Attend the 2007 BICSI Fall Conference
Educate. Motivate. Lead. Succeed.
In just six
weeks, the 2007 BICSI Fall Conference will begin in Las Vegas, Nevada.
September 10-13, 2007 are the dates to block off on your calendar as you head
out to experience an extraordinary opportunity to connect with your friends and
business contacts, and gain a better understanding of the Information Transport
Systems industry.
Help a Child
If you
would like to make a difference in a child’s life, you can stop by the BICSI
Cares booth at any time to make a contribution to the Angel Kiss Foundation.
BICSI Cares, Inc. is the charity arm of BICSI, which collects donations at each
BICSI conference and gives 100 percent of the contributions to a local
children’s charity. The Angel Kiss Foundation is dedicated to helping families
of children with cancer, providing immediate assistance and support for any
expense or need related to treatment. The BICSI Cares booth will be set up near
the attendee registration during the day and moved to an area near the
Exhibitor registration desk during the reception and exhibition times.
Relax
The
Credential Holders Lounge,( Rooms 204-205 on the south concourse) an exclusive
venue for all BICSI credential holders, provides a quiet comfortable atmosphere
for a little relaxation between sessions. Sponsored by ITS-Jobs.com, BICSI
Credential Holders Lounge is open from Monday through Wednesday, 7:30 a.m.-5
p.m., and from 7:30 a.m.-noon on Thursday.
Gather Your Golf Buddies
Aside from
countless workshops and seminars planned to help educate you, the Fall
Conference promises to bring many networking opportunities as well. Start your
journey to the 2007 BICSI Fall Conference by gathering your golf buddies,
packing your clubs and teeing off at the inaugural Ray Gendron Memorial Charity
Golf Tournament being held on Monday, September 10, with an 8 a.m. start. A
BICSI Past President and founder of BICSI Cares, Ray Gendron once attended a
BICSI Conference and jokingly passed a hat around. It soon returned to him
filled with money. Because there was no way to know who gave what amount, Ray
did the honorable thing and decided to donate the money to a children’s
charity. That was the beginning of BICSI Cares. Now, the annual golf tournament
tradition at a BICSI Conference is being hosted in honor of Ray’s legacy at the
Siena Golf Club in Las Vegas.
Reminiscent of the values and artistic styles fashioned by some of golf's
greatest courses, this par-72 Championship Golf Course features gently rolling
fairways, unique bunkering designs, and also offers some of the most panoramic
views of the surrounding mountains and the flashy skyline of the Las Vegas
Strip. If you have any questions please email Zuesette Woods at zwoods@bicsi.org
BICSI Interactive Learning Network
BICSI Booth
is another venue for networking and opportunities to meet with the BICSI Board
of Directors and Senior Staff. BICSI Connect, the interactive learning network
(formerly known as BICSI Web-based Training), will debut at the booth, and you
can check out the demos or talk to the staff to learn more about this
additional educational venue. The BICSI Booth is located downstairs in the
Exhibit Hall, so make sure you stop by to meet the Board and the staff during
the evening receptions.
BICSI
Receptions in the Exhibit Hall are the premier opportunity to network and make
new business contacts. State-of-the-art exhibits are provided by companies in
the ITS industry, looking to share their latest and greatest products and
services with you. During the Evening Receptions on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday,
hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be provided. On Tuesday morning, enjoy
complimentary continental breakfast while you browse the exhibits.
New BICSI Merchandise Line
BICSIGear
clothing makes the perfect addition to any wardrobe! Stop by the BICSI Store in
the BICSI Community near the Attendee Registration Desk and purchase top
quality clothing, with great styles and colors to choose from. BICSI
accessories are also available.
Register
today at www.bicsi.org to experience the
many educational and networking opportunities that are planned for you. You
will leave the 2007 Fall Conference more effective in your job, better
informed, and more valuable in the ITS marketplace.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Corning Announces Breakthrough Optical Fiber Technology
Corning
Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) announced the
development of a new optical fiber-based technology that solves an historic
technical challenge for telecommunications carriers installing
fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks.
Corning’s breakthrough is based on a
nanoStructures™ optical fiber design that allows the cabled fiber to be bent
around very tight corners with virtually no signal loss. These improved attributes will enable
telecommunications carriers to economically offer true high-speed Internet,
voice and HDTV services to virtually all commercial and residential (apartment
and condominium) buildings. Current
optical fiber installations lose signal strength and effectiveness when bent
around corners and routed through a building, making it difficult and expensive
to run fiber all the way to customers’ homes.
“This is a
game-changing technology for telecommunications applications,” said Peter F.
Volanakis, president and chief operating officer at Corning.
