The leader in Network Engineering, Field Services, GIS & Mapping Services for over 2 decades
The leader in Network Engineering, Field Services, GIS & Mapping Services for over 2 decades
The leader in Network Engineering, Field Services, GIS & Mapping Services for over 2 decades
The leader in Network Engineering, Field Services, GIS & Mapping Services for over 2 decades
The leader in Network Engineering, Field Services, GIS & Mapping Services for over 2 decades
Like What You See? We are Just Getting Started
The primary mission of Rainbow Design Services is to provide our customers with products and services that are consistently equal to or better than the high standards we set for ourselves, while ensuring that our employees are constantly motivated and trained to meet the ever-changing needs in our business.
Rainbow Design Services is a privately-owned company founded by Jeff Mardis and located in Louisville, Kentucky. Jeff got his start in early 1994 in Paris, Tennessee, where he began utilizing his extensive background in cable television in order to do CATV design for other larger regional contractors.
In late 1995, Jeff made a family decision to return to his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Reluctant to work under another MSO, Jeff took a chance and leveraged his knowledge of cable television into what would ultimately become a long-standing career in the TeleCom industry. Although very difficult at times, he quickly realized that in order to establish long-term security for the company, he would have to procure work directly from his customers – initially, MSOs – and offer a competitive, broader range of services.
Jeff’s dedication paid off. In April of 1996, Rainbow Design Services secured its first contract with Viacom Cable of Nashville in the midst of their 750MHz rebuild. Facing aggressive deadlines and dissatisfaction with their current contractor, Viacom hired Rainbow for the project. Our design team was able to finish the final 1100 miles of design within some very tight time constraints. As the Nashville project was nearing completion, InterMedia Partners, which owned the surrounding systems, purchased Viacom. This led to additional work in the Middle Tennessee region.
We are experts in the use of most industry standard CAD, Mapping, Engineering & GIS software products for data construction and network mapping documentation and services.
We specialize in data construction & network mapping for OSP Fiber, RF, HFC, and Inside Plant Networks, as well as delivering customized GIS & engineering services related to these assets. Everything we do is formatted in a GIS (mapping) context, and thus delivered in most any standard CAD/GIS format.
Outside Plant Design is the core of our business. We are leaders in the industry when it comes to designing efficient and cost-effective project prints in various platforms and architectures.
Our customers are the number one priority at Rainbow Design Services. Whether you have coax/fiber HFC, FTTx, EPON, Wifi, or other types of design work, let us help your company create a solid network. At Rainbow, our experienced design team keeps quality and turnaround times at the forefront when completing each project. Designers at Rainbow are fluent in many different design platforms. Our team is constantly trained on changes in the industry, and taught to complete projects with even higher standards than those set by our customers.
Rainbow Design Services has extensive experience in helping customers in the MSO market with documenting Cable headends & Inside Plant infrastructures.
Inside Plant documentation service can be provided stand-alone, or integrated with maps and GIS data for Outside Plant cabling. The absolute BEST return on investment from a GIS/Engineering system is to have a FULLY modeled network in a common platform – from the very first port on the first device in your headend, throughout all distribution fibers and relating cables, to the final delivery point of the last customer. Rainbow Design can make this easy and affordable.
Whether your team has a fully modeled OSP or not, the Inside Plant documentation services we provide will enable your team to identify every port, every device, every connection – including their physical location (slot, rack, row, room), and all inbound and outbound connectivity of each and every location we inventory. Our solution provides your team with the ability to measure and plan for power, heating and cooling, space, weight, as well as considerations relative to potential upgrades, moves and testing scenarios.
We offer a variety of services for verifying and locating current network availability. Commercial/Residential desktop surveys, field verifications, and field surveys (audits) are all a main focus of our business.
Commercial/Business surveys are fast and affordable field surveys which determine what will be needed to connect a potential business customer, Business Park, or commercial MDU. This option is provided for both fiber and coaxial service types. We have options available for more economic desktop-only surveys which utilize Google Earth (among other resources)to target the address(es).
Residential surveys can also be completed to determine what would be needed to connect a potential residential customer, housing edition, or residential MDU. A more economic desktop-only option using computer resources to target the address is also available for these types of surveys.
