TV over Twisted pair
Since the early days in 2002, Abitana has been specialized in transmitting TV and video signals over Twisted Pair cabling.
We offer solutions for every environment: residential, multiple dwelling units like nursing homes, service flats and student homes, leisure centres, hotels, hospitals, offices, shops, digital signage,… and for every type of TV-signal.
(go directly to the application schemes)
If you think about it for a moment, you realise that de concept “TV-signal” has known an enormous evolution in this period. In 2000, TV-signal stood for standard definition and analogue signals, nothing more, nothing less. Now, hardly 15 years later, almost all TV and video signals are digital, HD is standard and Ultra HD, 4K is becoming more popular every day. And although we watch the same movie, there is no longer one single type of signal that delivers the content to your television set. Next to RF-distribution, a good and performant network, must also be able to transmit HDMI signals and IP-TV.
It goes without saying that the requirements for your cabling increase every day. The following graph gives you a clear picture of the most popular Twisted Pair cables and the current applications.
If you want to transmit broadband RF television signals ( UHF-band, cable television) problem-free and without a second thought over a Twisted Pair cable, the cable pair you are using should be able to transmit signals up to 1000MHz.
Thinking about HDMI? A 4K HDMI signal will need 400MHz.
IP-TV uses the Ethernet LAN. For the moment 1GbE is still acceptable, but this will without a doubt evolve to 10Gigabit Ethernet in the near future.
Because cabling is part of the fixed building infrastructure it has a very long lifespan. That’s why you should not make compromises and install a very performant cable, like the OmniMedia HD1000 F²/FTP Triple shield.A cable that meets the highest requirements of today’s technology and is ready for the future.
There is already a Twisted Pair cabling in place. What are my options for transmitting TV and video signals?
Indeed, it is not always possible to consider an entirely new cabling infrastructure.
If you have Cat7A, Grade3 or Grade3S cabling, you can be fairly sure that you will be able to transmit the UHF-band without problems, but please do consult us prior to installation.
If you have OmniMedia HD1000 F²/FTP in place, you can sleep on both ears, transmission of the UHF band is guaranteed.
In case another type of less performant cable is in place, the answer is not always straightforward. Nevertheless there will still be a lot of possibilities for the transmissions of TV signals.
But bear in mind that there will also be limitations. A lot of factors will play a significant role.
The installed cable (Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6A, Cat7, ...).
The standard for the classification of Twisted Pair cable comes from the office environment.
It defines the highest signal frequencies that can be transmitted over a cable without any problems for a maximum cable length of 90m and in all circumstances.
The performance of a certain cable above these frequencies remains unknown. It could still be okay, but it is not mentioned in the specification and there can be significant differences between brands and cable types. You also want to avoid that your cabling itself will start acting as an antenna and transmitting interference signals. That’s why your TV-channels should be placed within the frequency range of the installed cable.
The lower the category or specified maximum frequency, the less channels you will be able to transmit over your cable.
The cable length
In a lot of projects the actual cable lengths come nowhere near 90m.
The shorter the cables, the lesser the skew between the pairs and the smaller the likelihood of interference problems.
The number of TV channels you want to transmit
The available power of your amplifier will have to be shared by all the channels you want to distribute. Or in other words: if you want to transmit only a single channel (as in f.i. a Digital Signage application), the length that can be bridged will be significant higher than when you need to transmit tens of channels or the entire UHF band.
The environment
The better the shielding of you cable, the smaller the chance that interference signals in the environment will disturb the transmission. For the distribution of RF signals a shielded cable is desirable.
The quality of the incoming TV-signal.
Needless to say that this is a significant factor, but quite often you have no control over it. With a good signal source, you will get better results.
The technology that is used
Every technology available for the transmission of TV signals (RF DVB-C, RF DVB-T, HDMI, IP) will have its own specific features, possibilities and limitations.
An example: Devices for DVB-T signals ("Digital Video Broadcasting — Terrestrial") will be more tolerant than those for DVB-C ("Digital Video Broadcasting — Cable"). An advantage when you want to cover exceptional distances with a less performant cable.
If you want to transmit RF signals over Twisted Pair cabling, you need to position the channels within, or as close as possible to the specified frequencies of the installed cable.
As you surely realise by now, external factors will play a significant role. This means the possibilities for sending TV over existing Twisted Pair cabling will differ from one project to another.
To give you an idea of what is normally speaking feasible for a certain type op Twisted Pair cabling, we want to share our knowledge with you.
Tell us about your project, the type of cabling, the lengths involved, the technology you want to use, your expectations,…
Based on our years of experience, measurements and realised projects, we will be able to give you a pretty good idea of the possibilities.
We advise, especially for large projects, to carry out a professional audit that will define the possibilities and limitations of your cabling.
If this is not possible, a simple test with our equipment will tell you if your goal can be reached.
OmniMedia HD1000 F²/FTP Triple shield installation cable and connectivity
Abitana’s HD 1000MHz technology products, were especially designed for the transmission of TV signals over Twisted Pair cabling.
The performance of an OmniMedia HD1000 MHz cable, is comparable to a Cat7A cable, with one big difference.
The standard for the classification of Twisted Pair cable comes from the office environment and defines a length of 90m. In a lot of projects this length is never reached.
