How Legacy Standards Suppress Innovation, and How to Create Better IP Outcomes

Progress is rarely just about invention; it’s also about the industry’s willingness to challenge norms and conventions. History is filled with examples where disruptive innovations promised better outcomes, but entrenched interests resisted change to protect legacy business models. This resistance, sometimes referred to as defensive standardization or innovation suppression, has hindered the adoption of transformative technologies across various industries.

Today, security professionals face a similar challenge. As organizations transition to IP-based surveillance, access control, intercoms, and other edge devices, many projects fall into The Trap: ripping and replacing existing network infrastructure due to the limitations of traditional switches. This network readiness approach is unnecessarily costly, disruptive, and complex, and is holding your customers back from faster, more sustainable, and more cost-effective digital transformations. Additionally, you are walking your interested customer into the hands of your new competitor – the network provider who is using network requirements to steal your customer.

A Historical Pattern of Resistance

Across industries, the pattern is clear:

• Telecommunications and VoIP: In the early 2000s, VoIP emerged as a flexible, lower-cost alternative to ISDN. Despite clear benefits, traditional telecom providers delayed broadband rollouts and lobbied regulators, slowing adoption.
• Broadcast and Streaming Media: Streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube challenged cable and broadcast dominance. In response, some providers pushed for bandwidth limits and content restrictions, shaping net neutrality debates to protect legacy revenue.
• Automotive and Electric Vehicles: Early EV innovators faced skepticism from traditional automakers, many of whom delayed standardized charging infrastructure while promoting alternative technologies to protect existing investments.

In each case, established players encouraged customers to stick with the status quo, even when better options existed.

How This Resistance Impacts Your Customers

For over a decade, the security industry was forced to design networks around the reach and cabling constraints of traditional switches, typically 328 feet (100 meters) over CAT5/6 cabling. When an organization wants to modernize from analog to IP-enabled security devices, the conventional wisdom is to rip and replace the existing infrastructure and add more IDF closets. This results in:

• Higher Costs: New cabling, more closets, added labor, and increased materials costs.
• Longer Timelines: Construction and re-cabling extend deployment schedules.
• Greater Disruption: Invasive infrastructure work in secure or public areas interrupts operations.
• Increased Competition: Network providers are using existing relationships and network requirements to steal customers.
• Finger Pointing and Frustrated Customers:  The network typically ends up being the root cause of a problem. Unfortunately, the endpoint provider gets the first call, resulting in finger-pointing, higher costs, tarnished reputation, and a frustrated customer.
• Sustainability Impact: Removal of usable cable creates unnecessary electronic waste.

These limitations are not inherent to IP technology itself; they’re a byproduct of blindly accepting the reach and cable type limitations of traditional switches.

The Smarter Alternative: PoE Innovations Without Limits

NVT Phybridge Power over Ethernet (PoE) innovations eliminate the reach and cable type restrictions of traditional switches, delivering power and data to IP devices over any new or existing cable type with up to 18 times the reach - over 6,000 feet (1,830 meters). This strategy creates incredible results:

• Purpose-Built Infrastructure: Leverage the existing, proven, and point-to-point network pathways without compromising performance.
• Simplify IDF Closet Requirements: Reduce or remove the need for additional network closets, backup power systems, rack space, cooling, etc.
• Accelerate Deployments: Realize revenue faster and provide customers with new tools sooner by avoiding construction and unforeseen delays.
• Retain end-to-end control over the solution, allowing for a secure and robust platform delivering a great user experience.
• Reduce Costs: Savings of 50% plus by avoiding unnecessary labor, material, and disposal expenses.
• Support Sustainability: Align the digital transformation with your customers’ sustainability objectives by preventing electronic waste and material consumption.

Help your customers and prospects Avoid the Trap entirely, allowing them to achieve a better ROI while allocating more of their budget towards the devices and applications that deliver value.

Customer Success Story: Westrock Coffee

When Westrock Coffee needed to deploy over 250 IP cameras across its 570,000 square-foot manufacturing facility, conventional network design thinking would have required a large-scale rip-and-replace process with the addition of multiple IDF closets to overcome distance limitations. By taking a modern approach using NVT Phybridge Ethernet over Coax innovations, the integrator partner was able to leverage the organization’s existing coax-based infrastructure, delivering power and data to every new IP camera with up to 6,000ft (1,830m) reach. This approach eliminated disruption to maintain regular production schedules, reduced deployment costs, and accelerated deployment.

Customer Success Story: The Scion Group

The Scion Group, which manages a diverse portfolio of student apartment complexes across multiple U.S. cities, faced the challenge of modernizing security systems across its properties without incurring high costs and disrupting residents. Traditional rip-and-replace strategies would have required removing miles of coax cabling, causing unnecessary disruption and expense. Instead, the Scion Group chose NVT Phybridge network innovations, allowing the reuse of existing infrastructure to support the new IP cameras. This decision significantly accelerated deployment timelines, reduced costs, and ensured that resident safety was improved without complexity.

Customer Success Story: Kitsap County Jail

Kitsap County Jail needed to replace its aging analog surveillance system with a modern IP solution. The facility operates around the clock, making any disruption or safety concerns unacceptable. The project team used NVT Phybridge Ethernet over Coax switch innovations to deploy over 250 Bosch IP cameras without complexity or disruption, allocating over $1 million in infrastructure cost savings towards ROI-driving devices and applications.

Action Steps for Security Leaders

Avoiding The Trap requires a shift in mindset:

• Challenge Assumptions: Don’t accept “you must rip and replace” as the default answer.
• Evaluate Existing Assets: Determine whether the customer has existing infrastructure supporting an analog solution.
• Prioritize Total Project Value: Consider all network readiness costs, time requirements, disruption, complexity, and potential delays.
• Engage with Innovative Vendors: Partner with manufacturers and integrators who offer proven alternatives to conventional network design.

Learn more about how NVT Phybridge PoE innovations are helping partners around the world improve digital transformation outcomes for their customers. Book a one-on-one meeting to get started or register for the weekly webinar to access the special offer.  Avoid the Trap and start creating better IP outcomes for you and your customers.