Advantages of fibre optic cable over copper coax cable to transmit video

Fibre cable supports a very high data rate and yields a very low signal loss. So you get sharp, clear video over far greater distances than you would with ordinary copper cable.

Fibre optic cable is completely immune to any form of external frequency-related interference - power surges, electromagnetic interference, nearby radio towers, and nearby lightning strikes.

Because fibre optic cable is a light-based transmission medium, it's completely immune to electronic eavesdropping. Of course, fibre optic cable can be physically "tapped" to intercept data. But splicing or any other disturbance of the fibre core immediately decreases the signal level, which can easily be seen as a degradation of video quality, alerting the user to a possible tap.

Fibre optic cable is light, flexible, and much easier to run than coax cable. A 304-metre coax cable weighs36kg. The same length of fibre cable weighs just under 2.8kg - that's 13 times lighter.

Its size and weight advantages also give you space-saving options when you route cables through close quarters.

• Fibre optic cable
• Multimedia