Blackmagic Forum

As of today BMD has a recommendation of which cable to use for there 12G-SDI products..

https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/faq/59012

It is important to use a good quality HD cable with 12G-SDI products. As an example, we have used an industry standard Belden 1694A cable when testing our 12G-SDI products.

Distance for cable lengths are:
3G-SDI 100 meters
6G-SDI 80 meters
12G-SDI 50 meters

Belden 1694A is a cable that excists for 20 years now(1995). Approved for 1,5G SD/HD-SDI signals in the first place. In the official table of Belden they say 3G - 155m 6G - 105m 12G - Not listed as in not recomended for 12G. So if BMD does tests with Belden 1694 and they can go to 50 meters that is very nice But officially belden says it is not supported..

But you could buy much better optimised cables for 12G, which gives you more cable length.

I would like to compile a list with cables you guys are using as a reference to other users.

Personally i use Sommercable SC Vector 600-0162 with Neutrik UHD 12G connectors in my OBV.

Also keep in mind that normal BNC connectors are not made for these high frequencies and will affect the useable length of the cable in great length. The isolation materials between the shield and the pin need to be optimised for high frequencies to give you the best results without to much interference or dropouts.

Tell me what you guys are using. I will add it to this begin post as a reference!

Reference: SommerCable


Reference: Belden (by Markertek website)



Type Cable ______________________ 6G Meters ___ 12G Meters _____ Online price
Sommercable SC Vector 600-0162_______ 70 __________ 40 _________ 1,90 / Meter
Belden 1694A _______________________ 105 __________ X _________ 3.05 / Meter
Belden 4794R _______________________ 137 __________ 93 _________ 5,97 / Meter

Connector manufacturers that have 12G optimised connectors
Neutrik UHD serie
Coax connectors LTD Korus serie
CambridgeElectronics
AmphenolRF

Belden seems to be recommending their new triple shielded 4794R cable for 12G SDI but says that many of their existing cables (1694A, 1505A, and 1855A) are good for 6G SDI:
http://www.belden.com/blog/broadcastav/ ... -again.cfm
http://ecs.beldenapac.com/uploads/soft/ ... lletin.pdf

Having said that, it seems like nearly all of the 12G SDI testing done to date is with cables originally designed for lower frequency transmission, such as Belden 1694A cable. For example, Macom claims their latest 12G SDI cable equalizer chips can do 100 meter cable lengths over Belden 1694A:
https://www.macom.com/about/news-and-ev ... generation

With their earlier generation chips they claimed that they could send a 12G SDI signal 80 meters over Canare L-4.5CHD cable:
https://www.macom.com/about/news-and-ev ... -adopted-b

Which suggests that Canare L-4.5CHD may be usable for 12G SDI in addition to Belden 1694A.

Very few of the cable manufacturers even seem to report attenuation figures for frequencies beyond 3 GHz which makes it tough to compare different brands.

Dave, I was wondering about the Carnare L4.5CHD for 12G too. Thanks for your comments and observations.
Cheers

Personaly only tried for patchcables but heard from a salesguy that the 1855A can deliver 12G up to 30m without problems. Anyways it's great for patchcables

I think officially Belden only recommends 1855A cable for applications up to 6G SDI. Although if it works for 12G SDI at shorter distances, that's a nice bonus.

Belden has a new range of 12G optimized cables that start with 4XXX that should give better performance with these higher bandwidth signals:
https://info.belden.com/hubfs/resources ... lletin.pdf

So, for example, Belden 4855R is the 12G optimized version of 1855A cable which should work for 12G signals up to 45m (149 ft).

Canare also recently released some 12G SDI optimized cables: L-3.3CUHD, L-5.5CUHD, and L-8CUHD. The L-5.5CUHD cable is roughly equivalent to Belden's 4794R cable and is rated for 12G SDI transmission up to 100m. Canare L-5.5CUHD and Belden 4794R cables are a bit thicker than Belden 1694A.

The Canare L-3.3CUHD cable fits in between 1855A and 1505A (RG59 type) in size, so that might be a good option for a little extra transmission distance than Belden 1855A or 4855R can handle.

Thanks Dave for the update.
Cheers

Xtreemtec wrote:Personally i use Sommercable SC Vector 600-0162 with Neutrik UHD 12G connectors in my OBV.

Are you (or anyone else) using this cable just as patch or also for camera cable? I'm curious about real-world lengths and lifespans if you can help.

Thanks

Real world length does depend on what hardware is on the sending and receiving end.. I have had issues with hardware not been able to run on 15m of this cable, while other 12G hardware can drive 30m of the same cable..

But i would recommend the new Belder 4505R cable now. It is specially build for 12G applications. But was not on the market yet when this topic started.
https://catalog.belden.com/index.cfm?ev ... p=PF_4505R

My suggestion for 12G so far goes to Canare. It is less known definitely here in Hungary, but in case of pricing it is very much competitive (12G Neutrik D coupler costs about 1/2 of Neutrik ). The only downside so far is the thick cables needs more time to crimp compared to bryant, or other brands, but the crimp plug is the most robust one that i've every used.

https://www.canare.co.jp/en/26A/Canare26A_Cables.pdf - on page 16 there is the cable transmission distance for all data rates.

after some years, I dig out this interesting post from Xtreemtec, in order to reveal updates if any.

For obv/mobile/temporary links, I list :
- canare LV-61S
- sommer 600-0214, 600-0221, 600-0174
- belden ?

any comments ?

At this point i use Belden 4855 for my OBV. Fully 12G complaint nice small cable..

And for outside i recently tested out the Procab PCX165. Which we did a great test setup with and managed to get 40m of 12G on BMD hardware. Which is much better then the Sommer cable that strikes out after 25m of 12G signal in real world rental..

thanks for warning about sommer cable.

I'm astonished about the use of Belden 4855 or Procab PCX165.
Usually for van installation or extension cable, use of rigid conductor is prohibited...