In the world of college athletics, having state-of-the-art facilities is crucial. At Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, local contractor Mid-City Electric Co. helped to make sure the advanced systems in the university’s latest Schumaker Complex were up and running without a hitch.

Mid-City Electric, also based in Columbus, provided installation of the technical pathways (cable tray/conduit), as well as structured cabling, wireless access points and sound systems for the low-voltage systems in the new complex, said Michael Colosimo, project manager at Mid-City Electric.

The Schumaker Complex is the new training hub for 33 teams at Ohio State—specifically the Olympic sports teams. According to the university, it was built to boost the nutritional, physical and psychological development of the student-athletes on these teams. The 108,000-square-foot facility is designed to serve more than 800 student-athletes, including 15,500 square feet of training space and 2,600 square feet of classroom space. It also hosts more than 50 coaches and support staff.

The project required a large number of speakers and sound systems throughout the facility. In many of the performance areas, large speakers had to be lifted and placed on the ceiling. Smaller speakers are also all over the complex.

“We hung a lot of the large speakers overhead, weighing about 120 pounds apiece,” Colosimo said. “Inside a lot of the locker rooms, classrooms, things like that, they had a lot of speakers [we had to install].”

One of the most interesting aspects of the project was dynamic glass by a company called View, which intelligently changes throughout the day to allow the correct amount of daylight into the complex.

“It’s a system by where you can control the dimming for the glass,” Colosimo said. “It can change colors. It can block out the sun.”

For the lobby in particular, an extensive amount of cabling was used to connect the View glass. Each pane of glass required its own cable, which then was connected back to the system.

Another example of the complex's connectivity can be found in the offices and meeting rooms. In these areas, Mid-City installed an overhead ceiling enclosure that fit into a 2-by-2-foot area. Inside that enclosure are hookups for power, HDMI, etc. It acts as a hub for the technology in each room.

“We probably hung about 200 of these things in various areas,” Colosimo said.

The foremen on the project were Titan Kingery, electrical, and Krysten Lambert, technology. Mid-City Electric was contracted to perform the work by Soundcom Systems, based in Cleveland.

“They were putting in all the high-end technologies,” Colosimo said. “We were their installation arm.”

The Schumaker Complex opened in late 2018. It is named for frequent university donors the Schumaker and Trott family, which provided the foundational funding for the facility. A 2018 university announcement named 53 donors who contributed $25,000 or more to the facility.

Mid-City has worked on other Ohio State buildings and complexes in the past, including Mount Hall, Oxley and Pomerene Hall, the North Residential Fitness Center, and various projects at the James Cancer Hospital and the Wexner Medical Center. The company was founded in 1960 and does both electrical and teldata work on new construction and renovation projects in Central Ohio. It also provides service and maintenance, as well as upgrades.