Some developers aren't waiting for service providers to bring applications to their fiber-connected developments. They're going out and creating their own.

Simply building infrastructure isn't enough, Hauser says. After several years of wiring high-rise apartment buildings in New York with optical fiber and waiting patiently for service providers to take notice, Hauser realized that he needed to take a more activist approach. “If you wait for the information companies to provide you with services, we’ll all be gray and retired,” he says.

Now, Hauser holds “visioning sessions” with his clients to dream up technology applications that will attract tenants to their buildings. “First we do Buck Rogers and Superman, then we decide what's practical,” he says. Proposals may range from webcams in the laundry room (saves wear and tear on the elevators by letting residents know when the laundry machines are free) to “smart building” applications that conserve energy, to invisible perimeter security systems.

After being judged practical, proposals must also pass through a gauntlet consisting of prospective customers and the developer’s marketing department. The proposals that make the final cut are those that receive the most “oohs and aahs.”

Hauser then works with the developer to put the applications in place. He develops some of them in house, and adapts others from off-the-shelf applications that were intended for other than residential use.

Enabling Communications

One developer that has taken Hauser’s ideas to heart is Midtown Equities, a related company that specializes in ambitious, “city-changing” projects. Midtown Equities is currently building a project that will revitalize a blighted 56-acre section of Miami. When it is complete, Midtown Miami will be a mixed-use neighborhood of 3,500 residential units surrounded by art galleries, retail space and pleasant places to stroll.

In Midtown Miami, a fiber optic system will deliver phone, Internet and video services from communications and entertainment providers. It will also deliver a variety of applications within the complex. The fiber infrastructure will help support cell-phone communications on the higher floors, video communications between tenants’ apartments and the front desk, and wireless communications between automated security sensors and the roving security guards. All of these applications were developed with off-the-shelf components that can easily be supported by local technicians.

A Sense of Luxury

With upscale projects, the visioning sessions are less constrained by tight budgets, and imaginations can run free. In the Ritz-Carlton condominium complex that Midtown Equities is planning for the wealthy New York suburb of North Hills, a network-based security system will recognize residents’ cars driving up to the complex and raise the gate for them automatically. “People hate waiting at the gate,” says Midtown Equities president Dan Pfeffer. “They feel like they're waiting at McDonald’s.”

Once past the gate, North Hills Ritz-Carlton residents will have further reminders that they're not at McDonald’s. The same system that raises the gate will notify valet parking to have an attendant ready and waiting to park the car. The doorman will also be notified, and will have the resident’s packages waiting.

Even the apartment will know that its owner is coming home, and will turn on the lights, adjust the room temperature and even play music in preparation for the owner’s arrival. Getting into the apartment won't require anything as ordinary as a key, or as hotel-like as a key card; a “proximity device” that hangs from a keychain just needs to be waved at the door.

From inside the apartment, residents can use touch panels to place orders with neighborhood vendors over a virtual private network. They will be able to make restaurant reservations (priority seating, of course), schedule dry-cleaning pickups, order groceries for delivery or reserve a conference room at the hotel. And they will feel secure knowing that all the nonresidents on premises are being tracked by the front desk through RFID-enabled tags.

All of these features will be provided as standard services for residents, rather than charged separately. Pfeffer hopes the amenities will inspire word-of-mouth advertising by residents. “It’s about building a brand,” he says.

New York City’s venerable Plaza Hotel, now under renovation by another of Hauser’s clients, Elad Properties, will also use private network applications to create a sense of luxury. Some floors of the Plaza are being rebuilt as private residences, and residents there will have direct access to concierge services, hotel services, local restaurants and cultural institutions through a wireless light-weight flat-panel display. An optional package will let residents control lighting, windows, music and videos from the touch screen.

Supporting Construction

In addition to providing amenities for residents, fiber optic networks are also supporting the construction process at some of these projects. For example, Midtown Miami has 3,000 construction workers on the premises, employed by many different contractors and subcontractors. “It’s a nightmare tracking them, from a security and safety standpoint,” Pfeffer says. At present, he uses cameras on the job site to keep an eye on what's happening there; he and his staff control the cameras remotely over the Internet. The cameras are useful not only for safety purposes – Pfeffer was able to assure himself that construction cranes were properly secured before last season’s hurricanes – but also for quality control. Headquarters staff can see right away if, for example, the wrong color paint is being used.

The job site is likely to become even more high-tech before the project is finished. Pfeffer is working with Midtown Technologies on a system that will track all the workers’ locations automatically, which would speed rescue operations in the event of an accident. Another system will keep construction equipment from “walking off” the job site.

Hauser says, “We tell developers that applications today aren't under the total control of network providers. You need to take charge of the real estate yourself, just as you're not letting outside agencies tell you what kind of cabinets or floors to buy. And our developers are paying attention. That’s the real story.”