Commscope, Superior Essex, Berk-Tek.

Whichever manufacturer is the cheapest that day really. They are all OM4 fiber and we have a Unicam Fiber kit and a fusion splice for the larger projects. We do a ton of teldata work and work with fiber just about every week.

We’re also an Extron shop so we use their 4K tax/rx

Care to explain the OM4 option? Still learning about the different types of fiber...

Ooohhhh...that is entering a place where most of us cant tread....I would look hard at Clearline and their fiber and terminations...they are incredibly helpful on helping mere mortals get this fiber thing done...

Well if you have a sales tax ID, you can go to about any cable distributor like CSC,Accutech, Graybar or Anixter and get an account. Buy the raw fiber and kits through them with a discount.

I’ve never installed the Cleerline stuff but from the looks, it looks to be way overpriced.

Might as well get a jump start on Fiber Services now, it will be the norm soon.

Difference between OM3/4 is bandwidth and distance. Both are multimode fibers. Multimode is mainly used between closets, to workstations, etc. Most cases in AV work, you will use OM3 multimode.

Singlemode is used for very long distances. We install this in between buildings that are on the same street or campus. Can go even further like miles.

The easiest explanation between multi and single is this:
Imagine a highway tunnel through the city (the actual glass fiber itself). In multimode, you will see your normal traffic of cars all over the place heading in the same direction. In single mode, it’s just your car and no one else’s.
This is the reasoning of why tx and rx strands are required for full duplex communications.

Hope it helps. Fiber is the future and uses less resources than our normal copper based products.

General rule I have found with conduit is no more than 360 degrees of bends. At 200 feet, I don't the think there is much chance you could be less than that.

If you prewired fiber today, and didn't need it for 5 years, aren't the odds pretty good that the industry could have moved on, or some new type of fiber become the standard?

Fiber won’t change, only the products that use it will.

Commercially, there’s a chance that something bigger and better will come along but for residential, I doubt it.

Wait a minnit. You're the guy who said this:

When fiber was first introduced, and ever since, did/has everyone installed fiber with tx and rx strands? That would maybe meet the idea that "fiber won't change, only the products that use it will." Or was there single strand multi at first?

Yes, fiber will change. It's the way of the world.

After all, once houses had four pair phone wiring, they were wired for networks. Except, um, well, uh, it was CAT3. Wire doesn't change, only the products that use it change.

Oh boy Ernie.

Yes I said that, but yet, I’m still not understanding what your trying to imply. The only changes possible to fiber is the size of glass used. Yes, it’s a possibility. Yes, it would require running new fiber in existing installations, where required. No, I can’t predict the future. There’s not much else to say.

One fiber strand can only get you 1 way traffic, at least until someone invents a “ F$&@ all Law’s of physics” type gizmo.

Two strands of fiber being used is the norm. Same reasoning why 2 pair wire or other combinations of wire are required for 2way communications over copper.

The only time I’ve ever seen a single strand of fiber used is TOSLINK. Other anomalies don’t need to be brought into this

I'm trying to crack open some room in your universe for unforeseen change.

I'm implying that fiber may change. It's not the same as when introduced is it? And none of us can predict the future. So I think it's misleading to tell people that fiber won't change, only the products that use it will.

This may be too tiny of a point to bother to make.

+ 1,000

Ask clients if they remember phone chargers from 5 years ago vs. Ones used today.
I remember using dedicated 3.5mm, 1.5mm plugs, dedicated plug connectors, USB-B, micro-USB and now USB-C.

And all that just to charge the phone and in only 5 year span.


Noe, do you still want me to run today's cables and expect technology that hasn't been yet invented to work with those cables, 5, 10, 15 or 20 years from now?

Let me run conduit!

Just wanna chime in here and say that there are actually a number of cool products that only utilize a single fiber, yet get bidirectional communication through use of optical multiplexing. Basically, different wavelengths of light are reflected onto the same line, each independent channels and not interfering with each other.

Any link to such products??

I’d love to read about it.