Technology has played a part in buildings infrastructure for many decades now, from the simplest of building monitoring systems connected directly to the emergency services to remote access and security controls. Now however, we have seen the development of what has become known as Intelligent Buildings; that is buildings that are able to ‘look after themselves’. They have in place a complete suite of monitoring and control applications that allow the ‘Building’ to manage its own environment including heating, cooling, humidity, lighting, power consumption, access, security and emergency systems deployment.
By monitoring the external influences upon the building, such as the effects of the weather on different building faces, heating and ventilation can be adjusted according to the effects of rain, sunlight and shade, even to the point that the lower part of a building near street level that is shaded by other buildings will adjust the temperature differently to floors higher up. With the introduction of ‘intelligent glass’ currently being developed it will be possible for those windows in direct sunlight to automatically dim to reduce the effects even further.
One facet of building construction and design is required to enable and connect all of these systems to a centrally managed point of control, the network infrastructure. It is common practice for all of these controls to be managed by an IP based network run across copper cabling and even wireless technologies. The importance of a network that is both reliable and robust has never been of more importance as the lives of building occupants can now very literally be dependent upon a network that won’t fail in an emergency.
Business Management Systems (BMS) that are built around networks using CAT6 or CAT7 technologies are able to take advantage of the latest PoE (Power over Ethernet) standards thereby making savings of both power consumption and cabling requirements. It also provides higher bandwidth to devices such as CCTV cameras allowing HD images to be transmitted and recorded. Just as importantly, the use of standard IP network protocols to manage all of the combined systems allows for easy cross-over of functionality, expansion and maintenance of the infrastructure.
The use of IP technology enables users and suppliers to be independent of any specific manufacturer, allowing a wider choice of products and capabilities, whilst also offering savings through vendor competition and customer choice. The same is true therefore of the customers’ options when choosing and infrastructure provider. There is a no longer a need for several differing companies to install different cable types and technologies in order to fulfil the requirements of HVAC, CCTV and Building Access Systems; instead, all of these applications can be run across the same single network and easily managed locally and remotely through IP based services. Using common IP practices network segregation, diversity and security can all be easily managed.
It is clear that in order for the BMS infrastructure to be depended upon to provide reliable and robust service to the user and include a high level of future proofing, the installation and associated products must be of the highest affordable standard and for that reason should only be undertaken by accredited and professional service suppliers.
Many businesses are seen to be starting to increase their dependency upon BMS for both control and up-to-the-minute monitoring of their premises. However, many of the these are depending upon legacy backbone CAT5 and CAT5e networks that were never installed for the purpose of managing today’s business critical services, often re-using old cabling that is neither capable of delivering the bandwidth requirement, in particular CCTV or is no longer fit for purpose due to age, mistreatment or poor initial installation practice.
Both fibre optic cable and wireless technologies are being increasingly used throughout all areas of network development although within a BMS system, fibre optics could be considered an un-necessary high cost when compared to copper based cabling and wireless connectivity of devices such as CCTV cameras, offers lower bandwidth and reliability, being far more susceptible to interference from external influences.
There is no doubting that building management systems are no longer a dream of the future, the reality is they have been with for quite some time. What is also true is that in order for any system to be able to meet the ever increasing demands that will placed upon it in years to come, the system’s ability to perform correctly and reliably is wholly dependent upon the infrastructure across which it runs. So for those people considering an update to their existing services, or indeed, for those planning a new project, please ensure that when selecting a network infrastructure vendor, you choose only from those that are able to offer the highest standards in products and workmanship. It really could be that a person’s life may depend upon your decision.
Tony Agombar