“We have developed an optical fiber cable that is as rugged as copper
cable but with all of the bandwidth benefits of fiber. By making fundamental changes in the way
light travels in the fiber, we were able to create a new optical fiber that is
over 100 times more bendable than standard fibers.” Corning’s
newest fiber technology achieves this while maintaining compatibility with
industry performance standards, existing manufacturing processes and
installation procedures. “So, customers
don’t have to sacrifice one benefit to get another,” he said.
“There are
more than 680 million apartment homes worldwide, including more than 25 million
in the United States. The high cost of installation and difficulty
in delivering fiber to the home made this market unappealing to most
providers. We have been working closely
with these carriers to create a solution that will make this more economically
viable for them and for their customers,” he said.
One of the
early proponents of this emerging technology was Verizon Communications
Inc. In February of this year, Corning and Verizon
commissioned a joint working team to solve the problems of multiple dwelling
unit installation using this new fiber solution. “Continued innovation in advanced
telecommunications networks is critical to the long-term success of Verizon and
our ability to provide our FiOS service on a mass scale in the United States,”
said Paul Lacouture, executive vice president of Engineering and Technology,
Verizon Telecom Group. “We are working closely
with Corning to solve the challenges of
providing fiber solutions to high-rise apartment complexes across the United States. This fiber technology will enable us to bring
faster Internet speeds, higher-quality high-definition content, and more interactive
capabilities than any other platform which exists today.”
Corning
first introduced low-loss optical fiber in the early 1970s. Optical fibers are waveguides that transmit
light within the fiber’s central region, or core. However, with standard single-mode fiber,
tight bends cause leakage of the light, resulting in signal loss or optical
power degradation. A bend or curve that
is too tight will result in total signal loss.
With Corning’s new nanoStructures design, the optical fiber maintains
its signal strength when bent or curved, with performance results 100 times
better than standard single-mode fibers.
The new fiber also enables simpler and more aesthetically pleasing
designs for the cable, hardware and equipment used in the deployment.
Corning will introduce a full suite of optical fiber, cable and
hardware and equipment solutions based on its nanoStructures technology
platform this fall at the Fiber-to-the-Home Conference in Orlando, Fla.,
Sept. 30 – Oct. 4. (www.corning.com)
Here to Stay Sustainable Design Is No Passing Phase
Sustainable development involves
… meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs,” was said at the Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992, and subsequently adopted by the President’s Council on
Sustainable Development. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Handbook,
according to the College
of Design, states that
“sustainability refers to the ability of a society, ecosystem, or any such
ongoing system to continue functioning into the indefinite future.” Such
declarations imply sustainability is not limited to impacts on the natural environment
but on people and communities as well. “Sustainable design is design in which
built and artificial systems, human health, and natural ecosystems are
holistically considered and addressed, with the end goal of designing healthier
places to live and work that do little or no damage to the environment,” said
Max Zahniser, a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited
professional and program manager for the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC),
Washington, D.C.
The current
movement toward more ecologically sound design principles has been based partly
on the increased understanding that common development practice is not
sustainable. Some of the most important ecological issues impacted by common
design practices include global climate change, declining sources of
nonrenewable fuels, habitat destruction and loss of biodiversity, and toxic
pollution.
“Sustainable
design incorporates those features which minimize a building’s impact on the
environment and that are long-lasting,” said Brian Castelli, COO and executive
vice president for the Alliance to Save Energy
(ASE), Washington, D.C.
Sustainable
design means accounting for reusing and recycling materials; using safe and
nontoxic materials that don’t negatively affect indoor air quality; and
minimizing landfill impact, deforestation and degradation of the natural
environment. Sustainable design also means using architecture and technology to
better manage a building’s response to the environment and to better manage the
resources used to construct and orient it, said Mark LaLiberte, president of
Building Knowledge Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., and trainer for the National
Houses That Work educational series offered by the Energy and Environmental
Building Association, Bloomington, Minn.
Evolution of sustainable design
The green
movement of the 1970s was an offshoot of the ’60s culture that was searching
for a clean, organic environment, according to Castelli. Then, in the 1990s,
the movement recognized an opportunity to promote global sustainability.
“The ideas
of more than a decade ago were an advancement of the community green concepts
of the 1960s and ’70s, but they had evolved to examine making state, country
and global infrastructures more sustainable,” Castelli said.
Gary Gerber, president of
design/build firm Sun Light & Power Co., Berkeley, Calif., and board member
of Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR), San
Francisco, agrees that the movements of the 1970s and 1990s were similar, and
today, society is rediscovering many of the concepts put forth then, such as
the use of solar hot water and the promotion of sustainable forestry practices.
“However,
we are a bit beyond the 1970s in terms of knowledge and sophistication,” Gerber
said. “Back then, the idea of resource conversation was more politically based,
while today there is more urgency concerning global resource depletion, as we
are actually running out of cheap oil.”
Although
earlier sustainable design movements strived to make buildings more efficient
by using alternative resources, the architecture and design concepts at that
time were not particularly aesthetically pleasing to the average buyer,
LaLiberte said.
“Since then, we have realized
that buildings can be designed to be aesthetic and still remarkably functional
in terms of resource use and energy conservation,” he said. Changes in
architectural concepts, along with new or advanced technologies, such as more
efficient photovoltaics and more efficient insulation techniques, have led to more
mainstream acceptance and demand for sustainable buildings.
“The
current sustainable design movement is crossing party lines in a way it never
has,” Zahniser said. Rising oil and gasoline prices, a desire to reduce U.S. dependence
on foreign oil, the human health and productivity benefits, and the
availability of skilled practitioners that can deliver green buildings at
little or no premium over traditional construction all are bolstering the solid
business case for sustainable design.
“What the
current chapter of the green and green building movements has in common with
the previous incarnations is that they are value driven. The current
evolutionary state is more realistic than its predecessors and more aware of
other human systems, such as global economics, but the drivers still have
harmony with natural systems at its heart,” Zahniser said.
According
to Castelli, sustainable design has also gained new ground today because the
way buildings have been traditionally built has not actually been economically
viable.
“Current
sustainable design methods create ways to construct buildings differently than
before but with the same quality end-product with lower energy costs and
improved indoor air quality,” Castelli said.
Previously, businesses were not
necessarily attracted to the concept of sustainable design, perhaps believing
it was a phase and too expensive. However, according to Gerber, today’s
economic incentives are actually engaging businesses to use sustainable design
concepts.
“Huge,
multinational companies are now adopting green practices and are seeing the
value of sustainability on their bottom line,” he said. Individuals and
companies are finally understanding that wasting resources equals wasting
money, allowing business and conservationists to no longer be at odds in their
philosophies concerning the environment.
Shaping your green business
It appears
that today’s sustainable design movement is no phase but that it has an
economic basis in necessity. Electrical contractors need to adjust to this fact
and shape their businesses to respond to the increasing demand for green,
sustainable buildings, homes and industrial and other facilities.
“Electrical
contractors need to examine the best energy-efficiency design practices being
used today,” Castelli said. In addition, they need to understand that homes,
buildings and facilities are more “wired” now, and they must have the technical
capabilities to respond to the demand for increased connectivity that is more
energy efficient.
There are
several areas where electrical contractors can have an impact in terms of
adjusting to the demand for sustainable buildings, according to Gerber.
“Electrical
contractors can incorporate photovoltaics into their businesses and get fully
trained in the art and practice of installing these systems,” he said. There is
a great amount of specialized knowledge involved in solar technology, and
electrical contractors can get photovoltaic design and installation
certification from the national North American Board of Certified Energy
Practitioners (NABCEP), Malta,
N.Y.
Lighting
design is another area electrical contractors can explore to shape their green
business.
“Electrical
contractors that are not already delivering design/build projects need to learn
the proper practices of lighting design and familiarize themselves with the
equipment required for the energy-efficient lighting, controls and
energy-management systems that are being specified so that they can develop the
technical skills to install and maintain them,” Gerber said.
LaLiberte
agrees electrical contractors can do many things to respond to sustainable
design demands. They can, he said, be on the front edge of technology by
embracing changes and advancements, consult with planners and architects and
help determine the most efficient and innovative ways to reach sustainability
goals, and learn about and understand green programs such as LEED.
“Electrical
contractors need to become a solution partner in resolving design and
sustainability issues and add value above installing electrical systems,” he
said.
According to Zahniser,
electrical distributors can position themselves in this market by gaining
sustainable design expertise, partnering capabilities and by actively
participating in the promotion of environmentally sound projects.
“Electrical
contractors positioning themselves for sustainable design will need to
understand and work with on-site generated energy systems, such as
photovoltaics and small-scale residential wind turbines, raised floor systems
that house electrical equipment and cabling as well as HVAC and data
infrastructure wiring, more efficient lighting fixtures, and daylight sensors
and other daylight harvesting technologies,” he said.
The future of sustainability
“We are
really just beginning to see the growth of the sustainable design movement,”
Castelli said. As energy costs and the demand for materials and resources
continue to increase, so will the need to grow or manufacture sustainable
materials closer to where they are being used to reduce the use of energy in
transportation and carbon footprints.
“I believe
that businesses that are involved in sustainable design, including designers,
architects and electrical contractors, as well as producers of energy-efficient
appliances and insulation, are going to see a huge market explosion as
societies continue to realize the need,” Castelli said.
