Join us at ISC West 2021 - booth 6050

It's been too long and we miss seeing your three dimensional faces! (Zoom's ok, but nothing beats the real thing.)  

Taking place July 19-21, 2021 at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas, the International Security Conference & Exposition - known as ISC West - looks forward to welcoming the security & public safety industry back to accelerate market recovery and redefine the roadmap ahead. 

With ISC West, you will have the opportunity to network and connect with thousands of security & public safety professionals, learn from the dynamic SIA Education@ISC program, plus explore the last technologies in Access Control & Visitor Management, Video Surveillance, Alarms & Monitoring, Emergency Response and Public Safety, while discovering emerging solutions in IT/IoT Security, Smart Home Solutions, Drones & Robotics, and more! The combination of products, networking opportunities, special events, award ceremonies, and educational programming all in one place truly makes ISC West the industry's most comprehensive & converged event in the U.S.

Want to register today for free? Click here!

With the explosion of high-speed Wi-Fi and the Internet of Things (IoT), applications hopping on the existing copper cabling LAN network, Gigabit Ethernet became a serious bottleneck.  The majority of today’s installed LAN copper cabling (Category 5e or 6) was designed for 1 Gigabit per second (Gb/s). Upgrading to 10 Gb/s Ethernet was the next higher data rate within the standards but that meant retrofitting to Category 6A, which would be an expensive option of “rip and replace.” (Note: Actually, before Category 6A was ratified, Category 6 was defined to support 10G, but distance was limited to 55m.)

In addition to requiring higher speeds for data, other devices that are now attaching to the IP network also require power (Power over Ethernet or PoE) over the same data cabling. Among these are security cameras, access control, digital signage and of course the biggest bandwidth hog - wireless access points (WAPs).  PoE technology reduces installation costs and time by allowing power and data to run over a single twisted-pair cable. But running power with data also comes with additional challenges as temperatures may rise within the cable possibly degrading the data signaling.  This is especially a concern when providing 90W (or more) of power as defined for devices classified as  IEEE 802.3bt Type 4.

 Another challenge for the IP networked devices is their location, such as in remote parking lots or expansive stadiums, which often exceed the Ethernet standards’ distance limit of 100m. Bandwidth, heat and distance have become major concerns for existing Category 6 which has pushed Ethernet to the limit. Luckily there is one cable that defies all limits and is verified to run higher bandwidth, high PoE and twice the distance − the GameChanger Cable™ from Paige.

Wi-Fi Drives 2.5 Gb/s and 5 Gb/s 

 Wireless technology continues to jump ahead as multi-gigabit Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5 access points are being deployed pushing the bandwidths even higher. This  increased performance capacity created a need for Ethernet rates higher than 1 Gb/s to run on existing cables.

Since the next copper cabling IEEE standard after 1 Gb/s  was defined as 10 Gb/s (IEEE 10GBASE-T) and required Category 6A (or higher), IEEE published the 802.3bz standard (2016) for multi-gigabit Ethernet. This standard defined transmission of high speed and power for Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), while using existing Category 5e and Category 6 twisted pair copper cabling. In addition, multi-gig switching enabled 2.5 Gb/s and 5 Gb/s speeds on existing cables, which brought the potential to breathe new life into copper-based infrastructures, while expanding and improving Wi-Fi.  This also provided the ability to add in high-bandwidth IoT capabilities as these evolve – without replacing the existing cabling plant.

 In reality, the technology of IEEE 802.3bz is based on 10GBASE-T, but operates at a lower signaling rate. By reducing the original signal rate to one-quarter or one-half, the link speed could drop to 2.5 or 5 Gb/s, referred to as 2.5GBASE-T or 5GBASE-T or NBASE-T and MGBASE-T, respectively.  To be able to run over the existing Category 5e and Category 6, the actual spectral bandwidth of the signal is also reduced, which helped lower the cable requirement from Category 6A. Therefore, using the IEEE 802.3bz standard, not only does it not reduce the cost of cabling, but also it can achieve up to five times the data transmission rate.  

Pushing Beyond the Limits 

This multi-gigabit Ethernet standards resolve the bandwidth and speed challenges, but the distance limitation was an additional challenge.  Recognized options including adding another telecom room with additional active switches or utilizing a hybrid fiber/copper cable that can greatly extend the distance but will require media conversion at the device end.   Both of these are costly solutions. Paige offers the best solution with GameChanger Cable™, a four-pair UTP cable that does it all – pushes the bandwidth limit to 2.5 Gb/s, doubles the distance, all while safely running 90W of power to the device. GameChanger is a 22 AWG UTP cable that allows those long-distance IP runs without additional electronics.  

