Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1414667
62 I ICT TODAY BARRIERS TO ADOPTION ARE SIMILAR ACROSS THE GLOBE According to Henry Jimenez, business development lead for the Codisa project, "Costa Rican installers follow American standards for PoE, including those established by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)." Currently, TIA standards serve only as guidelines, albeit strong ones, for communication systems to work properly; they are not building code requirements. With PoE lighting being a fairly new technology, building codes are still catching up to accurately define and incorporate standards. Until that happens, there is room for inter- pretation on installation practices. Therefore, the locally adopted NEC standard of electrical requirements can be interpreted as the law, dictating how an electrical system, including PoE, can be legally installed. "Regulations and standards are no problem. The biggest barrier to mass adoption in our market is the misconception of PoE as a replacement for traditional cabling. We spend a lot of time educating contractors that both infrastructures can work in parallel, even within the same project," explains Jimenez. A pure PoE lighting installation throughout a building will have the greatest impact on long-term maintenance, cost, and energy savings, as well as extensibility, control, and data insight. However, hybrid line voltage and PoE installations are still possible and can still offer full-building control through a single system. Non-PoE fixtures, such as 0-10 V line voltage LED lighting and emergency lighting, can be controlled as PoE fixtures with new innovations that send commands, control dimming, and provide for two-way data transmission for non-PoE fixtures. Designers may run into this type of circumstance if they are recommending a high-bay or decorative, non-LED fixture with a power requirement above 80 W, which is out of the range of PoE compatibility. FIGURE 4: Cabling both above and underneath the cable tray at the Experience Centre in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Photo courtesy of Forehand Network Components & Devices. There can be additional benefits to a hybrid instal- lation for electrical contractors, particularly if the firm has a low-voltage division running alongside its main-voltage division. Establishing a mix of capabilities is a strategic growth initiative executed by contractors witnessing increased market traction of IoT devices and building automation. In a recent survey, 96 percent of electrical contractors said their firm is performing low-voltage work; another 22 percent said they have established a separate low-voltage division (twice the number reported in 2018). 5 These contractors have intrinsic motivation to install both lighting types and are less threatened by the common misperception that the emergence of PoE presents a risk to the electrical trade. Across the ocean, some 5,600 miles away, the same sentiment is expressed by executives with a net- work infrastructure firm that is based in the Netherlands. "The farther down the chain we go with PoE, the more resistance we get," comments Richard Vermeulen, pro- duct manager. For this reason, the firm is focusing on hybrid proposals that combine line voltage and DC. "Part of the solution to advancing adoption is flexibility. Hybrid scenarios work great because not all fixtures can be configured for PoE as easily. We'll see more hybrid projects before we see less." See Figure 4.