Florida Tech — WFIT Transmitter Room Expansion

Project Overview

The WFIT transmitter room occupies 350 square feet on the seventh floor of Roberts Hall at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. The room houses the transmitters that generate radio waves for the station antennas on the roof of the building. BEED Engineering provided MEP engineering design for a transmitter room expansion.

A transmitter room is a small floor plate with mission-critical heat, power, and fire protection. The engineering had to keep the radio equipment cool and powered, suppress fire without water damage to electronics, and reach weatherproof electrical gear associated with the rooftop antennas.

The Challenge

Radio transmitters reject heat continuously and cannot tolerate an ordinary office HVAC or power arrangement. The room is on the top floor of Roberts Hall, directly below the antenna farm, which shortens the path to the roof but leaves little space for equipment.

The expansion had to:

• Provide rooftop HVAC and controls sized for transmitter heat, not occupant comfort alone
• Include uninterruptible power and an automatic transfer switch so the transmitters could ride through a utility interruption
• Provide FM-200 fire suppression instead of a wet sprinkler approach over electronic equipment
• Coordinate weatherproof non-fused disconnects with the rooftop antennas
• Fit lighting and receptacles into a 350-square-foot room already occupied by transmitters

Those requirements are closer to a small data or network room than to a typical campus renovation, which is why the project sits with BEED’s data-center and specialized work as well as its Florida Tech laboratory projects.

BEED Engineering's Scope

BEED provided MEP engineering design, including:

• Mechanical engineering for the rooftop HVAC system and HVAC controls
• Electrical engineering for UPS, automatic transfer switch, weatherproof disconnects, lighting, and receptacles
• Fire suppression (FM-200) as part of the engineered building systems
• Plumbing engineering as part of the MEP assignment

Project administration was not listed as part of this scope.

Engineering Solutions

A rooftop HVAC system with dedicated controls serves the transmitter room so cooling can track equipment load. FM-200 fire suppression protects the space without putting water on the transmitters. Electrical design includes a UPS, an automatic transfer switch, weatherproof non-fused disconnects for rooftop equipment, surface-mounted light fixtures, and duplex receptacles.

The antennas remain on the roof of Roberts Hall. The expanded seventh-floor room is the conditioned, protected, and powered space that keeps those transmitters on the air.