FieldCast SMPTE PUW-FUW 25m Hybrid Fiber Cable

Most fixed camera positions never run one continuous hybrid line from the camera head to the base station. The long section stays in the building, terminated on a wall or floor panel, and a short assembly bridges the last few metres out to the camera. That short one gets stepped on, rolled over by a pedestal wheel and pulled sideways when an operator turns faster than his cable does. The FieldCast SMPTE PUW-FUW 25m takes that punishment, which is why production houses stock a spare of this length and none of the trunk.

Under the black PVC sheath sits the Furukawa TV-OM-AMS assembly: two single mode 9/125 cores with a nominal 9.0 µm mode field, four tinned-copper power conductors, two finer control conductors, an insulated galvanised steel strength member laid centrally, and a tinned copper braid over the lot. Allowable tension is 700 N and the steel carries it, so the glass never works under load. Service range runs from −20 °C to +75 °C.

Optically, twenty-five metres barely registers. The fibre gives up around half a decibel per kilometre at 1310 nm, so the run spends roughly a hundredth of a decibel, while each mated fibre contact in a SMPTE 304 pair averages a tenth. The two interfaces own the loss budget outright here, which is why screw caps and a clean ferrule face matter more than any reach figure. Between a camera fibre converter and its studio counterpart the line carries a 2160p60 camera feed, three HD returns, two channels of talkback, tally, genlock, camera control and the camera's own power, out to two kilometres.

The two ends differ: a Lemo PUW free socket at one, a FUW straight plug at the other, stainless 3K.93C shells, moulded gaiters behind them. Power contacts take 10 A at up to 600 V, the mated pair seals to IP68, and the shells are rated for 20 000 matings — a number that reads differently on a tail plugged twice a day than on a drum left connected all season. Matched to a panel socket, a news pedestal reaches its floor box in one movement; a rinkside camera behind the boards lands on a trackside connector; a dolly-track camera picks up a plate on the scenery dock wall. Two assemblies chain plug into socket if a position sits further out.