The smart building mantra has been circulating for a generation now but major constructors are still often failing to provide the basic connectivity infrastructure to support the relevant processes. Partly as a result, smart building services, particularly security, lighting and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), have emerged as unconnected siloes employing separate protocols with their own wired or wireless communication links. Buildings in turn have disjointed connectivity, often with fiber up the risers, along with copper whose life is continually extended by ever more sophisticated interference mitigation techniques. Multiple wireless protocols such as Zigbee and Z-Wave, each optimized for particular use cases, coexist side-by-side without communicating, like ships in the night. But under the auspices of 5G, constructors have…