Category: Copper

The Impact Of Smart Buildings On Facilities Management

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The transformation from traditional structures to smart buildings is reshaping the domain of facilities management. With a projection of 150%+ increase in the number of smart buildings worldwide, climbing from 45 million to 115 million in just five years, the impact of this shift is bound to be significant. Smart buildings provide a 360-degree view of a building’s operations, aiding in predictive maintenance, standards compliance, enhancing occupant experience and improving sustainability. However, the question remains: Are smart buildings a boon or a bane for facilities management?.

Cabling quiz: Standards and codes

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Standards and codes are the bedrock upon which many cabling projects are built. Professionals in the ICT industry must be familiar with specifications from BICSI, the Telecommunications Industry Association, and the NFPA’s National Electrical Code in order to remain in compliance with many project requirements. So how familiar are you? Here’s a short 4-question quiz about which documents cover which topics. Get three out of four correct and you pass. Good luck!

Single Pair Ethernet: The Future of IIoT

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Just as using a ‘codified and universal’ language enables the seamless exchange of ideas between people, in the manufacturing and cable industry, this is precisely what single-pair Ethernet (#SPE) does for the automation systems in industries. It allows for continuous real-time data transfer right up to the field level and helps bridge long distances in large plants like chemical industries.

Fischer Connectors enhances IIoT connectivity with ultra-rugged solutions using Single Pair Ethernet and USB 3.2 protocols

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Fischer Connectors has developed new high-speed data and power connectivity solutions combining Single Pair Ethernet and USB 3.2 Gen 2 high-speed protocols with the rugged, high-density and miniature features of its flagship product lines. They enable space-saving and cost-efficient integration in industrial automation and robotics, chemical plants, food processing, automotive production lines, outdoor sensing and unmanned systems.

Honoring the ICT industry’s innovative advancements

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At the 2022 BICSI Fall Conference took place in late September, Cabling Installation & Maintenance announced recipients of this year’s Cabling Innovators Awards. The awards program recognizes organizations and people who drive the information and communications technology (ICT) industry forward. It awards ingenuity and innovation wherever it is found in the value chain of cabling-system specification, design, installation, and administration.

Inching toward a greener, future-proof cabling infrastructure

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This year saw noteworthy milestones in the development of cabling infrastructure standards for smart buildings. In March, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) released the ANSI/TIA-568.5 Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) cabling standard. Four months later, TIA released the ANSI/TIA-862-C Intelligent Building standard with technical updates and topologies that facilitate connecting and powering IoT devices, including the addition of SPE standards (in alignment with 568.5). Recently, the National Fire Protection Association Standards Council voted to issue the 2023 National Electrical Code (NEC) with Class 4 fault-managed power that will expand the use of energy-saving direct current (DC) power over low-voltage cabling, which is incentivized by the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED version 4 pilot credit Direct Current Power Systems.
These milestones encourage cabling infrastructure design and implementation practices that improve connectivity and sustainability in smart buildings—but the market remains in its infancy. The lack of actual products available on the commercial market complicates new-project design. But technology providers can adopt strategies today to help future-proof infrastructure for tomorrow.

What’s the deal with Industry 4.0 (and how do we deal with it)?

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Whereas the third Industrial Revolution was defined by widespread digitalization (the rise of computers, process logic controllers, etc.), the fourth Industrial Revolution is all about fusing digital, physical and virtual resources to create intelligent processes that think, do and respond faster and more accurately than humans alone can. The fourth Industrial Revolution is a way of describing the blurring of boundaries between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. It’s a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, IoT, 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies.