Intelligent buildings can save on maintenance costs

The term 'intelligent building' does not imply an office block with artificial intelligence or human characteristics. For a building to be 'intelligent' means that a lot of functions - lights, heating, elevators or phone systems - can run by themselves once they have been set by the user. In the mainland, automation is represented by 3As and 5As. 3As mean office automation, communications automation and building management automation. 5As also include fire automation and maintenance automation so different systems can be managed by a single system. Take building control as an example. Traditionally, different systems such as lighting, air-conditioning, heating, alarms and elevators worked independently. With a building 'control network', these different systems can 'talk' and 'act' on messages from each other. With a control network, air-conditioning can be turned off automatically to slow down the spread of smoke if the linked alarm detects a fire. It also can be used to control air-conditioning and lighting using a telephone or PABX; to turn off lights automatically when the security system detects no one is in the room. Applications seem to be limited only by the imagination. Technically speaking, an intelligent building can be defined by its infrastructure - structured cabling. It is a centralised cabling method, forming a mixed-media network to handle all traffic for telephone, fax, e-mail, video conferencing, Internet access, 24-hour closed circuit TV, smoke detectors and sprinklers, all over the same set of wires. In the past, different cabling methods and different physical cables had to be used to wire different electronic systems, or even different computer systems, such as IBM's AS/400 and Digital's minicomputers, said Angus Chan, Anixter's greater China business director. Structured cabling, as an open and centralised infrastructure, is easier and cheaper to manage and maintain than conventional cabling. Lucent claims its Systimax structured cabling system can help customers save 60 per cent of management and maintenance costs. Nordx/CDT Asia Pacific vice-president Eddie Yuen said zone wiring was a new concept in structured cabling. In zone wiring, extra cables are linked at intermediate 'hubs' so that signals can be rerouted in case a wire breaks. It also is easier to expand. Structured cabling emerged in the early 80s, but it was not widely implemented in the West until 1985, and in Asia Pacific, its application started only in 1989, Mr Yuen said. TIA/EIA 568A is the official standard for structured cabling. Mod-Tap managing director Paul Andres said the standard, however, had lagged behind the newest technology since no users had been included in the committee for setting and updating the standard. Meanwhile, manufacturers, who are enjoying healthy sales of their products, do not feel the need to upgrade to the newest technology. There are two major kinds of cables in use - copper and fibre optics. Copper wires, with lower-cost unshielded twisted pair cables, are popular in the Asia Pacific region and the United States, while shielded, twisted-pair cables dominate in Europe. Mr Andres said, however, the future definitely would be fibre-optic cables, which were lighter, less bulky, free from electro-magnetic interference, and could transmit over infinite distances without having to reboot the signal like in copper wires. High prices have been the only hurdle to fibre optics taking off. Mr Andres said fibre-optic cables cost twice as much as copper wires, but the gap could narrow in three years. Mod-Tap has 10 per cent of its revenue from fibre optics and 90 per cent from copper-wire systems. Fibre optics served mainly as backbone technology to cater for future needs, Mr Yuen said. Central Plaza and Citibank Tower both have fibre-optic backbones, while the cabling infrastructure of the new wing of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, worth $7 million, is a combination of copper and fibre-optic cables. There are few intelligent buildings in Hong Kong, since so few buildings are wholly owned and occupied by a single party, but that does not mean structured cabling is uncommon. Mr Chan said the market for structured cabling in Hong Kong was growing about 20 per cent a year. He said there was a huge demand for structured cabling in the mainland, with an annual growth in demand of more than 30 per cent, triple the average worldwide market growth. There are three key types of customers for intelligent buildings in the mainland market, according to David Poon, managing director of Lucent's global private systems division in greater China. They are multinational offices, banks and government buildings. Structured cabling can help define intelligent buildings, but the cabling method also can be applied in a flat, or extended outdoors to cover a campus, manufacturing sites, refineries or airports.