In a venture to supply voice, video and data services to a housing project in northern Virginia, a technical services contractor is now finishing setting up a $1.6-million telecommunications center disguised as a pair of plantation outbuildings.

Matt Martinez is the project manager for M.C. Dean Inc., Chantilly, Va. Dean specializes in design-build and maintenance of power, electronic and communications systems.

Martinez says a Dean subsidiary will operate the system for the developer, charging 10% less than the services would cost piecemeal. Consolidated maintenance and administration should bring down operating costs and add convenience to customers. "It costs a lot to send paper bills," Martinez says.

The 2,500-sf-ft center has two structures linked under ground. A 200-kv generator sits in a walled courtyard between them.

The complex is designed to blend with landmarked plantation outbuildings nearby, but it hides about $1 million worth of telephone, digital video and data equipment. It also houses 8-hour banks of backup batteries and the generator. Satellite dishes for television service will be in a "pumphouse."

The center will use about half its potential capacity serving 2,200 "smart" homes being built at Lansdowne, about 30 miles west of Washington, D.C. Dean has laced the development with $6 million worth of installed cable.

Grounding and lightning protection are key concerns. All metal, including concrete reinforcing steel, is bonded. Air terminals are tied to four, 3-rod arrays of ³/₄-in. by 10-ft copper-clad steel grounding rods that bracket the facility.