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Upgrading to HD-SDI and fiber
Hello,
We do a ton of mobile sports broadcasting around the world. Currently, we are streaming everything in HD using component video over CAT5, which gives us capabilities of 500 feet, or up to 1000 feet if we really need it. CAT5 is great because we can travel overseas without the cable, spend $300 and buy it there, and then leave it there.
I want to make the upgrade to using HD-SDI though to increase the video quality. The longest run I see Belden recommends is 300-400 feet, depending on which cable you go with. Some events, this is long enough, but others it isn’t. Can someone point me in a direction for what I need to lookup to do fiber runs? How long can we go with fiber? Also, what kind of encoder/decoder do we need on each end? Lastly, we currently run 1 component video and 5 mono audio channels over 2 CAT5 cables. Can we do all of that with 1 fiber cable? How flexible/heavy is the fiber cable we will need in comparrison to what we have now (dual CAT5).
Thanks,
Brandon -
1 Reply
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The best and most feature rich product in this class is the Blackmagic ATEM camera convertor. Which from the sounds of it is EXACTLY what you want.
https://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/atemcameraconverter/
BMD claims you can run fibre up to 28 miles. Reliably I’ve seen fibre runs of several miles. You do need to watch how you run the cable as it’s robust in terms of interference but delicate when being bent.
I would post in the BMD forum if you want further info.
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