The structured wiring enclosure is the communications crossroads in the digital home. It is the point from which all communications-related wiring—data network, telephone, video, and security—emanates. It performs for communications and signal management what the electrical service panel does for the home's power wiring. In the words of Gordon Waldhausen, product manager for On-Q Legrand, "The structured wiring enclosure is the hub of home technology."
Structured wiring is a concept that first arose around the early 1990s. It is not something that every potential homeowner (or even builder) is intimately acquainted with, but awareness has nonetheless increased greatly in the last 10 years, driven partly by the increasing number of homes with multiple computers, and partly by demand for Internet access and broadband proliferation. As Kirk Horlbeck, senior VP for corporate marketing and international development at Liberty Wire and Cable, noted, "Some realtors now have a ‘pre-wire' area on their property data sheets. And ‘signal management'—where the signal comes in, and how it gets distributed around the property—has really become a buzzword."
Agents of Change
Like electrical panels, structured wiring enclosures don't change fashions at the rate of, say, consumer electronics, but they do evolve. Among the many factors driving the evolution of these enclosures is the increased awareness, by homeowners, builders, and architects, of the importance of connectivity within the home. Not only are more new homes getting structured wiring, but what used to pass for "structured wiring"—a couple of "drops" throughout the home—is being replaced with more drops in more rooms. The result is an increasing need for larger wiring enclosures.
Jay Kilby, senior product manager for telecom equipment provider Suttle, said that he has also observed a movement toward incorporating more applications like whole-house audio and others into the structured wiring panel. "There's also more demand for home healthcare monitoring and people wanting to integrate digital video recorders (DVRs)," he said.