According
to Gerber, sustainable design will become mainstream in less than a decade.
“Already,
sustainable practices that were considered fringe ideas 10 years ago, such as
LEED, are now becoming dominant in design practices,” he said.
Sustainable
design, he added, will be essential because our society no longer has a choice
and must conserve resources and behave in a way that secures a healthy global
future.
Specifically,
LaLiberte predicts there will be real innovation in the near future in the
integration of wall systems and in streamlining construction processes through
prefabricating wall panels.
“There will
be less site work and more prefabrication,” he said. In addition, there will be
improvements in motor technology and lighting, and an increased mainstream
acceptance of photovoltaic, wind and other alternative energy sources.
Zahniser agreed that the use of
sustainable design practices will continue to increase, meaning energy
efficiency and other sustainability measures will become more commonplace.
“Contractors
positioning themselves as experts at working with these technologies at no
premium over traditionally designed and built projects are likely to have the
edge in this rapidly growing movement,” he said.
Focus: By Darlene Bremer
BREMER,
a freelance writer based in Solomons, Md., contributes frequently to ELECTRICAL
CONTRACTOR. She can be reached at 410.394.6966 or darbremer@comcast.net.
Reprinted
with full permission of Electrical Contractor Magazine – July issue 2007 www.Electrical Contractor Magazine.com
Christine A. Klauck Joins the Fiber Connect Team
Manager of Technical & Sales Support
Leviton is pleased to announce that Christine A. Klauck has
joined the team at Fiber Connect, Inc., a Leviton Company, as the Manager of
Technical & Sales Support.
In this new role, Klauck will develop a technical team to
support Business Development Management’s field sales, as well as inside sales.
In addition to her role at Fiber Connect, Klauck currently
serves as BICSI Northeast Region Director, a position she has held for the past
four years. Klauck also chairs the BICSI Cares Committee, the charitable arm of
BICSI, raising money at each conference for children’s charities and offering
scholarships to members and their families who pursue higher education degrees
in the information transport industry.
Klauck’s career spans more than twenty years in the
Information Transport Industry. Prior to joining Fiber Connect, Klauck, an
RCDD/NTS Specialist, spent 12 years at the Siemon Company in corporate
training, technical support and marketing departments. Klauck also worked for more than 11 years at
IBM Corporation in design and project management of telecommunications
structured cabling systems for residential, Fortune 500 and “Big Four”
accounting firms.
A Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)
representative since 1995, and member of Construction Specification Institute
(CSI), Klauck holds a BS.ed from Keene State College and an engineering
drafting certificate from Westchester Community College.
For more information on Leviton or Fiber Connect, log on to www.leviton.com, or www.fiber-connect.com.
The New Heart Of The Home
No longer the domain of luxury
dwellings, interest is growing for lighting controls that stand alone or
integrate into whole-house automation systems for greater convenience and
efficiency.
Few areas of electrical contracting have changed at a rate greater than
residential lighting controls. Residential product offerings have grown
exponentially as social and political agendas continue to shape energy
supplies—as more middle-income homeowners take control over lighting.
Manufacturers are accommodating current needs and charting the course of
lighting convergence on future technological advancements.
Wired
and wireless lighting controls have been around for more than a decade. Today,
industry experts say they are entering a new era in convenience, efficiency and
commodity that will allow homeowners to dramatically transform a room or an
entire house with light while reducing energy consumption and costs.
Win-win
for homeowners and contractors
Setting
the global energy debate aside, there are two distinct customers in the
residential market with a need for dynamic product from a manufacturing
standpoint, according to Jason Sherrill, product manager of structured wiring,
wireless technologies and energy protection at Cooper Wiring Devices.
“Homeowners are looking for more safety,
security, comfort, convenience, style, control and possibilities. Installers
are looking for more sales, options, reliability, control and an innovative
technology platform,” Sherrill said.
Residential lighting controls are no longer a
tool exclusively for wealthy homeowners.
The Lighting Controls Association (LSA)
reports while automated lighting control offers utility for larger rooms with
multiple light fixtures and types, it can be a realistic option for new or
existing homes as small as 2,000 square feet.
“Lighting may be stand-alone [or] whole
house, offer room and/or house control, and be tied into the security system
(about 30 percent of new homes), a home theater system (about 8 percent of new
homes), or a complete home automation system,” said LSA’s Craig DiLouie.
Such technological advancements, said Brad
Wills, Square D director of installation systems and control, are driving
electrical contractors into more low-voltage work.