A field survey is a true “walkout” of your HFC plant; it involves the comprehensive documentation of all coax and/or fiber plant. We document the poles, pedestals, footages, house counts, addresses, all passings (residential and commercial), and all existing electronics. Central to this service is the creation of fresh new road-base maps over which the survey is documented. GPS coordinate records of all facilities is an option as well.
We provide a multitude of services for the Wireless community. We are experts in cell sites, backhaul, core transport networks, and wifi tap designs among others.
Cell site survey and documentation, backhaul and connectivity design and estimation, core transport network design & implementation, site upgrade services (including project management and installation), wifi tap designs, testing and certification: these are among the various wireless applications offered by Rainbow Design Services.
Ask yourself the following questions. If your answer is “yes,” then we would like to assist your wireless needs.
- Are you a Wireless Carrier with many cell sites potentially in need of upgrade?
- Have you deployed site survey teams before, but failed to retain site detail records?
- Are you a service provider with wireless carriers in your area needing backhaul connectivity?
- Are you a service provider looking to diversify with new wireless technologies?
Contact us today for more information. We are excited to talk about your plans for the future, and in partnering with you for unparalleled success.
Is there an unknown outage causing your network to fail? Let us help you. We can offer 24/7 assistance with locating outages in your network and help you get the system back into working condition quickly.
Our Rainbow Design Services staff is trained and equipped to answer emergency outage calls around the clock. Our employees can use mapping software and design knowledge to aid in locating the point of the outage at any given time. This service can assist our customers in restoring their networks in a timely manner. Please contact us to set up an Emergency Outage call line for your company.
Look into our top-notch Training and Development classes and how they may benefit your company’s needs. A full list of courses offered, pricing information, and anything else related to the enhancement of knowledge in the field of telecommunications is available upon request.
Rainbow Design Services is proud to offer paid, on-site training to all our employees. All new-hires and recently-promoted employees are provided with job-specific knowledge during their regular working hours.
Our Training & Development team is a leader in the telecommunications industry. In addition to our in-house employee training, Rainbow Design Services provides additional courses for our customers. The Charter V8i certification training is one of the most popular courses. Other classes and courseware are available upon request and include, but are not limited to: creating training videos, Power Point presentations, training manuals, exams, etc.
Please contact us for a full list of course offered, pricing information, or anything else related to the enhancement of knowledge in the field of telecommunications.
We provide solutions to the real world GIS problems by leveraging our years of experience, understanding of GIS, and API/Data model knowledge.
Rainbow Design Services is a production, engineering, and drafting shop. As such, we have a significant need to develop tools and procedures to streamline our processes. Enhancing efficiency is among our highest priorities. The need to track production, monitor performance, report on milestones attained and bill/invoice properly are more obstacles that our company faces. As a result, custom Reporting & Business Intelligence tools are a key service presented. Rainbow offers these tools and services to our customers; we know if they work well for us in our environment, then they will work well for you too!
Rainbow has on-staff database, web and application developers and programmers to help you with any development needs you may have. We are partners with the makers of most of the Engineering and GIS solutions on the market which we use daily. We believe we are best positioned to help extend functionality and connect your data to other systems and/or present that data with reporting tools and Business Intelligence dashboards that are generally not available from the software companies directly. Please contact us for your software development needs.
We offer many other services and special requests for the telecommunications field. All you have to do is ask.
In addition to our main services, we offer many other services and requests. Here are a few services we may be able to assist you with; Department of Transportation, Permitting, FME (Feature Manipulation Engine), Address Validation, Engineering Record Scrubbing, Pole Audits, Fiber Audits, and Fiber Documentation. Other requests may be negotiated upon request. Contact us to discuss your needs; our team is ready to assist with their problem solving techniques.
Our Executive Team averages 25 years of experience in CATV/GIS/Networking/Programming
Founder-Owner-President
Jeff Mardis is owner and President of Rainbow Design Services, Inc. Jeff started the company in 1993 after several years working for different cable operators including Times Mirror Cable, Storer Cable, TKR Cable and InterMedia Partners. Like many in the CATV industry, he started in an entry level position and worked his way through the ranks. Through long hours and hard work, Jeff held positions of increasing responsibility throughout his career with the MSOs including Plant Manager for the 200K customer network in Louisville, KY and Technical Director for InterMedia Partners in West Tennessee.
