Patrick McLaughlin
For the second straight year, executives in the cabling industry will get a view of the marketplace from the perspectives of analysts and researchers who concentrate on it. The Structured Cabling Marketplace (SCM) seminar, now in its second year, will be held Monday, Oct. 25, at the Sumner Suites hotel in Atlanta.
Held in conjunction with Cabling Installation Expo `99, the seminar will delve into three dimensions of the cabling market: its direction, drivers, and dynamics. Providing insight into the market`s direction will be Stephen Montgomery of ElectroniCast Corp. (San Mateo, CA), who will present evidence that worldwide the industry is moving toward fiber-optic cabling and away from copper cabling. Incorporating a 10-year global market forecast, his presentation will compare and contrast the infrastructure needs in North America, the Pacific Rim, and Europe.
Joining Montgomery in an analysis of the market`s direction will be Catherine Bouchard, research analyst with Frost & Sullivan (Mountain View, CA). Focusing specifically on North America, Bouchard will track the copper-fiber battle for backbone and horizontal dominance. Based on research that she conducted, which focuses on media use in premises applications, Bouchard will spell out the growth patterns of both copper and fiber media in North America.
Keynoter looks at market drivers
Highlighting the seminar and providing a view of some market drivers, Barbara Maaskant of Emory University in Atlanta will deliver the seminar`s keynote address. Drawing on her experience overseeing the recabling of the university`s Roberto C. Goizueta Business School and its Rollins School of Public Health, Maaskant will tell the audience where structured-cabling systems are going in the years ahead--and what they`ll need to get there. As a telecommunications professional who worked with cabling systems before they were realistically considered "structured," Maaskant has been on the edge of the industry`s rapid evolution over the past decade.
Another presentation on the factors that drive cabling markets comes from Kathryn Korostoff, president of Sage Research (Natick, MA). She will present data from a survey of end users that Sage conducted; the data indicates that traffic types and patterns across the campus are changing dramatically. Real-time video, voice, and imaging applications can wreak havoc across a network, Korostoff explains. During this session, attendees will learn how new applications are impacting traffic patterns, and what network managers plan to do about it.
Driving home the point that the cabling industry is dynamic, Brian Hills will give an in-depth presentation on the residential-wiring market. Hills, director of technical services for the Broadband Group (Tucson, AZ), specializes in drafting, implementing, and testing all structured-wiring guidelines in communities serviced by his company. A 21-year veteran of the telecommunications and audio/video industries, he has tracked the company`s growing residential-wiring segment and will give his analysis of how the market got to where it is today and where it`s going in the next several years.
Research results
Further delving into the industry`s dynamics, Cabling Installation & Maintenance magazine will present results of its research on the end users within the market. The publication`s research tracks the purchasing trends and upgrade projections of end-user organizations, while also defining who really makes purchasing decisions within those organizations. Additional data will profile the network size and setup of a typical end user. Senior associate editors Catherine Varmazis and Patrick McLaughlin will present the research.
A panel discussion, allowing for interaction among seminar attendees and presenters, will complete the program.
The event is sponsored by Penn-Well`s Advanced Technology Div. (Nashua, NH), which publishes Cabling Installation & Maintenance.
