Jessica Stoneburg, Kris Kray, Randy Wood and Nate Mudek at the BICSI conference.
In February, a small contingent of Parallel team members attended the 2020 BICSI Winter Conference in Tampa. Promoted as the industry’s “premier information and communications technology and infrastructure event,” the Parallel team participated in discussions with vendors and end users about the latest in 5G, IoT, DAS, PoE and much more.
According to Project Manager Kristopher Kray, “IP based building automations systems are driving new levels of collaboration between facilities and IT. Fiber architecture is going to be the new “norm” for cutting edge automation systems.
Building cabling infrastructure continues to be a hot topic, with new infrastructure services like next generation cellular, smart LED lighting running over PoE, and IoT devices such as vape sensors being utilized to inform building ownership on how to drive ROI.
1. Fiber Optics Role in Intelligent Building. Specifically, how fiber makes Intelligent Buildings smarter. Included in this discussion was continued application of IoT and the surge of Edge Data Center development.
2. Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS). While not a new technology, there was a lot of discussion about the application of DAS and what companies need to know and get ready to support the 5G revolution.
3. Building Transformation. A core topic at BICSI events, the discussion explored leveraging building technology infrastructure for future uses, IoT requirements, and its place among building systems.
4. Power over Ethernet (PoE) Devices. The application of network-based lighting was a hot topic as it has the potential to transform Intelligent Buildings through the collection and transmission of data. Many were talking about the application of PoE in all infrastructure, inclusive of lighting.
5. Wide Band MM Fiber/ OM5 Fiber. Specifically, the adoption of wave division multiplexing (WDM) technologies is driving the selection of backbone fiber architecture.
For Randy Wood, Director of Collaboration, the greatest discovery (and takeaway) from the conference was the “use of small form factor Cat6A.” Randy is leveraging this new product in an upcoming deployment.
From broad topics to specific technology application, the team gathered a wealth of information at the conference. If you would like to learn more about these topics and how they can be applied within your facility, please don’t hesitate to contact the Parallel Technologies team.