Copper cable wiring from CAT-5 to CAT-7

For several years, the standard cable used for home theater systems and computer networking with copper wire continues to be CAT-5 wiring. It is now dealing with the purpose of being considered old-fashioned, with a brand new standard emerging of CAT-6. Where on earth does that leave CAT-7? Basically, it is as leading edge as you can get within the field. From old to new, CAT-5 to CAT-7. What are the differences and similarities? Let’s take a closer look.

The Simple Answer: 

CAT-5 is rated to 100M 

CAT-5e is rated to 350M 

CAT-6 and CAT6e is rated to 550M or 1000M depending on your source 

CAT-7 is supposedly rated to 700M or presumably 1000M

If you’re establishing a home theater system, CAT-7 and CAT-5 wiring will offer similar benefits. There are obviously a few differences, however–something to be expected because of the newness of CAT-7. Either of these two, however, will work for the one who wants good quality sound.

In lots of homes throughout the nation, the old-fashioned TV room continues to be substituted with the house theater. The TV and audio system are set up so the family can have maximum enjoyment from their movies, sports, and favorite Television shows. To properly install your home theater system, you need to understand what it is set up–which means you need to know how to have it correctly wired.

There are a few possibilities for you for wiring you home entertainment system. Because we’re concerned with CAT-5 and CAT-7 here, we’ll only discuss those which involve those cables. The benefits for either of these is that they’ll offer optimum system performance, plus you can keep your video source at a long way out of your television, monitor or other output device.

You can use your CAT-5 and CAT-7 wiring with three types of distribution systems: Ip address (or IP, distributed via a USB port), RF and Analog. You can use CAT-5 and CAT-7 coax cables for any of those distribution systems. For the purposes, the real difference between CAT-5 and 7 may be the distance that you could run the cable but still achieve optimum results. You can run CAT-5 coax cables up to 100 meters from the output device; you are able to run CAT-7 as much as 1000 meters away.

Both CAT-5 and CAT-7 may be used to deliver video for cable TV (sometimes with a CATV amplifier), Internet data and telephone. Many of these are distributed through similar cabinets. CAT-5 and CAT-7 delivers video for example CATV , telephone, and data. All these is shipped via similar cabinets. There are many advantages for using CAT-5 or 7. Price is one of the main ones; the video for either of these standards is affordable and price efficient. That is because the cable eliminates your need for purchasing extra coax cables. It is also simpler to configure the video than it could be should you have had several splitter amplifiers and taps and coaxial combiners. The body will maintain a superior signal quality, because video distribution via CAT-5 or CAT-7 utilizes active RF video hubs.

When you are deciding how to wire your home video system, just make sure you have carried out your homework in advance, to make sure you are earning the very best choices. You might decide to go with CAT-5 wiring or with CAT-7. Indeed, you may decide to go with some combination of these two. But regardless, make sure you pick what matches with your needs as well as your budget. There are many web sites to find the information you need to determine what’s going to best help you create the ultimate home entertainment experience.

What Really Is an IP System

The market is being whipped into a frenzy by buzz about IP, yet studies show that only 10-15% of systems sold include IP cameras. What’s the deal?

One firm was recently retained by a new client to provide a strategic review on the electronic security industry. This client was focused on CCTV, and inevitably the topic of IP-based CCTV systems was high on their list. They had studied all of the market data they could find and were disappointed to discover that — depending on the estimates — only 10-15% of the systems being sold today are considered IP systems. “How can this be?” they asked. “Aren’t all systems today essentially IP based systems?”

They were right. Unless you are using a videocassette-based system or an extremely low-end DVR, all systems are IP based. Why? Because the recording is handled by a DVR, and that DVR virtually always includes client software that allows you to remotely access live or recorded video. So, if all systems are IP eventually, why is there so much discussion as to the pros and cons of IP based systems?

Close to the Edge

The real question is how far out to the edge do you go with IP. An IP system converts an analog video signal to a digital stream that can be transmitted over a conventional Ethernet network. But it can do this in a number of places.

If an IP camera is used, the signal is converted at the camera itself — this is what is commonly referred to as an IP-based system. An analog camera can also be used, and the signal can be fed into an IP encoder that converts the signal to a digital stream. The IP encoder can be located in a more convenient location, and multi-channel encoders are available to convert multiple cameras from one box. Or the camera can remain analog all the way to the recording device, which then converts the signal to store it. In that case, the recorder is also serving as an encoder, and the signal is generally available as an IP signal streaming from the recorder.

So, which system should you use? In general, we recommend that analog cameras be fed to IP encoders unless megapixel resolution is required. We base this on a number of factors, including cost, ease of installation and appearance.

1. Cost — In general, the cost of an analog camera plus an encoder is generally the same price or less than the cost of an IP camera, and technically the signal quality is identical. In fact, if multi-channel encoders are used the cost of the analog/encoder pairing drops significantly below the IP camera cost.

