Honoring the ICT industry’s innovative advancements

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.

Checking into a smart hotel

Smart buildings provide a framework that can capitalize on digital innovation. But when designing a hotel to be a smart and sustainable building, there are so many moving pieces to consider that it could be a logistical nightmare. Add that the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and it would seem like a nearly impossible feat to bring in the newest technologies while keeping the old charm. The recently opened Hotel Marcel in New Haven, CT, found the secret ingredients for designing and implementing the most advanced digital systems resulting in minimizing electricity use from the grid and incorporating new direct current (DC) technologies and Power over Ethernet (PoE) to as many applications as possible. But the design and installation challenges made the path to completion a long and winding road.

5 ways to reduce the carbon impact of smart building technologies

While smart building technologies are vital to improving building efficiency, the actual technology products deployed throughout a smart building are mostly made up of fossil fuel derivatives and mined from non-renewable resources—from the IoT devices to the networks that connect them. That inherently makes it unfeasible for most of these products to be considered low-carbon construction materials. Even so, there are ways to reduce their impact.

PODCAST: Kam Patel, CommScope, Pt. 1 – Industry 4.0, A.I., SPE, 5G edge discussion

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. In the podcast, CI&M asks Patel to address how this thesis expands the outlook for ICT technicians on the ground integrating Industry 4.0 and A.I. systems technologies in plant manufacturing, but also now within commercial enterprise and smart building sites.

Fiber Connect 2023 seeks Proof of Concept demos on disruptive fiber trends

The Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) has announced a call for Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstrations that will be hosted at the association’s Fiber Connect 2023 conference in Orlando from August 20-23. Focused on “what fiber disrupts next,” as solicited by FBA, the PoCs will “focus on how fiber broadband enables markets and communities to create innovation and disruption, change market dynamics, and push the boundaries of what is possible.” Each PoC must demonstrate the benefits fiber brings to markets, industries, and/or communities as a fundamental enabler of disruption, growth, and potential. To submit a PoC, download the complete PoC Showcase instructions here and the PoC Submission Form & Agreement here. PoC submissions are due April 30, 2023.

Fiber everywhere requires PON components to handle everything

Over the next five years, an unprecedented era of building fiber networks will take place around the world, with passive optical networks (PON) making up a large portion of that construction. As networks are deployed in more places, and in more diverse and sometimes difficult-to-reach environments, the need to make sure the highest-quality optical components are within that network only increases. As operators look to lower operational costs to deploy, manage, and maintain network builds, PON components will be pushed out further into the fiber network.