I cant figure out who their market is. The only people who would pay that much is our government.

It is my opinion the HDMI should never be terminated at a wall plate. too much attenuation added to the cable. Cat standards are designed to be patched...HDMI are not.

This is one type of cable I can agree with what you are saying. However, I still think it can be done using an HDMI pass-thru plate - at both ends. And then using a short, and more flexible, HDMI cable from the wall plate to the display and/or source equipment. If your HDMI run can't handle this, then it's probably too long and should be replaced with Category cable or fiber.

[Link: extron.com]

Our industry is based on standards. I hope I don't have to start listing the organizations who create these standards because this is something you should all know.

My biggest pet peeve:

Wires and cables, of any type, just hanging down from the ceiling or poking out of the wall.

Every cable should terminate at both ends at some type of wall plate or rack-mounted faceplate. Since this cable is part of the structure, any rack-mounted patch panels should be wall-mounted so as to be part of the structure too.

It's no wonder so many of you spend so much time on site for the last weeks before the client moves in (and are still there after they do move in). If you terminated all your cables ahead of time at both ends then you can almost be in and out for the final trim-out because:

1. You've built and tested your rack off-site ahead of time. You know that all of your remotes will work properly - no messing around on site. Plus you have the added benefit of not having two vans worth of empty equipment boxes to remove from the house. You built the rack off site and that's where the boxes are. I know some integrators don't have vans large enough for a full-height rack. Rental companies are your friend and are not expensive. Instead of having equipment manuals strewn all over the client's house, you've already created a couple of three-ring binders to hand to the client or the house manager at the final walk-thru/training.

2. Your trim-out consists of wall plates, keypads, TPs, speakers and displays. You bring the rack in, connect it to your terminated connection panel. Many of the trim-out pieces can be installed prior to painting which will shorten your time on site at the end. This is great "make work" for those slow days.

If you don't do these types of things then you will keep being the last trade on site. This gives you the added advantage of being blamed for the move-in delay, being blamed for damage to the floors and walls, and being the last one to get paid (hoping there is any money left). If any of these things keep happening to you then you really can't say you are a pro, can you?

Do you mainly work on commercial/industrial, or some large residential? I can only imagine the luxury of filling a rack & testing it all before it goes to the site, especially if it has to go up or down one or two flights of stairs.

I still disagree with this solution. From a service point of view you add too many failure points to it and too much attenuation. No fiber extender or category extender can keep up with the performance of a well designed cable either active or passive at this point. They may in the future and fiber is certainly that path but not yet.

I agree with what you say to a point. But, if it’s an hdmi that is used for gaming consoles or laptops to plug into, you bet my installed HDMI is going on a wall plate or f/f coupler of some sort. Most of my work is commercial and end users are relentless for breaking cables.

This way the integrity of the cable is not compromised and they can replace a short patch cord or f/f connector. Otherwise, I’d be replacing 50’- 100’+ cables weekly. Not worth my companies time to be doing that.

I may be out of touch with a lot of you and your projects and for that I apologize. I would say that 95% of the residential projects that I've been involved with over the years (decades, actually) have had elevators. If not, there is usually a set of wide, straight service stairs - sometimes with direct access to the outdoors. The racks get built off-site, wrapped in shrink rap, and delivered to the job site. It's not much different than bringing in a refrigerator - sometimes easier if you've seen some of these commercial-grade refrigerators.

This is correct. And in the residential market you might not be able to replace that 50 ft. length of HDMI cable because it's buried in the ceilings/walls.

Absolutely correct for commercial. I stand my ground on residential. The connections on residential are not being messed with....if there are we have done something wrong with our design. Best signal integrity is end to end...period.