Job completed for Insane Impact

Completion date: September 19, 2025

Location: Fort Worth, TX

Why did the customer contact us?

One of the Delay of Game (DoG) Clocks was not working before a High School Football game. A repair was attempted by the customer, but they were not able to bring the clock back online, and Politon was subsequently contacted.

Solutions provided:

The solution was rather simple, but it serves as a good example of why it is best to call the experts first. The first issue I noticed was the presence of single-mode fiber patch cords in the DoG clock fiber enclosure and the tech booth. The fiber optic cable connecting the two locations is multi-mode fiber, which is incompatible with single-mode fiber. Replacing the patch cords with multi-mode ones yielded no result, so I shot a laser down one of the fibers in question. In my experience, if the fiber is broken, it will most likely be broken in the first 3 feet or so of either end. I was not able to see light in the tech booth with the laser at the DoG clock. Based on my memory of how the fiber connected from the DoG clock to the tech booth, I recalled that there was a connection point at the base of the stadium in one of the restrooms where the fibers from the DoG clocks connected to 2 fibers that went to the tech booth. Once I removed the access panel, I saw the light from the laser shining. The problem, it turned out, was that a mouse or rat had gotten into the fiber panel and chewed one of the delicate strands. I simply moved over the connection to one of the 2 backup pairs that were already terminated. Once I plugged the DoG clock back in, everything came up as it should.

Our customer expressed surprise at how fast we were able to fix the issue, but this is the exact reason we encourage our customers to always have multiple layers of redundancy when it comes to fiber optic cable. I ensured this would not happen again by ensuring the panel would stay closed. 

Team members on this project:

Seth Polley