Abitana designed and guarantees the specifications of the OmniMedia HD1000 MHz cable for maximal installation lengths of 40m. More than enough for most residential projects.
This has a huge advantage. Compared to a standard Cat7A cable, the OmniMedia cable has a significantly smaller diameter and bending radius. It remains very flexible and it is a lot easier to install and connect in f.i. wall boxes.
OmniMedia HD1000 F²/FTP Triple shield (ABI-KP1004)
- Flexible and small diameter: easy installation
- Very efficient triple aluminium-foil shield
- Ultra HDMI 3D @ 2K, 4K, 8K* resolution
- Very low skew between pairs, no pixel shift
- 1000MHz RF-Television , DVB-C (cable) en DVB-T (terrestrial)
- 1 Gigabit/s Ethernet @ 100m
- 10 Gigabit/s Ethernet @ 50m
Download the datasheet (ABI-KP1004S00x or ABI-KP1004S10x) or visit our online catalogue/shop abitana HD1000MHz twisted pair cable for more information.
HD 1000 MHz connectors
One tends to forget, but a network is only as good as its weakest link.
Every part of your cabling infrastructure has to meet these high specifications. Not only the Twisted Pair cable itself, but also all the connectors and patch cords you are going to use.
Our shielded RJ45 connectors for DIN rail (AB-DC2006S00) or keystone (ABI-CP2006S00) mounting offer an excellent EMC shield for the entire frequency range.
Download the datasheet (ABI-DC2006S00, ABI-CP2006S00) or visit our online catalogue/shop Din-rail connectoren, or Keystone connectoren, for more information.
Schematic drawings TV over Twisted Pair
As was said before, a “TV-Signal” can take different shapes (RF, HDMI,IP).
The following schematics show you some of the possibilities for the distribution of TV over Twisted Pair.
RF-distribution with integrated amplifiers
By using abitana’s TV over Twisted Par RF amplifier, the whole broadband signal (all the channels) will be sent over the network. The desired TV-channel will be selected on the receiving side.
The wiring scheme for 1 to 4 television sets, suitable for small or medium sized homes, uses the ABI-EV2000S00 TV over Twisted Pair amplifier with 4 RJ45 outputs.
If you want to connect more televisions, you can create clusters from 1 to 12 TV’s, scalable to more than 256 TV’s in groups of 4 outputs.
This wiring scheme can be used for large residential buildings or for multiple dwelling units (like hotels, student homes, service flats, …). It uses the Master TV over Twisted Pair amplifier (ABI-EV2008S00) onto witch max 2 slave modules (ABI-EV2014S00) can be connected.
- A Plug-and-play solution
- Automatic gain control 30dB+
- Pre-emphasis filter for cable compensation
- 85-862MHz forward path
- 65MHz return path
- Max. length on OmniMedia HD1000 cable:
Full UHF-band: DVB-C >= 40m, DVB-T >= 80m
A single TV channel : DVB-C >= 80m, DVB-T >= 240m
(the max length will be function of the type of cabling installed and the number of channels you want to transmit)
Download the datasheet ABI-EV20XXS00) or visit our online catalogue/shop: TV-Radio distribution for more information.
LAN-IP distribution - Multisource Multiroom IP video using Gigabit Ethernet switches
If you prefer to distribute the TV signal over the IP network, you can make use of our DIN-rail mounted Gigabit Ethernet switch (ABI-EL3008S00)
- For every type of IP-TV distribution
- Non-blocking switch architecture
- Up to 100 concurrent Full-HD streams
- IInternal communication capacity 16Gb/s
- A simple 2-layer structure supports up to 49 TV’s
Download the datasheet (ABI-EL3008S00) or visit our online catalogue/shop: Ethernet switches for more information.
HDMI Multisource Multiroom, using DVB-T RF distribution
This solution uses a DVB-T modulator (with 1 or 4 inputs) that will transform the HDMI signal of your video source to a digital, Full-HD RF-signal. The output of the modulator can then be distributed, like any other RF signal, over you Twisted Pair network, by using abitana’s TV over Twisted Pair amplifiers, as explained above.
It’s an excellent alternative for the use of a HDMI-matrix. It is more robust and the fact that the DVB-T technology is a lot less sensitive to interferences, means that higher cable lengths can be reached.
Read our article “Multiroom HDMI: modulator or matrix?” to learn more about the differences and advantages.
- Economic and modular DVB-T HDMI modulation
- Full HD throughout the whole building
- Every HDMI-source available on every TV
- Uses the distribution of TV signals over a coax network or RF distribution over a Twisted Pair network
- A robust and economic alternative to HDMI matrix switching
- Free choice of the number of inputs and outputs
- Modular and scalable from 1HDMI Source to 4 TV’s up to 40 HDMI sources to 256TV’s
Download the datasheets (ABI-EV20XXS00, ABI-MD3001S0T, ABI-MD3004SCT) or visit our online catalogue/shop: TV-Radio distribution for more information.
Please feel free to contact us if you would like more information about the use of HDMI-modulators or the distribution of TV/video signals over Twisted Pair cabling in your project.
Download the TV over Twisted Pair brochure.