Beyond Bandwidth

In our season finale, host Roy Chamberlain sits down with guest host Todd Harpel for a brief discussion of insights from season 3, followed by a quick zoom-in on Leviton’s newest extended distance system. Chamberlain and Harpel explore: Key points expressed by guests across interviews Navigating the “wild west” of extended distance conversations Leviton’s PARADIGM™ extended distance over copper so...

In our penultimate episode of Beyond Bandwidth season 3, guest host Todd Harpel meets with Jim Davis, a Sr. Product Applications Specialist at Fluke Networks, to discuss the ins and outs of testing extended distance solutions. Harpel and Davis dig into: What qualifies as accepted results when testing a link for final qualification, and the installers’ experience with extended distance testing Eval...

In the penultimate episode of Beyond Bandwidth season 3, Roy speaks with Ron Kotwica, a Specification Engineer for Leviton Network Solutions. Ron supports and guides clients and the Leviton Sales Team with respect to client needs and issues for structured cabling, including PoE over extended distances. Roy and Ron explore: Ron’s experience specifying Leviton Solutions that are designed to support...

In our latest episode of season 3, Roy speaks with Patrick Aldrich, a partner and Sr. security and technology consultant at ECC Technologies, and Cody Burgess, a principal and account manager of the rep firm Morgan Hill Marketing, both stationed in upstate New York. Roy, Patrick, and Cody break down:  How extended distance requests have evolved, and how that evolution affects network designs The s...

In this episode of Beyond Bandwidth, host Roy Chamberlain interviews Matt Schumacher, a Leviton Sr. Application Engineer who works closely with customers to ensure quality and an expert on Leviton’s ONEREACH™ solution. Roy and Matt explore: What Leviton’s ONEREACH™ solution is, and where it is best utilized Addressing grounding and lightning protection within the ONEREACH™ system The limits of POE...

In the third episode of season 3, guest host Todd Harpel sits down with Diane Forbes, CEO of NIS, to explore extended distance from the client perspective. In this episode, Todd and Diane dive into: Conversations with clients on sustainable, high-performance extended distance solutions  The most common mission-critical applications that require extended distance The possible evolution of TIA stand...

In this episode of Beyond Bandwidth, guest host Todd Harpel sits down with Mike Dodds, a Leviton Testing Engineer responsible for hundreds of extended distance tests on copper and fiber. Todd and Mike explore: The effects that conductor size and temperature can have on the total distance supported Whether different types of transmission equipment also affect extended distance capabilities If a suc...

In our premiere episode of season 3, Roy sits down with guest host Todd Harpel, Leviton’s Sr. Director for Copper Solutions, to explore the concept of extended distance over copper. In this episode, Roy and Todd answer: How extended distance over copper is defined in the industry today  The history of extended distance applications, and why they’ve exploded in popularity recently The advantages an...

In Season 3 of Beyond Bandwidth, Leviton Network Solutions’ first podcast series, Host Roy Chamberlain explores the commonly accepted 100 m channel limit of structured cabling and how to exceed it with extended reach applications. Joined by new guest host, Leviton’s Sr. Director for Copper Solutions Todd Harpel, Chamberlain once again speaks with some of the industry’s top thought leaders to explo...

Host Roy Chamberlain and Leviton data center expert Mike Connaughton reflect on season 2 of Beyond Bandwidth. They talk about the experts interviewed, and highlight some of the key topics covered, including: Emerging AI solutions like hollow core fiber and new transceiver technologies The problem of power consumption and finding efficiency gains Standards bodies keeping up with AI advancements Geo...

Mike Connaughton talks to Iain Farquharson, the Head of Pre-construction at Red Bear Technologies. Iain has a background in cognitive science and AI, as well as extensive experience in data center infrastructure projects. The two discuss: The history of AI and recent exponential jump in AI advancements   The human problem solving required between data center trades for AI data center planning  Eli...

In this episode, Mike Connaughton sits down with Vladimir Kozlov, the founder and CEO of LightCounting Market Research. They discuss some of the developing optical trends attributed to the growth of AI clusters, and challenges predicting trends in a fast-moving industry. They touch on: Transceivers and the current uncertainty surrounding trade and the business climate The power efficiency requirem...