 UL, an independent third-party lab,  verified GameChanger’s ability to run data up to 2.5BASE-T  and 90W of PoE out to 200 meters.  UL primarily tests and inspects products primarily test for safety and specification.  GameChanger was tested for specification under two different conditions – server to server and the other utilizing a pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) IP-enabled security camera.   GameChanger surpassed four separate tests that included: Test# 1: 1Gb/s connection @ 200 meters; Test# 2: 2.5Gb/s connection @ 200 meters; Test# 3: 10Mb/s connection @ 850 feet; and Test# 4: 802.3bt 90W PoE 1Gb full draw over 200m.

 Earning UL’s verified mark demonstrates that Paige’s performance claim of GameChanger Cable has been verified through an independent repeatable assessment.  It ultimately helps the end user as they have 100% assurance that the specification will match that performance.  Once again, GameChanger is proven as the easiest and most cost-effective way to extend the network past the 100m limit with increased bandwidth and highest PoE with highest performance. 

Economic Growing Pains: Slower Supply Chains, Limited Supply Pointing to Increases in Prices and Lead Times

The world is opening back up and that’s a good thing. However, as elements of our economy open back up it’s not as if we can just pick up where we left off a year or so ago. As commercial and consumer spending shifted around the world, so to did our global supply chain. If you’re reading this blog you’re probably familiar with the historic rally in the Copper commodity market over the last year but what you may not be hearing about is that we’re seeing inflationary pressure across the board.   The major drivers have been grouped into the following categories:

• Copper (Conductor Material)
• Compounds (Insulating and Jacketing Material)
• Logistics (International and Domestic Shipping)
• Packaging (Lumber and Cardboard)

I’ll share a number of charts that track the prices of each commodity to give you a sense of the dramatic increases we’ve seen over the last year or so. One important thing to keep in mind, these commodity prices represent the material in their raw forms. To transform them into useable materials for wire and cable they must each undergo processes which add to / amplify the increases.

A second important (and confounding) factor putting upward pressure on prices is that none of these factors consider the delays at all US ports of entry (as long as 6 weeks unloading material), or the driver shortage affecting the trucking industry which are contributing factors to a nationwide shortage of these raw materials.

It’s a perfect storm, and it may get worse. From where I sit today, all indications seem to point to continuing increases in prices and lead times.

Charts provided by Trading Economics

Let’s start with copper. For the last couple years, COMEX Copper has traded between $2.50 and $3.00/lb. For reference, the all-time high price topped $4.47 in June of 2011. A few weeks ago, copper climbed as high as $4.34/lb and is currently around $4.19/lb which represents a 100% increase since March 22, 2020. 

As I mentioned earlier, this is just the raw material in its basic bar form. Before it can transmit your signal, the copper is melted down, drawn and rolled into rod which is then drawn down to 9 gauge in the intermediate drawing process and then depending on the wire being made will get a fine drawing to say 23 gauge for Cat6 conductors or for stranded products like speaker wire, it needs to be drawn down to 30 gauge where 65 fine strands get bunched (twisted) together before they can be insulated. Several of these processes could take place in different factories or different parts of the world. All of these steps add to the price of “usable” copper and increases of course are amplified as the raw materials get closer to becoming a final product.

While copper is a major driver of material costs of wire, it’s far from the only factor.  If you’ve ever terminated wire (or really taken a close look at it) you’d see other materials for insulating and jacketing that are made from various types of plastics (yes there are non-plastic materials involved too, but I’m not getting into those here.). Those insulating and jacketing compounds (polyethylene, propylene, etc.) are petroleum based and as Crude prices increase so to do the compound prices.

Resin Prices April 2020 - April 2021
(chart provide by The Plastics Exchange)In addition to Crude Oil prices having increased increased over 300% in the last year, there are even more critical factors at hand for the resin markets. Back in late February a storm hit Texas and shut down approximately 80% of US resin production. and while most resin reactors have restarted,  most producers remain under force majeure and allocations are intact. The problems in the US don't exist in a vacuum and as such the sector is experiencing “severe shortages of raw materials and [unprecedented] price increases,” according to the European Plastics Converters (EUPC) association. According to the PlasticsExchange, "This Polypropylene environment has been like none other in our 20 years of making spot resin markets."

The end of the manufacturing process also has some surprises for us as well. The cost of lumber is at an all-time high (as of today it’s $1,212 per 1,000 board feet). Wood products (think everything from lumber used to frame your house to wood pulp used for toilet paper to cardboard boxes used to deliver your packages) are all effected and so too are the costs of our reels, boxes and skids used to package and carry your wire.

If you’re still reading at this point, I think you get the idea. Our global economy is surging in some unexpected ways and the short-term effects have clearly resulted in a slower supply chain with higher prices. I don’t pretend to know when prices will cool off and lead times will return to normal, but if you’re business counts on wire to get the job done, please plan accordingly, I know ours is!