Jeff opted to leave the MSO World in mid-1993 to start Rainbow Design Services, Inc. Working for other regional contractors, he quickly realized that if he was going to sustain his fledgling company, he would have to grow the business to where he could seek work directly from the cable operators. He then set out on a path to find like-minded people that had the same ethics and devotion to hard work that he holds dear to his heart. Over the years this team has grown steadily, always with people working towards a common goal of providing superior products and services to its customers.
Commitment to customer satisfaction is Jeff's number one goal. Each job, no matter how large or small is treated with the same level of care. Jeff developed a philosophy early on that it was important to him to be engrained in the everyday operation of his customers. In doing so, the company has forged long standing relationships with most all of their customers. From a personal standpoint, it is much more gratifying to feel like you are building something than simply doing a job and moving on to the next one. While our customers will always be our number one priority, commitment to our employees and our community and the communities of our customers are very important too. There is a real satisfaction watching the younger employees (especially those that have been around for over ten years) build their lives, families and homes and feeling like you gave them an opportunity. Each year we contribute to the Special Olympics, Kosair Children's Hospital as well as sponsorship in several charity events.
Whatever degree of success Jeff and his company has had over the years, the formula for doing so remains quite simple: work hard, be a person of high integrity, surround yourself with awesome people and treat your customers (both internal and external) the way you expect to be treated. This will always be our approach!!
Director, Human Resources
Renee Mardis is the Director of Human Resources for Rainbow Design Services, Inc. Renee helps department managers with recruiting and training while also managing employee benefits and ensuring company compliance with state and federal guidelines. Renee has been instrumental in the company's participation in Kentucky, greater-Louisville and Jeffersontownship Economic Development programs among other initiatives.
During a critical 2 year period, Renee Directed the Fiber Engineering Department overseeing all efforts in the Fiber Department ensuring on-time delivery and most critical guaranteeing that work continually exceeded all customer expectations.
Renee was a Communications major at Spalding University in Louisville with an emphasis on Telecommunications. Prior to joining Rainbow Design Services, Inc. in 2005, Renee's background was in the cellular industry with a concentration on site acquisition/licensing and site documentation. During that period she worked for major companies in that industry including, but not limited to Crown Castle, Nextel, and Verizon in major markets like Atlanta and Washington D.C.
Before entering the communications industry, Renee owned and operated a commercial cleaning company in the Louisville KY area. At one point, she had up to 6 cleaning crews that worked day and night shifts, and she was responsible for managing all of the day to day operations of that business. It was during this period of her career that she learned what it was like to manage multiple contractors and ensure customer satisfaction.
Over the last 6 years, Renee has brought a tireless work ethic to Rainbow Design Services, Inc. and instills that same attitude in her employees. She believes whole-heartedly in doing whatever it takes to get a project complete on time and to job specifications. Renee loves being a part of Rainbow Design Services, Inc. because, in her own words, "I love the energy level of the company and its unlimited potential to do great things. Rainbow gives me the ability to impact the lives of our employees and to make a real difference in the community."
Director, Technology
Randall S. Riggs is a Network/Systems and Operations Manager with Rainbow Design Services, Inc. and is formally our Director of IT & Operations. In this role Randall looks after, coordinates and manages the company, providing all aspects of IT, including maintaining, building, training and developing the latest hardware and software systems.
Randall is a big believer in truth, honesty and hard work, and Randall supports employees and customers leveraging those same building blocks. Randall is no stranger to CATV or the IT industry, having spent 13 years as a Network & Systems Administrator and Programmer, which has taught him the importance of a technical background. Randall has more than 13 years of hands on experience in CATV engineering, IT administration and programming at Rainbow Design Services, Inc.
Passionate about Rainbow Design Services, Inc. and its possibilities, Randall develops products and services that help customers meet their objectives and help make both employees and customers alike more productive.
Director, Platform Development
Mike Traughber is the Organizational Development Director for Rainbow Design Services, Inc. Mike has worked for Rainbow since 1998 in various capacities including Production Manager, Training Manager, and an extended period as BAU Manager which in many ways is the core of our business. Mike has continually contributed across all departments (regardless of his title) and in big ways to the creation of expanding/new service offerings company-wide for most of his tenure.
