FieldCast SMPTE PUW-FUW 200m on Drum Hybrid Fiber Cable

One end of this drum finishes in a Lemo PUW plug, the other in a FUW socket, so the FieldCast SMPTE PUW-FUW 200m has a head and a tail rather than two interchangeable ends. Noting which way the cable pays out before the first camera position is set saves a walk back down the whole run, and the same convention lets a second drum be mated onto the end of the first once a position sits further out than one length reaches.

Under the sheath run two protected cores of single mode 9/125 fibre and six tinned copper conductors, four carrying power and two reserved for data. The assembly follows SMPTE 311M and terminates in SMPTE 304 hardware, built on Furukawa TV-OM-AMS cable that broadcast engineers already know from studio and field service. A stainless steel member sits on the axis and absorbs the pull, keeping hand-hauled tension off the glass, while a braided copper screen holds the control pair steady alongside dimmer racks and LED walls. Protective gaiters shield both connectors from the knocks that would otherwise reach the ferrules.

What that buys on site is one line instead of a loom: picture, return video, talkback, tally, camera control and the camera's own supply travel together. Run between a Blackmagic Camera Fiber Converter and a Studio Fiber Converter, the pair is rated well beyond this length, so two hundred metres leaves margin rather than sitting at the limit — useful on a velodrome where the track centre is far from the compound, at a ski finish area, or in a council chamber feeding a permanent gallery.

Handling is where a hybrid cable earns or loses its service life. The Schill HT385 drum keeps the run off wet ground during a build and takes it back in at pace while the truck is loading, and a short cleaning routine on the SMPTE 304 ferrules before every mate heads off the intermittent faults that cost time mid-event. Shorter lengths from 20 up to 150 metres sit in the same family, with or without a drum, so a fleet can be put together around the distances a production actually rigs.