I have said this for years…but the physics dictate the design.. beyond the hype. The goal here is the overall to save the healthcare system major costs…versus going done a path of a proprietary design that will increase the initial as well as long term investment costs…let alone locked in.
There are manufactures that actually making the equipment…while integrators either purchase and install; or install versus purchased by others.
The manufactures always make the head end equipment and remote units and typically the integrator of choice or provided sub-contractor installs the coaxial cable and fiber infrastructure to their design model.
Integrators may have one or maybe two agreements with the the specific manufactures of the DAS technology or equipment. Certain contract obligations may push them toward a loyality to one manufacture or the other. The enterprise “manufactures” of what we consider DAS equipment commonly seen in the healthcare vertical market includes CommoScope, MobileAccess, and SOLiD.
The rationale here is that that these manufactures somewhat serve the the multi-carrier market that is needed in a market vertical like healthcare; versus some single carrier market in a other obtuse carrier market that have been traditionally served by LGC, ADC and/ now Tyco.
Anybody purchasing DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems) for healthcare really needs to look hard at what is the technology age of the technology offerings?
In this space a lot of technology providers have been able to get by by not investing in this space; (Yes really would you believe this…milking the market!!) thus providing technology in 2012 for implementation on projects that is truly legacy. This is a shame…why would I want to purchase ten year old technology for an industry that is moving daily light years speed. They have been able to get by…wow.
So in any technology discovery and evaluation…several areas need to be looked at.
Is the filtering advanced enough to provide the control for upcoming 4G and LTE?
Will the implementation provide a major cost savings to reduce the amount of fiber optic runs that are needed…meaning if you could get by with 1 instead of 7…how much cost would this save?
If you are using high powered remote units, can this reduce the amount of fiber runs and the actual amount of remote units? This needs to be checked out…big time.
What about the whole area of public safety and cellular and PC convergence? What manufacture of the technology has this figured out. Make sure your local codes support this.
http;//www.solidtech.usa.com
OK, a little to loyal here…but they got it figured out. Best gig in town.
What is the overall total cost of ownership that can be calculated. For instance if less fiber runs are needed then this starts out with the get go…major cost savings. Then the less number of remote units are needed…saving energy costs, let alone cabling costs.
Most importantly is the that the remote units as well as the BIU provide major league custom filtering to ensure the highest fidelity signal to suppor the current smart phone now running hundreds and then against thousands 4G devices now.. but in the future.
In closing you can see tht there is a huge amount of factors to consider; but oftem at times glossed over by a great sales and marketing event or job.
Let us know how we can help…we are totally unbiased and have a vested interest to provide the right roadmap to communications technology based upon thirty years of experience in this healthcare and communication space.