“It’s expanding their scope beyond pure
electrical work to include lighting control, A/V, security and HVAC control. As
a result, contractors are either going to work more closely with low-voltage
contractors for installations, or they are going to have to make the decision
to enter those areas themselves,” Wills said.
Although advanced integrated entertainment
controllers are growing faster than lighting controls over the next five years,
lighting controls are still big business, said Bill Ablondi, research analyst
with Parks Associates.
“Total lighting controls this year will be
about $180 million for the hardware, the intelligence and basic controls, with
the market growing to $350 million in 2012,” Ablondi said.
The lighting control industry is continually
moving toward total integration with entertainment controllers and other home
automation/intelligent building systems as the emphasis for user-friendly
expandable systems with remote access grows in the face of stricter energy
regulations and maintenance efficiency.
“While manufacturers have been providing
residential lighting controls for quite some time, recent federal mandates on
energy-efficient lighting controls are driving the development of the latest
technologies, which involve ‘greener’ controls protocols, requiring less energy
consumption and producing less waste,” said Bryan Matthews, public relations
manager for Lightolier Controls.
Lighting controls are being watched closely
and are landing on several major energy agendas, including the 2005 federal
Energy Policy Act, the Title 24 Energy Code in California and continued pressure to adopt
similar measures in neighboring states, as well as the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating
and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).
Sorting
it out
According
to Grant Sullivan, product marketing manager, Leviton Home Automation Products,
previous automated home control and home lighting products fell into two
distinct levels. “Either they were high-priced, hard-wired or proprietary wireless
systems, or they were low-priced consumer products dominated by marketing hype
and less-than-reliable performance,” he said.
The latest lighting control advancements are
not only elevating controls to a commodity level, but there are new categories
of products being developed, which places new responsibilities on electrical
contractors, said Mike Piraino, lighting controls market development manager at
Pass & Seymour/Legrand.
“The toughest job an electrical contractor
has right now is learning about all the new systems and devices. No one
manufacturer can offer the best solution in every application. So, the
contractor quite often has the tough job of sorting through the different
products and figuring out the best way to go,” Piraino said.
Cooper
Wiring Devices
Cooper’s
Sherrill added that another factor driving technological developments in
residential lighting is interoperability (plug-and-play). Cooper Wiring Devices
plans to introduce ASPIRE RF, a wireless lighting control device later this year.
“With interoperability, electrical
contractors can move forward with an open protocol that allows them to bring a
scalable and interoperable system to the end-user with a package of options
from various manufacturers under one universal umbrella for ease of
installation and use,” Sherrill said.
Residential vacancy or occupancy sensors
developed for California Title 24 mandates, such as Cooper’s 01-400R, require
users to turn on a light upon entering the room, but the sensor automatically
turns it off once motion is no longer detected, a feature that can’t be
overridden. However, at this time, the mandate only applies in single and
multiple dwellings in California.
Lightolier
Controls
Innovative
occupancy sensing and daylight harvesting are becoming major players in energy
conservation.
“Being able to distinguish when energy is
truly needed and at what level, allows the homeowner to properly control the
amount of energy consumed in the home,” Lightolier’s Matthews said.
Lightolier’s occupancy sensor (at left)
doesn’t rely on conventional motion detection to determine occupancy.
IntelliSight has a significantly expanded detection range of 4,000 square feet,
which product developers say directly correlates to energy savings.
LiteTouch
“Today’s
homeowners are increasingly committed to saving energy and to doing their part
on a personal level to conserve,” said Don J. Buehner, LiteTouch president and
CEO.
Daylight harvesting is now benefiting
homeowners through the LiteTouch DayLight Harvesting keypad. Daylight
harvesting technology allows for artificial lighting in a room to be
supplemented by natural light coming through windows.
As natural light is “harvested” and measured
by an ambient light sensor, the LiteTouch keypad automatically dims the light fixtures,
so the natural and artificial light work in concert to maintain the desired
lighting level in the room.
Pass
& Seymour/Legrand
Pass
& Seymour/ Legrand’s LightSense is a new entry in RF whole-home mastering
controls for lighting, fan speed and small appliances. LightSense has matching
wired devices for a consistent appearance for system and non-system controls.
“For new construction or for retrofitting
existing homes, LightSense makes it easy to add a little or a lot of light
control to the home, and because it uses radios to send and receive commands,
there is a minimum of special wiring,” Piraino said.
Square
D
A
completely new category of lighting controls is growing out of distributed
lighting control topology recently introduced by Square D. As explained by
Square D’s Wills, when employing a distributed topology, an electrical
contractor doesn’t have to be as exacting in the design phase because
functionality is built into each input and output device itself, eliminating
the need for a centralized controller.
“Communications wiring between input and
output devices is typically made in a free topology arrangement that does not
depend on daisy chain loops or radial feeds,” Wills said.
