Day one, 9:10 a.m. — the tape measure
The wall was going on an interior partition: 3 x 4, fifty-five inch panels, a server cabinet on the far side.The technician ran a tape from the finished face of the partition to the back of the cabinet. Forty centimetres.
Rear service needs sixty to eighty. At forty you can touch the back of a panel, but you cannot turn a screwdriver, and nobody is lifting twenty-five kilos of glass off a hook without putting a shoulder through the drywall.
Day one, 2:40 p.m. — changing the bracket instead of the building
Pop-out brackets hinge each panel forward about twenty centimetres: enough for a power board or a T-con without touching the neighbouring screen.Thirty to forty percent more than a fixed frame. On twelve panels that is real money, and still less than rebuilding a branch that opened six weeks earlier.
The catch is repeatability. Cheap hinges drift after a few cycles and the bezel lines go crooked, so we specify a hard stop and a locking pin, and cycle every position three times before handover.
Day two, 8:30 a.m. — wiring nobody could reach again
With rear access you hang the frame, hang the panels, then wire from behind. Here the wiring had to be dressed first, because nobody was getting back there.Power and signal in separate trunking, twenty centimetres apart. Every lead labelled at both ends. A service loop long enough to pull a panel forward without disconnecting it.
Half a day extra. The alternative was a wall that could not be serviced without cutting power to the whole branch.
Day two, 5:00 p.m. — what it costs to service now
A power board swap takes twelve to fifteen minutes with one technician. Rear service on a comparable wall takes forty minutes with two, because the neighbouring panels have to come off first.The brackets paid back the difference on the second service call, which came eleven months later.
The number to keep for the next project
Eighty centimetres. If the wall is still a drawing, keep eighty. If the wall is built and you are stuck at forty, front service is the only honest answer, and it needs to be budgeted before the panels ship.