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SMART BUILDINGS
Evolving buildings
Fibre infrastructure and cabling technology represent an
opportunity for residential buildings to become smart. When
a building possesses high-capacity for fibre, this enables
the building to become truly intelligent while enhancing
occupant well-being alongside health and safety.
Landlords have historically lacked the insights to fully
understand how their assets are being used and what’s truly
happening within a building. Meaning historically developers
are constructing £50+ million buildings based on legacy
design principles, which were typically designed by people
who were two generations removed from the present market
requirements of digital demanding residents. However,
installing fibre into the building from the planning phases will
encompass the future capacity for the growth of Internet-
connected devices; everything from sensors monitoring the
performance of white goods to location technology providing
granular detail on how people use the number of devices
that will connect to networks is exponentially growing. This
can provide interesting data into how the building is used,
providing developers with useful information to carry forward
into the next building design phase. A full-fibre infrastructure
delivers a flexible, adaptable and most importantly,
expandable platform that will help developers respond to the
technology demands of tenants of tomorrow.
From a facilities management point of view, there’s a
movement for buildings to become as green and innovative
as possible, by monitoring and controlling energy usage.
This is being driven by the desires of, often generation Z
and Y, users as well as the cost-saving possible on energy
usage, from the point of view of the operator. Technology
supported by full-fibre to the premise (FTTP) cabling can
provide an enhanced way of achieving this by powering and
complementing high-capacity WiFi technology.
Supporting new technologies
One common example of a technology that can be
supported by fibre infrastructure is the use of geofencing,
so as to ascertain when a resident is in and around the
building, and then leveraging this information to change
energy usage in a smart way. In some cases, this can cause
a fairly large reduction in energy usage, potentially saving
operators millions of pounds over a large estate.
This also has a tangible user experience benefit.
Consider the use of location-based technology within
student accommodation. An international student arriving
from China can use an app that knows their flight number
and time of arrival, which can then direct them precisely
within the building to the student halls or even all the way
to their room, using in-building location services. They can
then open their door using their building mobile app and
find the lighting set to jet lag mode, while the smart TV
is already logged into their Netflix and Amazon accounts,
with their smart speakers already playing the song they
had set to play upon arrival.
But most importantly, there are huge advances that
fibre cabling can help bring about when it comes to health
and safety. For example, in the case of an emergency
when tenants or users need to evacuate, if they’re in
the building, they’ll receive an alert on their personal
devices, which is translated into their native language. This
connectivity is ultimately ensuring all students are kept
safe and updated of any emergencies or announcements
that are made.
Further to this, by implementing fibre cabling
infrastructure, developers and building managers can
ensure that buildings are adaptable to future technological
innovations. At the moment, many manufacturers are
creating smart devices that can interact with other devices
and networks on their ecosystem, but nothing else.
It’s critical to have a platform in place from the time
of a building’s construction that can interact with any
protocol that arrives in a future standard. In order to
future-proof buildings and allow them to remain smart for
years to come, it’s vital that the high-capacity fibre cabling
is installed. n
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