Is fiber optics the right choice?

To be able to answer the question correctly, first we have to define what we would like to future proof in our home. Let’s consider the following items: home control (lighting, alarm, HVAC, audiovusial), distributed audio and video, computer network, telephone and televison services.

Timing is evertyhing

Another important factor shoud be to agree on how long term we are planning for. If we look at the average lifetime of a home, which is 30-70 years, that seems to be quite a long strech. Let’s choose another, more manageable time span. The time between major renovations is approximately 10 – 15 years. That seems workable.

The answer is:

We should look at future proofing from a very practical point of view: Is there anything we know today, which is faster than the speed of light? If the answer is no (which I suppose it is), then there is a great chance for being all right with using fiber optics for futre proofing our home.

But can we do more ?

Can we go one step forward? Can we use fiber optics in our home today? It would be nice to put our future proofing investment to work for us, right away.

To answer this question, we need to gather the features which are available today, using fiber optics.

Internet:

Internet providers are already offering fiber optics based services. But even if we receive our Internet feed over the telephone line (DSL), via the cable TV (cable modem) or even wirelessly, we can convert that incoming signal into fiber based network in house, using the appropriate hardware.

Telephone:

If we consider that we can have an IP (Internet Protocol) based telephone system in our home, utilizing our local network, then we don’t have to worry about this part since we already know that we can use fiber optics for networking.

Television Services:

The local cable TV companies are developing their fiber networks, partly because they need more bandwidth to accomodate more high definiton channels and partly to keep up with the competing telephone companies. It will be very soon when they will offer fiber based services directly to the homes.

Home Control:

The majority of the home control systems are already using IP as their communication protocol. So this falls into the same category as telephone systems.

Distributed audio-video:

HDMI is the only adopted standard available today, to plug in anything with HD into our flat screen TV or Projector. Therefore, we shall suppose, that even if the cable TV will come to our house over fiber optics, there will be a set top box to conver the incoming signal to HDMI.

Putting it all together:

Is there any available technology which would allow to put all (or most) of these items together into one system? Crestron already ships their Digital Media system, integrated to use with their existing control systems.