The new cables; a Cat 7 TourCat and a Cat 6A flexible TourCat, represent an increase in the solid core and stranded copper cables for digital audio in both bandwidth and length of run. Both cables are rated to carry up to 10G even though the likely maximum load for a digital audio network is only 1 Gb.
The Van Damme 268-470-000 TourCat Cat 7 S/FTP solid conductor is a polyurethane (PUR) jacketed 0.56mm solid conductor cable with individually screened pairs and an 80% coverage overall braided screen. It has been tested to provide a proven Gigabit Ethernet connection at 105 metres
The Van Damme 268-466-000 TourCat Cat 6A S/FTP stranded conductor is a flexible PVC jacketed 26AWG stranded conductor cable with individually screened pairs and a 75% coverage overall braided screen. It has been tested to provide a proven Gigabit Ethernet connection at 74 metres, with sufficient headroom to extend to 75 metres.
Full results, including Category 6A testing, will be uploaded to the vdctrading.com website soon.
VDC Trading offers a readily available conventional Cat 6A RJ45 plug to fit both of these cables. Although protocols for network systems vary, the new Cat 7 cable will provide more stability, less jitter and packet errors and is more likely to achieve runs of 100 metres or more.
VDC's technical consultant Dug Guthrie commented, "We are really delighted with these new cables. They represent a lot of development work and the end result is even better than we hoped."
(Jim Evans)