Leviton
Product
developers at Leviton Manufacturing point out that wireless devices such as
Vizia RF, also part of the Z-Wave partnership, have experienced the most
dramatic changes in recent years due to the implementation of advanced digital
circuitry allowing enhanced features with tactile dimmers and switches.
“In previous decades, a typical home had only
a few dimmers, such as a dining room or a master bedroom. With new wireless
lighting systems, dimmers are installed in many more places throughout a
home—enough, in fact, to create an energy-saving home control network,” said
Leviton’s Sullivan, who adds that wireless provides retrofit opportunities in
older homes as easily as in new construction.
Lutron
More
of these wireless options, especially for wallbox products, are creating
whole-house lighting control. For the residential market, Lutron’s AuroRa whole-house
lighting system requires no new wiring and no programming.
According to Mike Cunningham, Lutron
marketing communications director, “Homeowners are increasingly interested in
security features, such as the ability to create light pathways inside and
outside the home, the use of handheld and car-visor remotes so that people
don’t have to walk into a dark home, setting up a flashing distress signal for
a porch light or front-door light so that emergency workers can find your home
quickly, and the ability to integrate with home-security systems.”
Another key trend is the need to provide
lighting controls that are tailored to individual needs and tasks. Added
Cunningham, “As the population ages, more people need brighter lighting for
such tasks as reading and cooking. But they still want to be able to set lower
light levels for other activities, such as dining, watching television and
entertaining guests. Dimmers allow people to use more light when they need it,
less light when they prefer it, all while saving energy.”
Progress
Lighting
New
from Progress Lighting is the P83-26ICATDM, the industry’s first dimmable
compact fluorescent recessed fixture, which works with a standard incandescent
dimmer. Dimming down to a 15 percent light output, the recessed fixture meets
California Title 24 requirements as well as all state standards for airtight
recessed fixtures. “[It] captures the energy savings of high efficacy 26W twin
triple tube compact fluorescent lamps,” said Craig Wright, product manager.
What’s
next
The
bottom line, according to Wills, is a continued emphasis on research and
development for manufacturers and more homework for contractors because future
users will demand more sophisticated lighting designs in their homes.
“The industry is going to have to balance
with demands for more energy efficiency. State governments are going to demand
homes use less energy, but homeowners are going to want multiple layers of
lighting, which is going to add more energy consumption. The lighting control
industry is going to be caught in the middle, and as an extension, so will
electrical contractors,” Wills said. EC
By Debbie McClung
MCCLUNG, owner of Woodland
Communications, is a construction writer from Iowa. She can be reached via e-mail at mcclung@lisco.com.
Reprinted
with full permission of Electrical Contractor Magazine – July issue 2007 www.Electrical Contractor Magazine.com
CCI Lab Receives MSHA Approval for Burn Test
Coleman
Cable Inc. (CCI) recently announced that its quality lab in Waukegan, Illinois,
received approval from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to
conduct the burn test on products such as power, control and communication
cables.
To
earn this accreditation, the lab was required to satisfy strict requirements
for testing the flame resistance of electric cables, title 30 CFR § 7.407, for
products such as power and control cables; and flame resistance testing of
signaling cables, title 30 CFR § 7.408,
for products such as low-voltage, coax and communication cables. The process initiated several months ago when
CCI built a burn booth in its lab, then worked with MSHA officials for
inspection and approval of the flame resistance test procedure, as well as
approval of the individuals who conduct the test.
“There
are a limited number of facilities that are approved to conduct this
testing. For CCI, the in-house testing
significantly improves our time to market, making us more effective and
efficient in product design and development,” said Howard Caccia, CCI’s vice
president, engineering. “The investment
in our lab is just one more example of CCI’s commitment to the market to do
everything necessary to serve the customer’s needs.”
About
Coleman Cable Inc.
Coleman
Cable, Inc. (CCI) is a leading manufacturer and innovator of electrical and
electronic wire and cable products for the security, sound, telecommunications,
electrical, commercial, industrial, and automotive industries. With extensive
design and production capabilities and a long-standing dedication to customer
service, Coleman Cable, Inc. is the preferred choice of cable and wire users
throughout the United States.
The company is located at 1530
Shields Drive, Waukegan, IL 60085. For more information, visit: www.colemancable.com
MRV Communications, Inc.
What
leading publications are saying about MRV:
Serial
device connectivity continues to be the main focus of MRV's LX solution, but
with the LX-4016T we could set a remote serial management environment that
included power management and serial device control, as well as support for
environmental monitoring and a video camera system."
