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Contact:
Keith Quistorff
Product Marketing Manager
Enterprise Networks,
Sumitomo Electric Lighwave
Phone: 919-541-8186
Email: kquistorff@sumitomoelectric.com
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Editorial Contact:
Alexandra Manning
Marketing Communications
Sumitomo Electric Lightwave
Phone: 919-541-8383
Email: amanning@sumitomoelectric.com
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New Washington Convention Center Opens Its Doors With An Advanced Fiber Optic Network, Utilizing Sumitomo's FutureFLEX® Air-Blown Fiber System
Research Triangle Park, NC, April 8, 2003 - Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, a leader in fiber optic product manufacturing, announced today the successful installation and deployment of its FutureFLEX® Air-blown Fiber Cabling System at the new Washington Convention Center, District of Columbia's largest building spanning 2.3 million square feet. The FutureFLEX system is the fiber optic infrastructure of the center's technologically advanced local area network.
The Washington Convention Center's air-blown fiber® system allows for quick and easy fiber installation and rerouting by blowing fiber bundles through a network of tubes at speeds of 100 to 150 feet per minute to anywhere in and around the center where fiber is needed. Unlike a conventional cable infrastructure, the center's FutureFLEX cabling backbone, with 114 intermediate distribution frames, accommodates the frequent changes, upgrades, and customized fiber routing from event to event required by its various customers. With air-blown fiber, the center eliminates the costs of laying dark, unused fiber. Instead, the center's network managers can immediately scale and reconfigure the network without having to predict future network growth and other unpredictable variables, allowing for project planning hours or days instead of months or years in advance.
"It was our goal to construct not only one of the largest convention centers in the nation, but one that provided an advanced fiber optic network that would enable us to respond to the quick upgrades, changes, additions or future expansions needed to service our customers in the best way possible. FutureFLEX helped us to achieve that goal," says Michael Waxer, the center's chief technology officer. " With the air-blown fiber infrastructure, we can take the guess work out of forecasting future technology and network needs by blowing fiber as we need it. Also, It helps us to be fiscally responsible with planning and budgeting…we pay as we go, one project at a time."
Typically, two people can install or blow one mile of air-blown fiber optic cable in 45 minutes; compared with conventional fiber installation methods, which require 6 to 8 people from 2 to 3 days to pull a single mile of conventional cable. "As the only bundled air-blown fiber system in North America, FutureFLEX provides benefits that no other cabling system on the market today offers. The ease of installation and reconfiguration when using FutureFLEX significantly reduces the time, labor and cabling costs associated with rerouting a conventional network," comments Scott Mobley, project manager for Tech Incorporated, the company in charge of installation at the center.
In its decision to adopt FutureFLEX, Washington Convention Center system designers also weighed the system's ability to reconfigure the fiber in a continuous point-to-point installation, which eliminates the construction and disruption to the facility that occurs when pulling conventional cable. FutureFLEX's point-to-point installation allows for fiber to be installed easily in limited or no access areas, such as the 35-foot, concealed ceilings underlying the center's 17 acre roof. By eliminating the need to 'pull' fiber, the point-to-point blowing installation also reduces the potential for damaging the fiber and eliminates the need for splicing intermediate connections; thereby offering zero points of failure. Avoiding intermediate connections ensures better long-term reliability when routing the fiber to crucial locations throughout the center.
Sumitomo is demonstrating the system at the FOSE 2003 show on April 8 - 10. FOSE 2003 is the Washington Convention Center's first contracted event.
About the FutureFLEX Air-blown Fiber Cabling System: FutureFLEX has become the preferred cabling method among some of the world's most recognized private networks including, the Pentagon, ESPN, McCarran International Airport - Las Vegas, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Barnes & Noble, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Nissan, and other companies and establishments throughout the manufacturing, nuclear power, government and military, airline/airport, educational, and sports entertainment/broadcasting sectors. The system utilizes tube cables and fiber bundles in 2,6,12,and 18 fiber arrangements for a maximum capacity of 342 fibers that facilitate quick and cost effective installations that provide a positive ROI for its users. For more information, please visit our website at www.futureflex.com.
About Sumitomo Electric Lightwave:Sumitomo Electric Lightwave, located in Research Triangle Park, NC, is the North American operation within the global network of Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. (SEI). Established in 1984, the company is dedicated to tailoring the fiber optic networks of major telecommunications companies through the manufacturing of optical fiber cable, ribbon-configured network solutions, interconnect assemblies, fusion splicers, FTTH products, and its FutureFlex® Airblown Fiber Cabling System. Visit www.sumitomoelectric.com.
For more information, please call 800-358-7378, email us at info@sumitomoelectric.com, or visit us at www.sumitomoelectric.com.
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New Washington Convention Center Opens Its Doors With An Advanced Fiber Optic Network - 4/08/03
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