Tres Conrique, co-founder and president of San Diego-based Rancho Santa Fe Technology, makes it all sound so simple. He uses the analogy of a highway carrying many different vehicles — different sizes, different colors, all traveling at different speeds and going to different destinations, but using the same roadway.

The analogy, he says, holds good in the rapidly evolving world of communications where the major trend is toward using the latest technology to build data highways.

Conrique says it makes economic sense to create an infrastructure that can relay the same signals for a variety of communications networks and act as what he calls a “data connectivity highway.” These sophisticated systems are highly efficient and can carry a broad range of data — anything from voice to video, e-mail to cable television, security surveillance to the Internet, or from fax to fire alarms.

To see a prime example of 21st century high-tech systems integration in action, look no further than the San Diego Jewish Academy.

Three years ago, the academy decided to relocate, leaving its longtime home in La Jolla for a custom-built campus on a 43-acre site on Carmel Creek Road. It will eventually almost double in size to 1,100 students by adding a high school. The backbone of the $1.5 million campus communications network is a fiber-optic cabling connection with the capacity to handle huge volumes of data now, plus whatever is likely to develop in the immediate future.

“Nobody knows what the next technology will be,” says Doug Reiss, the academy’s director of operations. “The challenge is to keep ahead of what’s out there. We didn’t want to go back and have to tear things up.”

Where possible the school wanted everything passing over the same network with a minimum of duplication. The resulting free-flowing traffic includes the Internet, e-mail, time clocks, public address systems, videos on demand at every computer, telephones, intercom, smartboards, alarm systems and security cameras.

The academy makes full use of the Internet and video conferencing to tap into Jewish resources throughout the world; in addition, every student has e-mail and there are a number of class and individual Web sites.

The smartboard in every classroom operates interactively with a computer or it can be used as a traditional white board, except that notes written by teachers are automatically saved to the students’ computers.

The academy’s data highway supports much more, including a network of 20 security cameras that can be centrally monitored by one person and a sophisticated one-button lockdown system in case of emergency.

This state-of-the-art, high-speed structured cabling network was installed by Rancho Santa Fe Technology, which specializes in working with organizations where computers and information systems are critical tools 24 hours a day.

The Home Office Bundle

Bundling a suite of services together in one user-friendly package has proved to be a winning formula for Cox Communications, which offers residential and business customers any combination of digital cable, digital telephone and high-speed Internet access.

While voice, video and data all flow through the same broadband pipeline, there’s room for plenty more, says Dan Novak, Cox’s vice president of programming and communications in San Diego. This year, the company will roll out commercially its movies on demand — rent any movie you want from the comfort of your own couch — after which the next major service is expected to be Internet television, enabling people to access the Web and e-mail even if they don’t have a computer.

Helping to make all this possible is what Novak describes as Cox’s “visionary and gutsy investment” in the early days of fiber optics. In addition, he says, Cox uses high-capacity coaxial cable to support this fiber network that serves about 800,000 San Diego customers.

Novak is enthusiastic about each component but it’s the bundling together of all these services — and others down the track — that he reckons makes most sense and offers consumers the best deal.

Novak believes the biggest single attraction is convenience. Just one or two technicians need to visit a home or business to hook up the cable, phone and Internet at the same time. After that, all the bills are combined and customers only have to deal with one company.

That sentiment is echoed by Richard Sears, vice president of the Internet division of CCC Communi-cations Corp. which is headquartered in Escondido. His company is in the data integration and telecommunications business, specializing in the convergence of voice, video and data which includes telephones, streaming video, video conferencing, e-mail and the Internet.

Sears says bringing these and other services together on the same network is a clearly defined and accelerating trend, and has one outstanding advantage: what he calls “single-source shopping.”

If clients want anything added or changed on the system, or if any sort of problem occurs, he says they need only call a single number anytime to get certified, expert assistance.

Sears guesses that within five to eight years there will be complete convergence of voice, video and data over the Internet. The amount of bandwidth available, along with advances like multi-spectrum fiber, certainly makes this possible.

Looking further into the future, he sees items like holographic imaging being added to networks and says moves toward “self-aware” or “self-healing” equipment and networks will make downtime a thing of the past.

The final 300 feet to the desktop is the critical area of operation for Carlsbad-based Holocom Networks where Chuck Sinks is the senior vice president of marketing. Holocom has been in the business of providing communications infrastructure since 1996, retrofitting new networks on top of what’s already there and patching the two with something called multi-user telecommunications output assembly.

Sinks says upgrading, changing and moving systems is a huge industry: $10 billion every year for re-cabling alone and another $10 billion annually for new network installations.

Holocom aims to provide an economic means of bringing broadband down to the desktop level by strategically locating network devices such as wireless access points, switches and hubs close to work groups and replacing copper cable with much higher- capacity fiber.

Once a building is properly wired, Sinks says, there is no reason the network cannot be used to monitor other functions such as security, heating and lighting.

Holocom, whose client list includes the Pentagon and industry giants such as Siemens and Qwest Communi-cations, says it can “future proof” companies to anticipate emerging technologies.

Regarding the convergence of technology, Sinks has no doubt that the move toward voice-over IP — sending digital voice signals over the Internet — is the dominant trend at the moment.

Paradise Point Resort, an upscale retreat tucked away on a lush Mission Bay peninsula, seems an unlikely place to find state-of-the-art communications convergence. After all, don’t people come here to escape from all that stuff? On the contrary, says Sean Horton, the resort’s manager of information technology. Not only do guests expect high-tech, in-room voice and data services but the resort has to be fully wired to meet the needs of those using its 32,000 square feet of convention and meeting space.

Network installation began in late 1998 and within four months a fiber backbone was threaded throughout the property linking the administration buildings, restaurants and conference rooms.

The data network was recently extended to the 462 guest rooms and will soon reach a new spa, now under construction.

Guests now have dial-up Internet access, can order games and movies, and check out from their rooms. The same communications network supports voice mail, reservation phones, point-of-sale touch screens in the resort restaurants and the staff time-keeping system.

Next, the resort is looking to add facilities for video conferencing and considering the installation of one or two cameras around the grounds that would beam live pictures to the resort’s Web site. “The possibilities,” says Horton, “are endless.”