Network
Computing, Remote Administration Within Reach, April 16, 2007
http://www.gcn.com/print/26_10/44248-1.html
When
coupled with power management and a solid UPS system, the 4000T can be an
invaluable shield against being out of touch in a crisis."
Government
Computing News, Test Drive,
May 7, 2007
http://www.gcn.com/print/26_10/44248-1.html
Our
high-end hosting customers want to have insight into their servers and how they
are behaving, and now they have the technological savvy to do this,"
Whittaker said. "When we give them remote access to their equipment they
feel more in control and tell us that this is an important benefit."
Remote Site
and Equipment Magazine, Out-of-Band Management Network Helps Magnet Networks Go
National, April 2007
http://www.remotemagazine.com/enewsletters/2007/newsletter_4_07.htm#4
MRV's LX
4000T Series provides industry leading serial connectivity, power management
and physical infrastructure solutions. Contact us at sales@mrv.com or call
800-338-5316 to learn more about how these solutions can increase security,
lower risk and improve service levels! www.mrv.com
Examining Twisted-pair Options For 10-Gigabit Ethernet
Hugo Draye
is marketing manager for Fluke Networks’ certification tools
(www.flukenetworks.com). He holds a Master’s degree in electrical engineering
from the University of Louvain in Louvain, Belgium and an MBA from Seattle University.
Many
companies are planning to install networks with the ability to transmit
10-Gbit/sec Ethernet to meet the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth and
improved response times. The need for higher bandwidth first manifests itself
in the backbone cabling or in data centers. The Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers (IEEE; www.ieee.org) completed and approved a new
chapter in the Ethernet standard (802.3) to enable 10-Gbit/sec Ethernet transmission
over twisted-pair copper cabling. This implementation, called 10GBase-T is
specified in a standard that supports both unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) and
screened or fully shielded twisted-pair (STP) cabling systems. Shielded cabling
systems are entering center stage in the promotional battles for market share.
The question whether to select, specify, and install unshielded versus shielded
has consequently become the topic of the day.
This
article explains the transmission-performance requirements for the twisted-pair
cabling system defined in the 10GBase-T standard. It will furthermore discuss
the following questions: Is the familiar UTP cabling no longer a viable choice?
And has shielded cabling become the new solution for high-speed applications
like 10GBase-T?
Twisted-pair
transmission requirements
To achieve
the 10-Gbit/sec data rate, each wire pair in the twisted-pair cabling must be
able to transmit 800 million symbols per second (data rate of 800 Mega Baud). A
“symbol” is a voltage level; a new symbol must be transmitted every 1.25
nanoseconds (or 1¼ billionth of a second). In order to support this very high
rate of signal transmission, the cabling performance parameters are specified
up to 500 MHz. In comparison, the Category 6 cabling standard defines the
transmission performance of the cabling over the frequency range from 1 through
250 MHz.
The cabling
standards characterize the performance of twisted-pair data cabling using a
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) analysis. This method defines 1) the minimum
required signal strength (or the maximum signal loss allowed) over the
frequency range of interest—in this case over the range 1 through 500 MHz, and
2) a number of noise parameters or disturbances that cannot exceed established
values over the same frequency range. The specified noise parameters are
related to crosstalk between wire pairs in the cable and signal reflection on
each wire pair measured by the return loss parameter.
Because of
the very high frequency range required for 10GBase-T, the crosstalk
requirements must be expanded to include not only the crosstalk that happens
between wire pairs within each cabling link, but also to include the crosstalk
that is induced from wire pairs in adjacent cabling links. The latter is called
alien crosstalk. The performance of each individual cabling link is certified
by the “in-channel” tests, while the alien crosstalk performance or the
coupling between wire pairs in adjacent links is to be certified by the
“between-channel” test parameters.
How can you
be assured that the installed cabling system will support 10GBase-T
transmission? Industry standards define the test parameters as well as the
measurement methodology to assure compliance of installed cabling systems. This
testing procedure is called cabling certification.
Applying
the standards
The IEEE
has been the organization to develop, expand, and maintain the “Ethernet”
standards, in its 802.3 set of specifications. IEEE project 802.3an developed
and defined the system to transmit 10-GbE over twisted-pair cabling. This
project encompasses all aspects of the network implementation including the
minimum capability of the cabling link between a transmitting device and a
receiving device. The IEEE is focused on the transmission performance of the
end-to-end cabling link independent of the number of connections or other
cabling installation issues. The IEEE 802.3an development has been completed
and was approved by it standards board in June 2006.
The cabling
industry is undertaking two sets of activities.
Guidelines
for cabling compliance with the transmission requirements of 10GBase-T
A new
cabling standard that delivers better transmission performance than Category 6,
called Augmented Category 6 (Category 6A) or Augmented Class E (abbreviated
Class EA by the International Organization for Standardization
[ISO]).
