They say necessity is the mother of invention, and that is certainly the case with the new company IFP Connect. The company and its primary product, called the Integrated Fiber Platform (IFP), are the brainchild of Eric Crawford, CEO of The Loop Technologies in Boise, Idaho.
The IFP Connect product is an 8-port data-to-fiber network switch and in-wall transceiver designed to help integrators eliminate a giant, messy mass of Cat 6 cable and replace it with a single thin fiber optic strand.
The result is a cleaner network installation done with 30% less labor costs, along with a solution that has less potential for signal interference and can send and receive signals over long distances.
In general, products that are born from integrators’ directly based on their in-the-field needs tend to have tremendous success in the market. And in this case, Crawford’s own experience was the impetus for IFP Connect.
The Loop Technologies’ team was on a commercial project four or five years ago and had four massive pulls of Category 6a cable to each office in a 30,000-square-foot building. The trunk in the mechanical room got too big because the volume of Cat 6a cable was just too big. Some of the bundles of Cat 6a cable were over 1-foot in diameter.
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The logical solution to the problem was much thinner fiber optic cable that can handle multiple signals for the network. For many years, integrators shied away from using fiber due to the difficulty in terminating the thin glass strands in the field, but those days are long gone with the advent of technology like Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM). That technology allows for plastic optical fiber to be, in essence “divided up,” to carry multiple signals.
At the same time, the termination difficulty – both in time and safety — related to glass fiber is no longer an issue. Moreover, fiber offers substantial improvement for distance, system performance, and ease of prewire.
Fiber is immune from electrical and RF interference and may be installed in the most convenient pathway, including significant labor savings by occupying a smaller cross section and may be installed through the same holes as Romex. Moreover, fiber can transmit up to 6 miles compared to just 100 meters via copper cable.
“With WDM technology, you can take a single strand of fiber and break it out over four ports. I realized nobody was taking WDM technology and using it for infrastructure topology. It was only being used for long-distance runs of fiber over a single strand,” says Crawford. “From the integrators’ perspective, the fiber would need half the number of connectors making it easier for installers but providing the same user experience.”
The end result of Crawford’s brainstorm is IFP Connect, which in addition to Crawford is owned by C5 Holdings, a product development, and manufacturing company.
The product itself is an in-wall transceiver, which is a single-gang device that connects to the network switch via single-mode fiber optic cable, and it is terminated by the installation technician with an SC connector. A two-conductor cable to each in-wall transceiver provides 12V power from a centralized power supply connection block.
According to Crawford, the installation of a fiber solution using IFP Connect requires 30% less labor time than a traditional Category cable installation. In addition to obvious commercial applications, Crawford says the units are well suited for large residential estates with remote pool houses, gate houses and other remote buildings that might require long cable runs.
Industry veteran and past CE Pro Masters honoree Buzz Delano, principal of Delano Associates Consulting, is working with IFP Connect to bring it to the market. He says the solution literally changes the game for network infrastructure by replacing copper category runs with fiber. IFP Connect plans to introduce its solution to the residential and commercial integration channel through top-tier system integrators and manufacturing partner licensees.
IFP Connect will debut to the custom installation community at CEDIA Expo 2022 in Dallas September 28.
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