5 Factors to Consider When Choosing Cable

It’s tough to get excited about cables in an industry abuzz with tablets, 3d and 4k video, and multichannel surround sound.

However, I challenge anyone to argue that choosing the wrong cables can’t ruin a job.

I have seen it happen time and time again, which is why I want to highlight these things to consider when choosing cable for your next job:

1. Jacket

What type of jacket does your cable need? You have plenum, riser, PVC/non-plenum and direct-burial.

Plenum cable is often required in commercial work, especially in buildings where there are open air returns; it is essential to meeting code.

Integrators will often use riser grade at the riser, and then transfer to plenum in the plenum space. This saves some cost, but I recommend you second-guess saving that few cents per foot in most cases.

The chances of mixing up a box of cable and pulling riser in the plenum space may increase your liability as a company or cause you to re-pull cable when the inspector fails your install.

If you only send plenum to site, you eliminate this possibility.

2. Flexibility

What type of install is the cable going into? Is everything in a fixed position?

If you have an install where items are moved around without being disconnected, using highly flexible cable is a must.

Cables in these scenarios need to be flexible to meet those demands of mobility, and also for the life of the wire so that it doesn’t crack, break, fray or short.

We had a job at a university where we moved flat panels on a track system to create different screen sizes, and for that we had to make surethe cable would meet the demand.