In the
North American market, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA;
www.tiaonline.org) is the leading standards body for data communications
cabling. The ISO develops, publishes, and maintains standards for the worldwide
market. Both standards bodies are involved with the two activities mentioned
above.
Cabling guidelines for compliance
with 10GBase-T. The
TIA published a document titled Telecommunications Systems Bulletin 155 (TIA
TSB-155), which contains the guidelines and performance criteria by which any
cabling system can be evaluated for compliance with the cabling transmission
requirements for 10GBase-T. The guidelines in TSB-155 address the in-channel
performance (test parameters that define the performance of an individual
cabling link over the frequency range from 1 through 500 MHz) and the
between-channel performance (signal coupling between adjacent links commonly
referred to as alien crosstalk). The ISO is in the process of creating a
Technical Report (TR 24750) that serves the same purpose, and intends to
provide the same guidance as the TIA TSB-155 document. Note that these
guidelines do not suppose a specific Category or Class of cabling, but it will
be very difficult to meet the performance established by TSB-155 (TR 24750) for
any cabling lower than Category 6 or Class E.
New cabling standards. Both TIA and ISO are developing a
new cabling type called Augmented Category 6 (Category 6A) or Augmented Class E
(Class EA). This new cabling will offer better performance than
Category 6 or Class E cabling. The performance of the in-channel parameters as
well as the between-channel parameters will be defined up to 500 MHz. Note that
the standards activities that define the Augmented cabling systems are not yet
complete, even though many manufacturers offer Category 6A (Class EA)
solutions in the market. The TIA development is further along than the ISO
development, and will be published as Addendum 10 to the TIA standard 568-B.2
(TIA-568-B.2-10). This TIA document is, at the time of this writing, in Draft
7.0.
An
important reason for the new cabling systems is the fact that Category 6
cabling may not satisfy the between-channel performance (alien crosstalk
performance), especially for longer links. TSB-155 states that Category 6
“should” perform satisfactorily for links up to 37 meters long; it may well
work up to 55 meters, and it may need some mitigation if you want to run
10GBase-T over Category 6 links longer than 55 meters.
In a
real-world installation, the alien crosstalk performance of installed Category
6 cabling depends on many factors. The best advice we can give: Test alien
crosstalk performance of installed Category 6 cabling before deploying
10GBase-T. If the links pass the requirements specified in TSB-155, they are
ready to support 10GBase-T. One design goal for the Category 6A system states
that it shall satisfy the alien crosstalk performance for 10GBase-T for a full
100-meter horizontal channel.
Starting
from scratch
A new
cabling installation should be treated as a long-term investment. The
electronic devices are typically replaced several times within the lifespan of
the cabling system. Replacing a cabling system is also a much more disruptive
and costly project than exchanging network devices like switches and routers.
You should, therefore, consider the best cabling system for the time horizon of
this investment. In a new data center design, this decision should definitely
favor a Category 6A cabling system.
As
mentioned earlier, shielded cabling types are getting much attention in the
Category 6A market today. The standards do not favor UTP over STP construction.
Instead, as was explained earlier, the standards set performance limits for the
in-channel transmission capability as well as for the between-channel
capability. We have witnessed the testing of many UTP cabling installations
that fully meet the requirements spelled out in the proposed Category 6A
standard. The shielding in the screened cable types offer better
electromagnetic interference (EMI) performance and diminishes the signal
coupling between wire pairs in adjacent cabling links. A shielded cabling
installation, if properly installed, should offer better margins for the alien
crosstalk tests.
This raises
an interesting question: Do cabling systems with very good margins (15 dB or
more) perform better in everyday network operations than cabling with merely
good (say 5 dB) margins? We believe the answer is, “No.” The distinction is not
noticeable. It is true that a reasonable margin of a few dB above the minimum
requirements protects network traffic from spurious and random EMI events that
undoubtedly occur. Also, remember that the dB scale is not a linear scale. For
example, a worst-case alien crosstalk margin of 6 dB means that at the
worst-performing frequency, the measured alien crosstalk signal is half of the
allowable signal level for alien crosstalk.
Considering
unshielded
In the
selection process between unshielded and a variety of screened and shielded
cabling options, UTP remains the more economical system. Installation
contractors in the North American market are very familiar with unshielded
cable types. Category 6A UTP may, however, bring a few new challenges. Many of
the Category 6A UTP implementations have bigger outside diameters, and the
density in patch panels has decreased. The increased outside diameter (OD)
creates a greater distance between wire pairs in adjacent links, thereby
reducing the between-channel signal coupling. A bigger OD for the cablin
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