FieldCast SMPTE PUW-FUW 100m Hybrid Fiber Cable

Two kilometres is the distance this cable family is rated to cover, and most productions never ask for more than a fraction of it. Over 100 m the glass barely notices the journey: at 0.5 dB/km the run costs about a twentieth of a decibel, leaving the loss budget to the mated pairs at each end. Choosing the FieldCast SMPTE PUW-FUW 100m is a decision about consolidation rather than reach — one sheath stands in for a picture trunk, a mains drum, a talkback tie and a tally multicore.

Paired with the Blackmagic Camera and Studio Fiber Converters, the line carries HD and Ultra HD up to 2160p60 in 10-bit, three HD return feeds, two dual-channel talkback circuits, tally, camera control and PTZ commands — and it delivers 200 V along the copper to run the camera head and its accessories. On a tennis show court that means a net-end position with no local mains and no separate comms run; on a trade-show main stage, a gallery parked back-of-house with full control of the head.

The cable itself is Furukawa TV-OM-AMS, the A grade to SMPTE 311M. A stranded galvanised steel member sits on the axis and takes the pull, so the glass never works in tension; around it run four tinned copper power cores and two finer control cores on HDPE, plus two single mode 9/125 fibres in 0.9 mm tight buffers. Filler and a paper tape binder hold the lay round, then an 85 % tinned copper braid and an abrasion-resistant sheath close it. Allowable tension is 700 N, minimum bend radius six times the outside diameter, service range −20 °C to +75 °C, both copper groups tested at 1750 V AC for a minute.

Both ends terminate in Lemo 3K.93C.Y hardware — an FUW plug one side, a PUW socket the other — sealed to IP68, push-pull latched, screened 360° and fitted with gaiters at the jacket exit. The FS optical contacts hold mean insertion loss at 0.10 dB, return loss better than 45 dB; power contacts carry 10 A at up to 600 V, signal contacts 3 A. Supplied as a coil rather than on a drum, it suits houses running their own cable carts and installers who pull the line in once and leave it. The range covers 5 m to 200 m, so a fleet settles on one connector scheme.