The job
A cathedral that also works as a broadcast site needed a real network: segmented, redundant on the WAN side, and built around the internet handoff that was already there.
The design
- Firewall: Meraki MX250
- Switching: Meraki MS355
- Segmentation: multiple VLANs separating production, operations, and everything else
- WAN resilience: dual active-active 5G cellular gateways across both WAN paths, alongside the existing internet handoff
How the design changed
The 2024 design-phase plan specified an MX85. The final build used an MX250. Designs should move when the requirements get clearer, and this one did.
The install
I did the install with help from the Chief Engineer and Tech Ops. The memorable part was a 300-foot cable run through a three-foot crawl space under the church.
The cutover
The whole cutover happened in one overnight maintenance window. The facility ran production the next day.
Later
SD-WAN now connects this site to the main broadcast center.
Write-up to come
Photos of the crawl-space run, the rack before and after, and a simplified VLAN diagram (with no public addressing).