The true savings come in when you look at replacement cost. Edge devices fail or get damaged from time to time. One of our clients had a faulty camera installation and the outdoor IP camera filled up with water during a storm. Replacement cost was $900, but it would only have been $300 if an analog camera had been used and connected to an encoder that was safely installed in a closet or other weatherproof space.

2. Ease of Installation — An IP camera has some installation limitations that can drive costs up significantly. Primarily is cable distance — IP cameras are limited to 100 meters (328 feet) unless special converters, repeaters, or fiber optic cable is used. Analog cameras can run for great distances before being converted to IP — over a mile if the proper UTP (unshielded twisted pair) baluns are used. The same cabling can be used, so cable cost isn't an issue, and the convenience of locating equipment where conditioned space is available often outweighs other concerns.

Other installation factors include the sensitivity of IP cameras to power fluctuations, the difficulty in getting environmentally hardened IP equipment, and the limitations in size and form factor for IP base products.

Finally, analog cameras can be plugged into a portable monitor for setup, focusing, and field of view adjustments. While some IP cameras also include analog outputs to allow this, many do not. This makes installation far more difficult, involving a computer, extra network port (if power-over-Ethernet is used) and added time and complexity when installing.

3. Appearance — We are currently in the golden age of analog cameras in that the variety of sizes, shapes, features and performance levels available at low price points has never been better. This gives the designer or installer tremendous flexibility in matching cameras, housings, lens types, and other specification features to capture exactly the image that is needed. Too often, IP cameras require aesthetic or performance compromises that do not go over well with end users.

While these and other advantages make us lean in this direction, nothing trumps technical requirements. If your application makes IP cameras advantageous, feel free to mix and match or use whichever makes the most sense. As far as which type of device to use, keep both in your toolbox and remember the old adage; if the only tool you have is a hammer, pretty soon everything looks like a nail.

Fiber Patch Cable for Video Transmision

Fiber patch cable can also be known as fiber jumper or fiber patch cord. It is a fiber optic cable terminated with fiber optic connectors on both ends. It may be directly linked to other equipment allowing you to connect and managing convenience. It's used for making patch cords from equipment to fiber optic cabling. Having a thick layer of protection, it's used to connect the optical transmitter, receiver and the terminal box.

Many applications are used with fiber patch cables, for example, Communication room, FTTH, LAN, FOS, Fiber Optic Communication System, Optical fiber connected and transmitted equipment, Defense combat readiness, etc. Fiber patch cable applies to CATV, Telecommunication network, Computer fiber network and fiber test equipment.

 There are a couple of major application areas of fiber patch cable. They're computer workplace to outlet and fiber optic patch panels or optical cross connect distribution center. And there are single mode fiber patch cable and multimode fiber patch cable (multimode fiber optic patch cord). Ordinary cables are 125 um in diameter. The inner diameter for single-mode cables is 9 um and multi-mode is 50/62.5 um.

The single mode fiber patch cable is primarily employed for applications involving extensive distances. In fiber-optic communication, a single-mode optical fiber is an optical fiber designed to carry merely a single ray of mode. Modes are the possible solutions of the Helmholtz equation for waves. These modes define the way the wave travels through space, and just how the wave is distributed wide. Waves can have exactly the same mode but have different frequencies. This is the case in single-mode fibers, where we can have waves with various frequencies, but of the same mode, meaning they're distributed wide in the same way, which gives us just one ray of sunshine. Even though the ray travels parallel to the entire fiber, it is often called transverse mode since its electromagnetic vibrations occur perpendicular towards the entire fiber. It's generally yellow, having a blue connector and a long transmission distance.

Multimode fiber optic patch cord, however, is the cable of choice for most common local fiber systems as the devices because they are a lot more cheaper. Multi-mode optical fiber is a type of optical fiber mostly employed for communication over short distances, for example inside a building or on the campus. Typical multimode links have data rates more than sufficient for almost all premises applications. Due to the high capacity and reliability, multi-mode optical fiber is used for backbone applications in buildings. An increasing number of users are taking the benefits of fiber nearer to the user by running fiber towards the desktop in order to the zone. Standards-compliant architectures such as Centralized Cabling and fiber towards the telecom enclosure offer users the opportunity to leverage the distance capabilities of fiber by centralizing electronics in telecommunications rooms, rather than having active electronics on each floor. Multimode fiber is generally, orange or grey, with a cream of black connector along with a short transmission distance.

FiberStore offers many different types of optical fiber patch cables, for example mode conditioning patch cable, armored patch cable, MPO/MTP cable along with other special patch cables. For instance, SC OM3 Mode Conditioning Patch Cable is really a kind of mode conditioning patch cables with the wavelength OM3 and a SC connecter. All mode conditioning fiber optic patch cords are created with duplex cable with a single mode to multimode offset fiber connection part within the two legs.