• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

My TechDecisions

  • Best of Tech Decisions
  • Topics
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Mobility
    • Unified Communications
    • IT Infrastructure
    • Network Security
    • Physical Security
    • Facility
    • Compliance
  • RFP Resources
  • Resources
  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Project of the Week
  • About Us
    SEARCH
Facility

Why Are Active Optical Cables Such a Big Hit Lately?

Frank Graziano of Chromis Fiberoptics explains why Active Optical Cables have become such an important tool in AV integrators’ tool kits.

September 19, 2018 Tom LeBlanc Leave a Comment

Featured Video Play Icon

Maybe it’s the need to transport more data. Maybe it’s the increasingly high video distribution demands. But there is a “phenomenon” occurring in the world of AV by which AV integrators are increasingly embracing Active Optical Cables, according to Frank Graziano, CEO of Chromis Fiberoptics.

Active Optical Cables are now viewed by integrators as alternatives to as well as complements to other high-speed AV signal distribution technologies like HDBaseT, AV-o-IP, SDVoE and passive and active copper wire cables.

The embrace of Active Optical Cables started in the data center world, Graziano says in a video interview with Commercial Integrator. In those applications data rates were getting higher and higher at a quicker rate, going from 1G to 10G to 25G to 400G backbones, he recalls.

The AV world is taking a “parallel path.”  With the “need to move more data from the same pipe over longer distances, copper becomes less of a preferred medium for that transmission,” Graziano says.

“It’s happening in the data center where you have copper being displaced by optical links that is now happening in AV. It really is a technology that integrators and customers have to pay attention.”

How Does Active Optical Cables Fit In?

Many of today’s conversations about AV networking center around HDBaseT, SDVoE and AV-over-IP. Each of those solutions “come with their pluses and minuses,” Graziano says. Some require coding or decoding to dictate compression or decompression of the video signals. There can be latency issues.

“The nice thing about an Active Optical Cable,” he says, is with some balens solutions you can have an optical link video going uncompressed over the distance from the source to the display without latency issues.

“You’re getting a full experience of the original content. And Active Optical Cable has the benefit of just being really simple. It looks externally like an AV cable. It has an HDMI, for example, plug on one and [another HDMI connector on] the other.”

There’s “a lot of magic going on between those connectors,” says Graziano, but “from the integrator standpoint they don’t need to know anything about fiber to use the solution.”

Watch the video to hear more from Graziano on Active Optical Cables in AV.

Tom LeBlanc
Tom LeBlanc

Tom has been covering B2B technology since 2010. He’s editorial director for MyTechDecisions and its sister brand Commercial Integrator. Before that, he covered the residential technology market for CE Pro and wrote for sports department of the Boston Herald.

Tagged With: Cabling

Related Content:

  • behind the scenes at Independent Television News (ITN) with AWS Production Studio Advances Live Cloud-Based Content & Delivery…
  • K. G. Tan Auditorium at Syracuse University Extron AV Control System Transforms Syracuse University Auditorium…
  • Insight way HQ, LG displays along hallway LG Commercial Display Solutions Deliver Engaging Experiences at…
  • Nationwide Health Insurance Provider Standardizes On Lightware’s Taurus…

Free downloadable guide you may like:

  • Blueprint Series Cover: What works for hybrid workBlueprint Series: What Works for Hybrid Work

    Download this free resource to learn about how IT leaders can effectively manage and implement a hybrid work model.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the FREE Tech Decisions eNewsletter

Sign up Today!

Latest Downloads

Four IT Trends That Will Define 2023
Expert Series: Four IT Trends That Will Define 2023

Learn about four key technologies we identified as critical to your IT organization’s success in 2023, as well as how to invest in new innovations ...

Harnessing the Power of Digital Signage
Harnessing the Power of Digital Signage

Choosing the best solutions for messaging, branding, and communicating in today’s content-everywhere landscape

Blueprint Series Cover: What works for hybrid work
Blueprint Series: What Works for Hybrid Work

Download this free resource to learn about how IT leaders can effectively manage and implement a hybrid work model.

View All Downloads

Would you like your latest project featured on TechDecisions as Project of the Week?

Apply Today!
Sharp Microsoft Collaboration HQ Logo

Learn More About the
Windows Collaboration Display

More from Our Sister Publications

Get the latest news about AV integrators and Security installers from our sister publications:

Commercial IntegratorSecurity Sales

AV-iQ

Footer

TechDecisions

  • Home
  • Welcome to TechDecisions
  • Subscribe to the Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Media Solutions & Advertising
  • Comment Guidelines
  • RSS Feeds
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin

Free Technology Guides

FREE Downloadable resources from TechDecisions provide timely insight into the issues that IT, A/V, and Security end-users, managers, and decision makers are facing in commercial, corporate, education, institutional, and other vertical markets

View all Guides
TD Project of the Week

Get your latest project featured on TechDecisions Project of the Week. Submit your work once and it will be eligible for all upcoming weeks.

Enter Today!
Emerald Logo
ABOUTCAREERSAUTHORIZED SERVICE PROVIDERSTERMS OF USEPRIVACY POLICY

© 2023 Emerald X, LLC. All rights reserved.