In his current role Mike is responsible for the oversight of our Quality Control (QC) Department, Technical oversight for New Business, and for directing all internal Training efforts to ensure everyone is on par or better in doing their jobs. Mike is also chartered with constantly looking internally at improving processes, results and with engineering innovative ways to further improve delivery across our company.
Mike started his career at a GIS firm in Indianapolis called MSE while attending Lincoln Technical Institute, which he graduated from with honors. Mike then moved back to his home town in southern Indiana and came to work for Rainbow Design Services, Inc. Mike started as a Drafter back in 1998 and has grown with the company learning all aspects of CATV and the accompanying Engineering & Drafting applications. Mike became a manager with the company in early 2003 and has managed the Strand, Design, BAU and Training departments.
"I love working at Rainbow Design Services, Inc. because of the ever-changing environment in this field, how as a company we are constantly looking ahead at new opportunities for knowledge and growth, the drive we all share for excellence in not only ourselves but in the service we provide to our customer, and our ability to tackle any project as a team."
Director, OSP
Mike Atcher is Director, OSP at Rainbow Design Services, Inc. He oversees the Charter Communications vertical along with our Survey department. Mike started with the company in 2016 after several years working for different cable operators including Insight Communications, Time Warner Cable, and Charter Communications. Starting as an installer in 2006, Mike worked through the ranks holding positions as a Construction Coordinator, Transport Engineer, and Fiber Optic Supervisor before being promoted to Construction Manager for TWC in Kentucky in 2014. In 2015, after spending his entire life in Kentucky, Mike opted to accept a role in Alabama as Construction Manager of Charter Communications overseeing construction and design for the state of Alabama and Louisiana.
Mike received an associate’s degree in Applied Science, Criminal Justice from Elizabethtown Community and Technical College and is a graduate of Western Kentucky University with a Bachelor of Science in Systems Management.
Director, OSP
Brian has been with Rainbow Design Services, Inc. since April of 2004. Prior to starting with our company Brian attended the University of Louisville where he studied from 1999 through 2004 to attain a degree in Political Science. Brian started with Rainbow in 2004 as a drafter and has since learned all aspects of OSP. Brian has worked in all departments here at Rainbow Design Services, Inc. and has sought out working with key department leaders to expand his knowledge throughout his years with the company.
Brian has also been successful at motivating a large and growing staff to improve and exceed the teams overall skill, accuracy, diversity, and personal development of each designer. In 2013, Brian was promoted to BAU Design Manager. Brian has built a diverse design team that has been able to adapt and learn new technologies as they have come online.
In 2015, Brian was nominated to the SCTE Board of Directors for the Central Indiana Chapter. He was elected Vice-President of the SCTE Chapter in April of 2015 and he currently holds this position on the board in 2016. Brian has completed several Dale Carnegie Management Leadership courses to keep evolving and gaining skills as he continues in his career.
In 2016, Brian was promoted to Director, OSP that includes areas in 10 states.
Manager, Training
Before her start at Rainbow Design Services, Amy Jordan studied architectural drafting as early as her middle school years all the way through college graduation and has over 15 years of computer aided drafting experience in various programs. Amy graduated from Western Kentucky University in 2009 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Sciences with a concentration in Architectural Sciences. Amy started at Rainbow Design Services in 2010. She began in an entry level drafting position and quickly moved into a training role at the company. Initially, Amy was responsible for training incoming new hires.
While in the Training Department, Amy’s new goal was to develop a training program around every job function at Rainbow Design Services. In her current role as Training and Development Manager, Amy Jordan works with a team of trainers around the clock to ensure all promotions, position moves, new hires, and cross training needs of the company are met. As the industry is ever-changing in processes and new technology, it is imperative that training keeps up with the constant changes in rules, processes, and new cable technologies and architectures. Not only is Amy responsible for company training, but she is involved with many training needs of our customers outside of Rainbow Design Services. The Training Department will travel to customer locations or host their training on site. All trainers participate in additional development through SCTE courses and other off site trainings to keep their skills and knowledge level up to par.