This week, Mike Connaughton talks to Robert Henke of WestCal Technologies about the exiting and dynamic state of AI networks. They discuss: The early “wild west” era of AI infrastructure The diverse group of companies interested in AI networks The frequency of upgrades to AI chips and GPUs Structured cabling and lasting solutions for quickly evolving tech

David Potts, the Director of National Data Center Business a Graybar, brings a unique perspective when supporting data center customers with their AI infrastructure. He talks to Leviton’s Mike Connaughton about:  Transitioning data center space to AI and finding power grid capacity The role distribution partners play in supporting AI data center deployments The demand for inventory and shorter lea...

Host Roy Chamberlain talks to network specification engineer Peter Helfrich about the design and implementation of structured cabling for AI data centers. They discuss: The difference between AI data centers and traditional data centers Challenges repurposing existing data center space for AI networks The big players in AI for GPUs, servers, switches, and applications How Leviton specification and...

In the wrap-up to our 4-episode AI panel discussion, Leviton’s Mike Connaughton hosts a Q&A session with panelists Jonathan Jew, Brooke Ford, and Nick Taylor. Topics include:  Power infrastructure for AI data centers Moving to very small form factor connectivity Structured cabling vs point-to-point cabling Dispelling myths around latency  Trends in cooling distribution

Our panel discussion continues as Nick Taylor from Networks Centre talks about the cooling technologies used for AI networks. Nick discusses the challenges for deploying AI clusters and high performance computing in existing data centers designed with air cooling. He also covers the latest cooling technologies, including cold aisle and hot aisle containment, rear door heat exchangers, direct to ch...

In a continuation of the AI panel discussion at the 2025 BICSI Winter Conference, Leviton’s Brooke Ford discusses some of the emerging fiber infrastructure solutions that address density, including very small form factor (VSFF) connectors and multicore fiber. He also outlines potential technologies that reduce power consumption, such as co-packaged optics and linear drive pluggable optics. Lastly,...

Leviton hosted an AI panel discussion during the 2025 BICSI Winter Conference, which included telecommunications industry luminary Jonathan Jew, president of J&M Consultants. In this episode, Jonathan provides an overview of the major AI chip manufacturers and their architectures for GPU networks. He also covers the GPU, storage, in-band, and out-of-band network connections in AI clusters, and...

In this first episode of our series on artificial intelligence, host Roy Chamberlian talks to data center network expert Mike Connaughton about the larger trends in the AI space and what they hope to learn from this season. They discuss: How AI growth is requiring solution providers and standards bodies to keep up with rapid changes The range of disciplines collaborating to address AI network chal...

The latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are creating revolutionary new ways to automate our workflows, solve problems, and develop insights on large datasets. However, with AI networks, addressing power, cooling, geographic placement, latency, and deployment speed become more complex compared to typical data center networks. This season of Beyond Bandwidth takes a closer look at th...

In the final episode of our Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) series, Host Roy Chamberlain sits down one last time with Sr. Product Manager Mike Connaughton for a series retrospective you won’t want to miss. Chamberlain and Connaughton break down the highlights from each episode, and offer their own perspectives on the key takeaways from each interview. Beyond Bandwidth will return in 2025.

In the 7th episode of our Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) series, Host Roy Chamberlain sits down with Leviton’s Technical Training Manager Chuck Bowser, host of the podcast “Let’s Talk Cabling.” Chamberlain and Bowser break down: Why contractors may be tempted to shy away from DAS projects – and why they shouldn’t The importance of project management skill development in the contractor industry...

In the sixth episode of our Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) series, Host Roy Chamberlain passes the mic once more to Sr. Product Manager Mike Connaughton. Connaughton talks with Michael Cassel, Aecom’s Director of Engineering and Co-Leader of the Wireless team. Connaughton and Cassel explore: Whether DAS will replace Wi-Fi – and in some cases, whether it should The advantage of repurposing exist...

In the fifth episode of our ongoing Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) series, Host Roy Chamberlain sits down with Mike Lester from Triumph Marketing, Leviton’s Manufacturers’ Rep for Boston, Massachusetts. Roy and Mike break down: Where the DAS market is today, and where it will go in the future How DAS system specs are created How contractors can get involved and become integrators