Long HDMI & SDI cable rental

The part that is most often too short

Almost every event that goes wrong technically goes wrong on the same thing: the distance from the camera to the operator position turns out to be further than the cable anyone brought. In a ballroom that distance is rarely under 30 metres, and ordinary HDMI stops working well before it.

The HDMI 2.0 4K cable we rent is a 30-metre optical run, which carries the signal as light and does not degrade the way copper does over that distance. For cameras and switchers on SDI there is a 30-metre 3G-SDI BNC cable, and a 60-metre Canare L-4CFB for the genuinely long runs — Canare is what people use because it survives being coiled and uncoiled hundreds of times without breaking inside.

The advice we give most often: measure the run again after the seating plan is final, then add ten metres. A cable pulled taut across a walkway is a cable somebody will trip over.

Rates are per unit per day and exclude 11% VAT, delivery, and an operator.