Cabling Installation & Maintenance articles from January 2006

Cabling Installation & Maintenance archives from January 2006

A call for safe practices.(Editorial)
January 1, 2006... As we begin 2006, designers, installers, and users of structured cabling systems may face more challenges, and challenging questions, than at any time in the past. I often think about the questions these individuals are asking themselves,...

The nice thing about standards: so many from which to choose.
January 1, 2006... In my November 2003 column, I reported to you that the ISO/IEC TR 24704 Information Technology Customer Premises Cabling for Wireless Access Points was a work in progress. ISO/IEC TR 24704 was written because the infrastructure specified in...

Tragedy sparks innovation in fire-rated barriers: rebuilding the Pentagon after 9/11 included thinking 'square' for firestopping sleeve technology.
January 1, 2006... According to the old saying, "necessity is the mother of invention." If that's true, then perhaps tragedy is its father. The collapsing World Trade Center towers and the devastation at the Pentagon following the 9/11 terrorist attacks will...

10-Gigabit Ethernet standard on track for mid-year publication: alien crosstalk remains key cabling consideration for 10GBase-T deployment.
January 1, 2006... The IEEE 802.3 working group has submitted the 10GBase-T draft standard (D.3) to the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) for sponsor balloting. This major milestone marks the Ethernet industry's recognition that the document is technically...

Demystifying PoE plus: more safe power for 'killer apps': an enhanced IEEE 802.3af standard looks to provide the maximum practical power over an existing LAN infrastructure.(Power over Ethernet)(Local area networks)
January 1, 2006... Power over Ethernet (POE) refers to the ability to power network devices over the existing data wiring, eliminating the need for an external power supply for each device. With PoE, devices such as IP telephones, wireless access points (APs),...

Unwiring a city: what does it mean? Municipalities must learn to maintain flexibility in wireless network layout.(usage of wireless communications )
January 1, 2006... These are important questions for municipalities that are looking to offer wireless broadband access to their cities and towns. But, they may not be the most important questions. How to maintain flexibility in the wireless network layout and...

Get ready for 'green' initiatives from all corners: an imminent hazardous substances directive affecting manufacturing, product performance, and economics could be just the tip of the iceberg.(restrictions in usage of Hazardous Substances)
January 1, 2006... If you've heard of RoHS, or perhaps already noticed the acronym printed on network equipment, cables, or labels, you may be wondering what exactly it means for your business, or for the cabling industry as a whole. RoHS--Restriction of...

Are optical-fiber manufacturers ready for commodity market shift?(industry forecasts in fiber optics industry)
January 1, 2006... By 2015, the optical fiber and cable business will most likely be a part of the commodity wire and cable industry. That was the message of Arnab Sarkar, vice president of Nextrom Inc. (www.nextrom.com), who spoke about the restructuring of...

BICSI tracking system part of focus on continuing education.(Building Industry Consulting Services, International)(usage of Radio frequency identification equipment)
January 1, 2006... BICSI's test of a tracking system to document conference session attendance at this month's Winter Conference in Orlando is part of an overall effort to reexamine the association's process for awarding continuing education credits. BICSI...

Prysmian Cable seeks to establish 'face' in marketplace.(company forecasts)
January 1, 2006... Prysmian Cable & Systems is off and running with its plans to create a new presence in the market. But the company said it faces one big hurdle: Divorcing itself from the Pirelli brand name. "Our feeling is to drive home the new name as...

Cabling installation & maintenance: editorial mission.
January 1, 2006... Installers of premises and campuswide communications systems face constantly evolving standards, products, and technology. Keeping pace with these changes requires access to current information from informed peers who are knowledgeable in fiber...

Media converters make a smart move: today's intelligent converters do more than convert copper to fiber and back.(fiber optic equipment)
January 1, 2006... Media converters are making the leap from simple conversion devices to intelligent parts of the network. In most cases, a media converter is used to convert copper to optical-fiber cabling, and vice versa. But they can also be used to...

Compact PoE controller.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The compact, four-port TrueNet Midspan Power-over-Ethernet controller is designed to provide a flexible way to power IP devices over a LAN. The unit delivers compliant power to up to four devices, eliminating the need to upgrade existing...

Grounded artificial neutral.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... AN-1 generates a momentary grounded artificial neutral to permit measurement of fault currents on ungrounded three-phase systems. The unit is grounded intermittently through a relay driven by an internal electronic timer. The periodic grounding...

Application design service.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Bogen's free application design service will help you build a paging system to fit your installation. The service includes speaker placement design, a complete bill of material (including product description, model number, and quantity--faxed...

Handheld labeler.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... IDXPERT handheld labeler is portable and durable, built for labeling anywhere on the jobsite. The unit is designed to print clean and fast with edge-to-edge, non-smearing thermal transfer quality printing and expanded text-editing capabilities....

