Thursday, September 24, 2009

3G cable 'shoot-out'


Three gigabit HD-SDi video has been around for a couple of years now but I've yet to see a comprehensive review of different cable types and how they handle the newer 1080p50 signals. Bryant Broadcast contacted me a couple of months ago and asked if I could conduct a test of the six cable types they recommend for HD work. So, I've borrow a brand new Tek WFM8300 (launched at IBC, not that I'd have known!) and have six drums of cable and all the BNC ends and appropriate crimp tools at the ready! I'll be measuring jitter, noise and the overall state of the eye pattern at 10m intervals from 200m down to 10m and then when we have a good feel for the various cable types we'll turn our attention to the damage that jackfields, u-links and BNC couplers do to the signal.
The image above is a screen capture of the machine with 2m of Belden 1694 cable - rated at 4.5Ghz!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phil, Phil here, so tell me did you publish the results? you mention that there isn't much information out there comparing cables, or is this still a work in progress?
p.

Phil Crawley said...

Mr Reed - we have finished but we're just tabulating/graphing and Bryant/Tek want first dibs (given that they paid for it!).

Gimme a yell if you want to chat about it all - some interesting results.