DZS & Andorix: Revolutionizing Real Estate through the Power of Smart Building Connectivity

In the era of hybrid work, the commercial real estate industry has had to seriously rethink the tenant experience. Real estate developers and commercial property owners are adapting in exciting ways, such as integrating smart-enabled technology and shifting to fiber-based communications networks. However, with change comes challenges: a growing number of developers and owners now must worry about preserving current investments, maintaining building aesthetics, deploying “green” technologies and navigating construction timelines – all while meeting the new customer experience standard. Earlier this year, DZS announced its extended partnership with Canadian smart buildings enabler, Andorix, to help meet these challenges by bringing cutting-edge Passive Optical Networking (PON) communications technology to high-profile real estate locations across the Northern Hemisphere. This announcement has caught the eye of the industry, as the breakthrough work that DZS did with Andorix in Vancouver was recognized as a finalist for the 2024 Network X Awards for Leading PON-Based Smart City Service – the winner of which will be announced in Paris in October.

Why DZS & Andorix?

DZS and Andorix began upgrading properties in 2021, in tandem with QuadReal Property Group (QuadReal) – improving QuadReal’s customer experience, unlocking savings and future-proofing its Canadian portfolio of properties. Fast forward a few years. DZS and Andorix have doubled down on their world-class collaboration to transform landmark locations into fiber-based smart buildings designed for today’s digital workforce.

Combining the PON infrastructure of DZS FiberLAN with Andorix’s Managed PON service has given new life to the legacy, formerly copper-based communications infrastructure of historical buildings. From video IoT and WiFi to HVAC and access control, DZS and Andorix have completely revitalized these locations into some of the most intelligent, hyper-connected buildings in the world.

According to Shaul Swartz, Founder and COO of Andorix, “Commercial property owners are leveraging DZS FiberLAN solutions to deliver next-generation fiber-based services right up to the tenant and offering a unified, connected network via a fully managed smart building platform.”

Future-proofing Landmarks

The Post in Vancouver, once the main Vancouver sorting facility for Canada Post, is now one of the most ambitious heritage redevelopments in Canada’s history thanks to DZS and Andorix solutions.

With Amazon as its primary tenant, The Post’s digital infrastructure serves over a million square feet of office space and 185,000 square feet of retail space. The updated building with DZS FiberLAN and Andorix Managed PON solutions now boasts a world-class fiber-optic infrastructure on the cutting-edge of smart building technologies that supports 7000 workers on the premises. As described by QuadReal, “the smart technology at The Post allows employees to communicate digitally with the building itself.”

In addition to The Post, DZS and Andorix are also transforming over 40 other high-profile landmark facilities like 800 Fulton Market in Chicago, Illinois and modern facilities like River South office building in Austin, Texas into smart buildings that are home to some of the most recognized companies in the world. Current projects are recognizing an average of 68% CapEx and OpEx savings on smart building network installation and operation by connecting all building systems (HVAC, lighting, access control, video surveillance, energy metering, elevators and WiFi) into one secure and digital infrastructure. What’s more, buildings like The Post that have leveraged DZS and Andorix solutions have experienced an average of up to 72% percent reduction in energy consumption, a 68% reduction in networking infrastructure space requirements, and installation expenses cut to 67% of the cost of traditional infrastructure upgrades.

The Power of PON

None of these historic projects would be possible without the power of PON technology. Both DZS and Andorix recognize several key benefits to PON, like the fact that PON configurations are generally point-to-multi-point (one-to-many), and thus require far fewer hardware elements like power systems and active switches to connect. Furthermore, PON works for more than just historic buildings – it is also perfectly suitable for hotels and resorts, college campuses, convention centers, casinos, multi-subscriber apartment buildings or apartment blocks, and more.

DZS FiberLAN, which employs PON technology, leverages DZS Velocity optical line terminal (OLT) systems and DZS Helix optical network terminal (ONT) units to provide up to a symmetrical 10 gigabit per second passive optical network (XGS-PON) infrastructure. Complementing this network, Andorix’s Managed PON platform is optimized to implement and manage these cutting-edge PON technologies, including designing, deploying and providing ongoing management services for Operational Technology (OT) excellence across its customers’ in-building network systems. Within a typical OT environment, all of the major building systems (e.g. building automation, lighting control, HVAC, access control, and video surveillance) utilize the PON building network to communicate with the endpoint devices in an optimized, scalable, secure and cost-effective manner.

DZS FiberLAN, when complemented by Andorix’s transformational Managed PON service offering, will continue to offer best-in-class smart technology to provide the ultimate tenant experience.

For more information on how DZS can help you with your FiberLAN deployments, get in touch with us at dzsi.com/contact-us/.

Read the Andorix press release.