Speed bending, sweeping.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Faslock splice is designed to speed the fabrication of bends and sweeps within a wire cable tray installation. Only pliers are needed to secure the tray via specially designed locking tabs, eliminating the need for bolt and nut connections....

Dual-voltage box/bracket.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... This dual-voltage box/bracket is designed to eliminate the need to use separate high- and low-voltage boxes, combining a high-voltage electrical box with a backless low-voltage bracket into a single unit that fits a standard two-gang faceplate....

Fiber plug-and-play system.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The Plug & Play Universal System is a pre-terminated optical-fiber cabling technology designed to streamline deployment of a fiber network infrastructure in premises installations. Plug & Play Universal's modules and harnesses are wired alike...

Slap-in-place struts.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Strut Ready Slap Snap is designed to reduce the cost of overhead and vertical cabling work by reducing installation time. Simply insert and twist into the channel strut to quickly hang cable or conduit. (Removal, says the company, is just as...

Universal support system.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Caddy Speed Link is a UL-rated universal support system that features all-steel construction built for superior fire resistance, and designed as a cost-effective alternative to threaded rod and associated hardware. Caddy Speed Link can be used...

Compact network tester.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The FTB-200 compact platform offers open architecture, backward compatibility, and proprietary testing technologies. The tester can use any of the company's OTDR modules, which can test up to four wavelengths. According to the company, the...

Handheld mini-OTDR.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... This handheld mini-OTDR is a full-function device that is small enough to fit in a toolbox. The unit produces a scan in less than one minute, weighs 2 pounds, and measures 7.25 x 4.5 x 2.75 inches. It is available in short LAN or standard...

Single-action cleaver.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The Fitel S325A single-action, ultra-compact cleaver is designed to perform highprecision cleaves in the palm of your hand or at your workbench. The design combines all four steps of a proper fiber cleave into a one-step button press that...

Current-monitoring PDUs.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... New RacSense current-monitoring power distribution units (PDUs) provide digital readout of amps, volts, power, and environmental monitoring. The company's line of horizontal and vertical PDUs are built for a variety of applications, available...

Nine new ones.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... General Cable will feature nine new products at BICSI Orlando 2006, joining its extensive GenSPEED line of enhanced copper products that are in full compliance with ANSI TIA/ EIA and ISO/IEC standards. All are backed with warranty assurance....

Wall-mount enclosure.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The 32-inch deep WD Wall-Mount enclosure series is available in 24-inch, 36-inch or 48-inch high by 24-inch wide by 32-inch deep models. The enclosure includes an optional dust-resistant kit that contains filters and panels to seal vents and...

Indoor/outdoor fiber.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Singlemode and multimode indoor/outdoor plenum-rated optical-fiber cables let building owners directly connect telecommunications rooms of adjacent buildings, such as on corporate or college campuses. The cables are tight-buffered with a...

10-GbE cabling system.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... NextSpeed Ascent 10-GbE cabling infrastructure is designed specifically for standards-compliant 10-Gigabit Ethernet applications. The full channel offering consists of modular jacks, patch cords, traditional 100-style patch panels, and...

Tester with PDA-like control.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... SIGNALTEK is a full-featured, handheld cable tester with PDA-like navigation control. It lets technicians speed-test virtually any type of network cable to support actual data transmission rates of up to 1 Gbit (per IEEE 802.3ab). The tester...

A new angle.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... A completely redesigned line of the company's angled patch panels and accessories, developed in response to customer input, offers a dual-angle design that provides optimal rack density, improved punchdown accessibility, and simplified cable...

Television via Category 5.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Lynx Video Network is designed to deliver up to 134 channels of television broadcast over Category 5 cable. It simultaneously distributes multiple channels from multiple video inputs, including CATV, satellite, off-air, DVD, VCR, and original...

Automated building software.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... McCormick Systems is now offering a complete line of products for contractors involved in automated building systems (ABS) design. The new ABS products are for contractors who work in datacom, security system and HVAC control installations. The...

TDM over packet.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The TDM over Packet family of products is designed for service providers looking to deploy Ethernet services without sacrificing revenues from existing TDM (time division multiplexing) services. The RS9A5, for example, is designed to provide...

Configurable power strips.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The PDT Series of low-profile power strips are field-configurable for single or dual circuits and isolated or non-isolated grounding, and are designed for enhanced versatility for power distribution inside crowded enclosure systems. Measuring...

Free-space optics wireless.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... In partnership with Canon, Molex's Canobeam Free Space Optics (FSO) point-to-point wireless systems feature real-time beam autotracking. The FSO is designed to enable cost-effective, high bandwidth links where cabling is economically...

Keyboard/mouse via Cat 5.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Developed for commercial audio-video integrators and custom home installers, the PS/2 Converter lets you connect a PS/2 keyboard and mouse via Category 5 cable--up to 350 feet from the computer--in a point-to-point configuration. The device is...