Amy Jordan is a firm believer in work ethic. Provided with quality training, anyone can be successful as long as they approach training with a good work ethic and participation.
Field Survey Group Manager
Rob began his career in the cable television industry in 1981 with Viacom Cable in Nashville, Tennessee. He started with Viacom as a service technician. Viacom was sold to Intermedia then to Comcast during Rob’s tenure in Nashville. He moved up through the organization holding several positions. During his 22 years with the three companies, he was involved in developing a twenty-four hour customer service repair department, building several head -end sites for the micro wave deployment of services for the entire Nashville market, integrating fiber and node deployment in the system and developing a digital ring to supply internet and digital services throughout the foot print of Intermedia which involved several surrounding counties. Rob left Comcast in 2002 as the manager of Construction and Engineering for the Nashville region.
Rob has been an employee of Rainbow Design Services, Inc. for six years. He manages the field work for Rainbow which includes new build walk out, as-built walk out, fiber walk out, fiber documentation and survey walk out. Rob has been married for 34 years. He has one son and two grandchildren. He enjoys all sports and coaching his grandson in baseball.
Field Survey Group Manager
Mike started out in telephone contract work for South Central Bell. While traveling with a group of engineers, he was introduced to field work, put down his pencil and never looked back. Mike moved to the cable television industry with Times Mirror Cable Company here in Louisville, beginning on the ground floor as a field engineer, and finally becoming a project manager. The majority of his career was spent at Cable Engineering Inc., first as an independent contractor strand mapping throughout the country for two years before taking a management position for all drafting/field projects. His last venture before Rainbow was as a Senior Engineer for Windstream to oversee field engineering for long hall fiber projects and inspect projects after construction.
Manager, Hiring-Retention
Jason Ryan is the Hiring & Retention Manager at Rainbow Design Services. Since joining the company in April 2012, he worked briefly in the Production Department before earning a promotion to Training Facilitator. Jason first discovered his passion for professional development while attending college at Kent State University, where he earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing in 2009.
He is most fulfilled when team-building and helping others to grow professionally. At Rainbow Design Services, he has been instrumental in establishing a leadership and development training program for the management team. Jason was recognized by his peers in both 2015 and 2016 as a recipient of the Dale Carnegie Highest Award for Achievement, an award given to individuals who demonstrate a commitment to excellence in leadership. Embracing the core values of integrity, innovation and trust, Jason has built a reputation for being a driver of positive change and modernization of the workplace. He demonstrates a tireless work ethic, motivated that his efforts will benefit the employees of Rainbow Design Services, their customers, and the local community.
Accounting Manager
Bobbie Traughber joined Rainbow Design Services, Inc. in October 2010 as the Accounting Manager. Her responsibilities include, but are not limited to, overseeing the creation of all invoices to our customers and corresponding Accounts Receivables, utilities and subcontractor check runs, maintaining the company’s fixed assets activity, as well as monthly/annual forecasting. Bobbie is also tasked with overseeing the internal/external data governance to ensure that Rainbow is consistently providing our customers with the accurate and complete information necessary.
Bobbie obtained her Bachelors of Science in Accounting degree from Indiana Wesleyan University and prior to joining the Rainbow Design Services team, worked over 10 years in various Accounting positions such as Accounts Payable Supervisor, Fixed Assets Analyst, and Reimbursement/Cost Reporting Analyst.
Bobbie enjoys being a part of the Rainbow success story and appreciates that while the company has grown leaps in bounds since she came on board, there has been a concerted effort to maintain the small business feel with great camaraderie among leadership and staff. There is always an open door policy where new ideas are always welcomed and this atmosphere is what she feels allows Rainbow to be a leader in the industry.
Request more information today!
A large percentage of our hiring is to fill Technical positions; drafting and design positions that typically require demonstrable CAD experience (MicroStation or AutoCAD). If you have Geospatial, CAD, Outside Plant Telecom, CaTV Engineering, Field Construction, Permitting, GIS Software Development or similar experience then your application and experience is likely in demand
Main Office:
2307 Watterson Trail
Louisville, KY 40299
1-502-266-5357
Secondary Office:
10172 Linn Station Rd
Louisville, KY 40223
1-502-266-5357
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