FieldCast SMPTE PUW-FUW 40m Hybrid Fiber Cable

Six copper conductors run the length of this cable, and the SMPTE 304 connector at each end offers four electrical contacts to receive them. The two control cores take one apiece; the four power cores pair off, two to a contact, halving the resistance the camera supply has to work against. Across the forty metres of the FieldCast SMPTE PUW-FUW 40m the voltage loss is negligible, so the supply margin stays with the camera rather than being spent in the run.

Beside that copper sit two single mode 9/125 cores in a tight buffer, one blue and one yellow, moving pictures in both directions. Paired with Blackmagic's Camera and Studio Fiber Converter, the link handles formats to 2160p60 with three HD return feeds, talkback, tally and camera control, out to two kilometres. Forty metres spends about two hundredths of a decibel. A velodrome infield position reaching a compound under the banking, a council chamber camera landing in an equipment room off the lobby, a rooftop beauty shot tied back to the truck in the loading bay — none of these ask the glass for anything difficult.

The cable is Furukawa TV-OM-AMS, the grade A construction written for studio and field duty. An insulated, stranded galvanised steel member sits on the axis and absorbs the pull, keeping the fibres clear of tension; a tinned copper braid covering 85 percent of the surface closes the lay, which is what lets the power pair and the optical cores share one jacket without noticing each other. Pull rating is 700 N, minimum bend radius 55 mm, and the sheath is rated for indoor and outdoor service alike.

Both ends are Lemo 3K.93C, deliberately unalike: a PUW free socket on one, an FUW straight plug on the other. Stainless shells over PEEK insulators and beryllium-copper contacts, keyed so the pair can only meet one way, sealed to IP68 once mated and quoted at 20 000 cycles — on a hire cable it is the interface, not the fibre, that sets service life. Moulded gaiters back up the strain relief where hand-coiled cable takes its heaviest punishment. No drum comes with it, so forty metres drops into a case pocket, and because socket meets plug, two assemblies join end to end to reach a position eighty metres out.