for future maintenance.
Did Wise Music Group’s staff notice the network migration taking place?
No. The project was delivered with zero downtime and no interruption to operations. In the client’s own words, the business users did not know what was going on in the building while the work was underway.
Did the migration require any out-of-hours or weekend working?
No. The entire migration ran during normal working hours, one floor at a time, a deliberate choice that kept the programme simple and gave Wise Music Group a clear sign-off point at the end of each stage before the next floor began.
What standard was the new cabling tested to?
Every network cable, on every floor, was tested and documented to a full Fluke-standard test report, the same rigour applied across the whole relocated comms room, not just a sample.
What documentation did Wise Music Group receive at handover?
ACCL produced as-built GA drawings showing outlet presentation and numbering, a full Fluke test report for every cable, and a patching schedule and cabinet elevation for the new comms room: a complete record of the relocated environment.
Why was Wise Music Group’s original comms room a problem?
It wasn’t a fault with the room itself. It was simply in the way of Wise Music Group’s plans. The company wanted to build a new recording studio, and the primary comms room, which supported all five floors, occupied the space earmarked for it.
How closely did ACCL work with Wise Music Group during planning?
Closely. ACCL worked with Wise Music Group’s IT and facilities teams to map the existing cabling infrastructure in full and agree the best new pathways to the relocated comms room before any physical work began, then confirmed sign-off with the client at the end of each floor’s migration.
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