Panduit recently opened an Audio-Visual (AV) research lab at the Jack E. Caveney Innovation Center. When announcing the lab’s opening, Panduit research engineer Paul Wachtel explained, “With the acquisition of Atlona a few months ago, Panduit can now be a trusted advisor for emerging AV applications that make their way onto Ethernet networks. Combining Panduit’s existing expertise with Atlona’s AV expertise, we can now give our customers a unique end-to-end perspective covering all aspects of an AV solution.”
Wachtel further explained the company developed the lab with the following key objectives
- Leverage Panduit’s expertise of infrastructure and networking in AV-over-IP applications using Atlona’s OmniStream solution
- Create an environment to understand the best practices for configuration and deployment of Atlona hardware on Ethernet networks
- Enable competitive testing of AV infrastructure as well as alternate networked AV solutions
“From these objectives, we defined key areas of focus for various AV technologies and set about to develop a site with all the necessary equipment, infrastructure, and hardware needed for a world-class lab.”
For AV-over-IP applications, the lab’s capabilities will enable Panduit to explore aspects such as network topology, infrastructure, congestion, and redundancy, Wachtel said. He added that the lab will consist of a highly configurable network topology to emulate real-world LAN, core campus, and WAN configurations. “A diverse array of cabling infrastructure is being installed to allow networks to be connected with either Category 5e, 6, or 6A in unshielded or shielded applications,” according to Wachtel. “Each cabling option also will be available in worst-case configurations covering maximum and minimum four-connector channel lengths per TIA guidelines. We will have the ability to evaluate the impact of network congestion on AV traffic when it is converging with other Ethernet traffic such as email, voice, and web. For redundant network applications, we will be able to study the impact of various network failure modes on AV traffic. From this type of experimentation, we will be able to provide our customers with a detailed understanding of an AV network’s capabilities, along with recommendations and best practices for equipment configuration and infrastructure deployment.”
Panduit has named the lab EARL—Enterprise Application Research Lab. Wachtel explains, “Along with studying the various use cases of AV-over-IP and deployment options, the lab will have the ability to test other emerging enterprise applications in the future.”
