Retail and Restaurant Network Cabling
In retail and food service, the network runs the till, the kitchen and the cameras — and a dropped connection is a queue. Point-of-sale terminals are still most reliable on a wired link, kitchen printers and display screens need their own runs, and customer Wi-Fi needs coverage that does not involve guessing. We cable retail and restaurant space so service keeps moving.
What's typically included
- Point-of-sale terminal and payment station cabling
- Kitchen printer, display and order screen links
- Customer Wi-Fi access point cabling and coverage
- Office, stockroom and back-of-house workstations
- CCTV and access control cabling
- Fit-out cabling for new locations and renovations
- Certification testing and documentation
Wire the till, do not trust it to wireless
Payment terminals and point-of-sale stations are the one place where a wired link still earns its keep: no contention, no interference from a busy kitchen, no dropped transaction at the counter. Wireless has its place — hand-held order devices, customer Wi-Fi — but the till is where we run cable.
Small spaces, many systems
A single restaurant can have point-of-sale, kitchen displays, cameras, music, guest Wi-Fi and a back-office machine — all in a space with a few square metres of usable ceiling. Planning the pathways and the rack early keeps the installation clean, and it makes the next change (a second terminal, a new camera, a bigger kitchen screen) a small job.
Fit-outs and seasonal schedules
Retail and restaurant work is often tied to a lease deadline or a reopening date. We work to those dates, including overnight and pre-opening windows, and we cable for the equipment you plan to add rather than only for what is on site today.
Card payments, cameras and the till
In retail, one question shapes the cabling more than any other: where does the cardholder data live, and what can reach it. PCI DSS is explicit that segmenting the cardholder data environment is not itself a requirement. It is how you take everything else out of scope, which is usually cheaper than securing the whole store network to that standard.
| Area | What gets cabled | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Point of sale lane | A data outlet per lane, with the payment terminal and the till on separate paths | Keeps card traffic away from general store traffic |
| Back office | Router, recorder, and the payment equipment | Where the systems that must be protected physically sit |
| Sales floor | Access points and cameras, powered from the switch | Ceiling grid access, and coverage around shelving |
| Entrance and stockroom | Cameras and access control | The two places incidents actually happen |
Requirement 1.2.1 of PCI DSS is the practical bit here: traffic between the cardholder environment and everything else has to pass a firewall rather than share a path. Cabling that keeps the till on its own switch and its own route makes that boundary real instead of theoretical.
The other retail reality is that cameras and access points all want power at the ceiling. Counting the PoE draw before adding hardware is cheaper than discovering the switch budget is gone.
Where we work
We install and certify this work across Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, the Québec City area and the surrounding regions — see our service areas.
The work involved
Related work: structured cabling, Cat6 & Cat6a, fiber optic installation, Wi-Fi access points, CCTV & access control — or see all services.
Retail and Restaurant Network Cabling questions
On cable. The till is where a dropped connection becomes a queue and a lost transaction, and a wired link avoids contention and kitchen interference.
Yes. New fit-outs are usually the easiest work — we cable before the ceiling closes and work to your opening date.
Yes. Camera cabling and access point cabling are both normal scope, planned together so the rack and pathways make sense.
Yes. Overnight and pre-opening windows are the usual approach for retail and food service.
No, though it needs coordination with the landlord’s rules and pathways. It is a planning question we handle during the survey.
No, and the standard says so directly. Segmenting the cardholder data environment is not a requirement, but it is the usual way to reduce the scope of everything you have to protect and prove.
They can be on the same infrastructure physically, but the cardholder traffic has to be separated so it passes a firewall rather than sitting on the general network. That is what Requirement 1.2.1 is about.
Yes, and they are usually the same job. Cameras and access points are powered from the same switches, so the power budget gets planned with the cabling.
Get a free site survey
Tell us about the building and what has to be connected, and we will come out, look at the space and put together a written quote. Call (438) 817-4587 or use the quote form.