The Ins and Outs of Plenum Cabling

Plenum cables are specially manufactured for use plenum spaces, which are rarely- accessed spaces like those above ceiling panels or between walls. Cables.com offers a variety of US-manufactured plenum-rated cables intended for safe use out of sight in your home or office space. 

Whether you work from a home office or in a busy commercial center, you probably haven't given a lot of thought to what's taking place in "out of sight, out of mind" spaces. What are some examples of plenum spaces? With regard to construction and wiring, plenum areas can include the space between ceiling panels and the roof, between walls, or beneath the flooring; in other words, they're places that most people would have little reason or need to access.

When Should You Buy Plenum Cables?

You can probably imagine why running your power and network cables through plenum spaces would be ideal. Doing so keeps cables out of sight, reducing the unsightly appearance of clutter. But more importantly, installing your cables in plenum areas keeps them away from any unintentional handling or movement that might interrupt their use.

Unfortunately, this also means that because these spaces can be difficult to access, cable being installed there should be sturdy and built to last, as replacing them would be extremely inconvenient. There's also the matter of safety concerns - namely, what might happen if a building should catch fire and there's all that electrical wiring in the walls? Wouldn't that make things more dangerous? 

Cables.com stocks plenum-rated cables that are intended to operate safely and reliably, and today we'll take a look at some of those offerings, particularly our plenum network patch cables.

Plenum Network Cables

Our Category 6 Plenum Rated Shielded Ethernet Cables feature shielded construction in order to block EMI or electromagnetic interference, ensuring clean signal transmission. They're built with a CMP (plenum) 23 AWG jacket and operate at bandwidths of up to 550 MHz. The Teflon-coated jacket is intended to comply with fire safety codes, which means that it's less likely to burn in the event of a fire, which will slow the spread of fire through those plenum spaces. While the  jacket itself won't stop a fire, it won't emit toxic fumes as it burns. 

Plenum-rated USB and HDMI Cables

Besides our plenum shielded ethernet cables, Cables.com also offers plenum HDMI cables and plenum USB cables. If you have a video feed that you need to run through an above-ceiling space, then the National Electric Code and National Fire Prevention Association require that video cable to be plenum-rated.

You can find 4K Javelin Active Optical Plenum Fiber Optic HDMI cables at Cables.com. This plug-and-play HDMI cable requires no external power supply, and it's capable of transmitting HDMI signals far beyond the typical constrictions of copper HDMI cords. With this fiber optic HDMI cable, all PC and HDTV resolutions are supported. It's capable of handling any resolution or color-depth with no image compression as long as the max data rate is less than approximately 10.2 GBPS.

Extend the Range of Your USB Devices with Plenum USB Cable Extender. Plenum USB cable extenders allow you to connect your USB devices and peripherals to your laptop or desktop up to 49 feet away! And because these are plenum rated cables, they can even be run through walls or above a ceiling for inconspicuous installations.

Plenum SVGA Cables

If you have a video feed that you need to run through an above-ceiling air circulation space, then the National Electric Code (NEC) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) require that video cable to be plenum rated. Our plenum SVGA cables can pass resolutions of up to 2048x1536 for PCs and up to 1080p for HDTV. They're proudly manufactured here in the US, and they're backed by a lifetime warranty. 

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