Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/177525
The drive to digital-based integration of building communications is eliminating analogue systems as well as boosting multimedia and controls potential. These changes are also facilitating the increased priority given to security. "There's a continual push for more security and monitoring capability in all kinds of projects. There's a big move underfoot to replace old technology and more use of devices like card-swipes and proximity cards for more electronic access control. There's also a lot more interest in security cameras," says Vern Mantai, a principal and VP electrical engineering at Hemisphere Engineering. Digital security cameras are another potential application for wireless. "As yet, no one has made a module for a security camera location. Right now, the camera sends data across a data stream to a smart box. But the future could have a smart box by the camera, with only the data indicating a change sent to a central processor. This is likely to happen in future because of the huge savings on the data stream. It means less bandwidth is required," says Mantai. Integrated digital systems allow for flexibility of storage and ease of data and information retrieval of all kinds. And it's no surprise that such systems for large buildings require plenty of storage capacity. Mantai says it's not unusual to 40/ FEBRUARY 2012 p.38-41Electrical.indd 40 have two or three terabytes for a modern building system. Supported by HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) cable, he notes that a recently built recreation centre included, as part of its audio/visual communications, a network of digital monitors, each with the capacity to carry its own programming, specific to its particular location and audience. It is also perhaps no surprise that digital technologies are streamlining some of the most preliminary and earliest stages of planning and development processes for new buildings – like the siting of basic infrastructure components. "With better mapping, geo-referencing, modern survey technologies, we can much better coordinate joint parties, gas, water, electricity, cable providers, etc., that need to be coordinated to optimize the development process," says Kevin Jones, president of Primary Engineering & Construction Corporation. The approach entails the use of GPS and standardized high-quality government maps supported by software, allows planners to correct the location of, say, electrical distribution, if needed, and facilitates planning through to the final documentation stages. "We can work on this from remote locations and all parties have access to the same high-quality technology and use it to the extent that we use it, as the electrical engineers," says Jones. Besides improving precision of siting and accuracy of records, the bettercoordinated process can shave as much as two months off a 10-month development project. Jones says the system can be used anywhere the required mapping products are available. The culmination of the new digital systems and technologies can be found in the first digital hospital in B.C. – the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria. On track to be Canada's first LEED Gold hospital, its systems include voice-activated wireless communications that enable rapid conferencing between staffers, among other things. Its structured cabling network is geared to seamlessly integrate data, voice, security, patient entertainment, nurse call and other lowvoltage applications. The 41,000-square-metre, 500-bed facility has advanced electronic health record systems that can be securely shared across multiple locations, integration that links regular hospital services with community emergency services like fire and ambulance, advanced nurse paging or calling – which means that if there's no one at the nurses' station when the patient presses a button, the call is forwarded until it reaches a nurse who responds. The digitization of a hospital could inject some patient empowerment into the facility's complex matrix of care and services. In the case of Jubilee, "it also means that all of the calls are digitally recorded," says Lubo Madzarevick, manager of the technology group at H.H. Angus & Associates Limited. The entire facility, which has builtin redundancy and an array of back-up systems, has the capability to function as an emergency centre should a major disaster hit the region. "It's designed to withstand earthquakes and power failures or deal with an epidemic," says Madzarevick. The Jubilee Hospital and other modern buildings are using state-of-the-art digital hardware infrastructure to support their systems. The result, says Jan Petersen, data manager at Western Pacific Enterprises, is that, "We're seeing higher speeds on networks, more bandwidth and more Cat 6a cable, as it supports higher bandwidth and frequency. Server speeds are also increasing, and they are being used to capacity more often. Everything is moving to an Internet protocol-based system." Their flexibility and efficiency for integrating communications for a range of building systems in a seamless manner might soon make IP-supported technologies as much an essential to a modern building as its roof. ■ Electrical & Communication Systems 1/26/12 12:47:52 PM