Connection management.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The 2U Shelf is designed as an efficient connection management unit for terminating and splicing fibers, enabling quicker network rearrangements and easier fiber resources tracking. It houses up to 48 ST/SC or 96 LC terminations, and can...

Self-managed network device.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The company's new Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet network interface devices (NIDs) feature CDWM/DWDM small-form-pluggable fiber transceivers designed to support the 802.3ah Ethernet in the first mile standard, and for secure operations,...

Optical return loss meter.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The Fiber OWL 50RL (optical return loss) meter is designed to accurately measure ORL at 1310 and 1550 nanometers in singlemode networks, such as FTTH. In addition, the device doubles as a singlemode-ready optical power meter, and when used with...

Modular network solution.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Employing MTP connectors and ribbon cables, the P3 Link is a preterminated, modular optical-fiber network solution designed to let you plug specific components together to form the network of your choice. With all components manufactured and...

Workstation fiber manager.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... OptiMo Swing-Away Fiber Manager is designed to eliminate the need for large surface-mount enclosures and electrical boxes. The concept capitalizes on the common use of mud rings to install work area devices, and features a swing-and-slide work...

Wireless headset.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The Pulsar 590 Bluetooth stereo headset lets you listen wirelessly to music and movies, and switch seamlessly to mobile phone calls with a touch of a button. Available with a universal Bluetooth audio adapter, the Pulsar 590 provides immediate...

Wire stripper, cutter.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Ripley Company's Miller division introduces the 111-TAS thumb-adjustable wire stripper and cutter, designed for stripping and cutting insulate in wire sizes from #22 AWG to #10 AWG. With a patented mechanism that allows for full-range...

Metered power distribution.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The Sentry CW-48VY cabinet power distribution unit (CDU) is designed to provide power distribution, as well as power and environmental monitoring with remote configuration and management. You can remotely power-cycle an individual or group of...

Air flow manager.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Snake Air air flow manager for data centers is designed to block stray air from escaping from under a raised floor, preventing overheating of sensitive equipment while lowering the cost of cooling the data center. It installs by hand and...

Cat 6 modular plugs.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The 39200 Series of shielded Category 6 RJ-45 modular plugs are designed for high-speed networking and computing applications. The company claims the plugs feature a two-level load bar that separates the split pairs to ensure the plugs' ability...

Cat 6, Cat 5e cables.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Shielded twisted pair Category 6 cables, available in both plenum and riser versions, consist of four balanced 24-AWG copper pairs. Each pair is individually wrapped with a Mylar-backed aluminum foil, and separated by a drain wire in the center...

RoHS-compliant bulk fiber.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The Light Connection is re-introducing its entire line of bulk optical-fiber cables as fully compliant with restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS). The company manufactures standard and customized simplex, duplex, tight buffer,...

No-solder connector.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The enhanced EZ-200-NHM-D no-solder EZ crimp connector for LMR-200 and LMR-200-LLPL cable features a combination hex/knurl coupling nut for tightening by hand or wrench, tri-metal plating that eliminates tarnishing, ridged landing area on the...

Analog video over fiber.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Analog video copper-to-fiber media converters are designed to transport analog NTSC, PAL or SECAM video signals over multimode or singlemode fiber, letting security providers and administrators use an optical-fiber infrastructure for video...

Security cabling.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... TRT Business Network Solutions has broadened its FPLR/FPLP fire alarm, security, and coaxial cable product line. Products are tested, UL-listed, and most meet CUL and CE standards. Products include: 18-3C STR shielded plenum; RG6 CU/CU coax...

Secure system expands.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... In response to customer requests, the MT-RJ Secure product line has been expanded with additional six color/key versions, for a total of 10 variations. Only plugs and jacks of the same color will mate, and none of the MT-RJ Secure products will...

Sealing end caps.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... Unique Fire Stop Products has developed endcaps for sealing the ends of sleeves harvested when removing cables. The systems are for 1, 2, or 4-inch EMT or rigid. Intumescent putty inside the endcaps can be used to seal the sleeve when it is put...

High-capacity raceway.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The 4000 Designer Series steel raceway is designed to provide high cable capacity and bend radius control. The system features an optional downward-facing configuration for receptacles and data jacks, designed to improve connection reliability...

Four-post rack.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... The company's Four-Post Rack offers an open, accessible and unrestricted architecture for cable-dense networks, servers, and telecommunications equipment. Also featured at BICSI Orlando will be the Paramount, powered by PDI--a free-standing,...

RF video over UTP.(BICSI Orlando 2006 New Product Showcase)
January 1, 2006... A new video distribution system broadcasts more than 80 analog or hundreds of digital RF broadband video channels bi-directionally over 100 meters of Category 5/6 cable. The system distributes video from cable TV, DSS, and modulated baseband...