The IT and building industries need to converge their planning when preparing to construct a new building, says Bradley Hemphill, MD of professional services firm Electrical Engineering Solutions.
The sectors must take into account the latest connectivity and information requirements of the future tenants, he explains.
Hemphill says while there are some signs the two sectors are beginning to cooperate on the construction of new buildings, this is happening on a piecemeal basis and is by no means an industry standard.
“Developers are advised by their professional teams of architects and construction engineers and, while developers are in the project for the long run, they often overlook, or forget, about connectivity requirements.”
Hemphill notes there is an urgent need for intelligent backbones to be included in the early planning phase of commercial property developments. The IT and building automation systems (BAS) industries, mindful of clients' needs, must engage with architects and developers to ensure the required infrastructure is installed during construction, he adds.
Silo mentality
“The convergence of the industry of BAS and IT is a new paradigm shift, and that convergence is happening so quickly we are failing to notice all the major players are using Internet Protocol platforms for their networks, yet they are not integrating these. They're working in silos.”
Hemphill cites the example that one cannot have a data centre without a BAS. This needs to be integrated with the IT system, so the support staff can use their physical access cards to gain entrance to the data centre and their logical access to gain access to the network to do their jobs of monitoring the centre.
“Developers take advice from architects and consultants, and few of these have the skills to conceptualise an IT network that converges with BAS. This is why the IT industry must take the initiative and educate the building environment professionals.”
He says IT is not usually part of the construction. This effectively means not enough upfront planning is happening and the stakeholders, who may use the building's network, are not being engaged in the early planning stages. It means that often there is no effective procurement model to enable all the relevant IT components to be procured during construction.
Flexibility needed
A building's integrated IT platform should accommodate a variety of systems needed for the efficient operation of the building and tenant experience. These include security systems, BAS, life safety systems, and the converged IT systems of data, voice and video.
There must be sufficient flexibility in the design of the intelligent backbone to allow for future inclusion of feature-rich services that were perhaps not initially envisaged or available at the time of planning, Hemphill says.
The first step in planning for an intelligent building is to appoint an IT/BAS engineer - either a firm or an individual fully conversant with the technology required for smart buildings and a track record of working on such projects, Hemphill says.
Master integrator
“The concept of a complete intelligent electronic backbone in a building needs a master integrator to ensure compatibility between disparate systems and to ensure systems integration at implementation stage. This integrator takes responsibility for the multi-disciplines and is a key sub-contractor to the main contractor.”
Technology companies such as telecommunications utilities have come in for some criticism from Hemphill, who says they are probably not doing enough to educate the building industry.
“Internet Solutions has shown how serious they are through their specialised company Gated Solutions [Vodacom bought a stake in it in August]. However, Telkom seriously lacks the capacity to engage the industry and it has legacy issues in its architecture.”
He says Neotel is seeing the importance of the industry, but has yet to engage it decisively.
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