Terminate HDMI Cables in the Field! AudioQuest Solves HDMI’s Biggest Challenge

AudioQuest appears to have the first HDMI cables and connectors that can be terminated in the field … and work.

Field-terminated HDMI cables? They said it couldn't be done, but AudioQuest claims its solution lets installers run cable now, terminate later, and still maintain the integrity of HDMI.

With the AudioQuest solution, installers split the HDMI wires into two groups, and then terminate them separately.

"There are 19 wires in an HDMI cable," says Xiaozheng Lu, senior VP product development for AudioQuest. "If you try to crimp all 19, it's impossible."

With the AudioQuest solution, the integrator crimps 10 wires and 9 wires at a time, and the two bundles come together at termination.

"Everyone is already doing eight wires for Cat 5 termination in the field, and it's proven to be very reliable and easy to master," Lu says. "We group 10 wires so it's just like one more Cat 5."

In fact, Lu suggests, terminating AudioQuest's HDMI cables is even easier than most Cat 5 terminations because you don't need to strip or trim the individual wires. Instead, the integrator simply slides the wires through the holes in the connector, using the color maps provided.

"When you crimp, the tool will trim the wire for you," Lu says.

Straight Wires Make all the Difference

Key to its field-termination design is AudioQuest's use of solid conductors instead of stranded wires in its HDMI cables.

"That's one of the four AudioQuest design principles," Lu says.

Many manufacturers use stranded wire because it is more flexible than straight wire at any given wire gauge.

But, says Lu, "The disadvantages of the stranded wire are signal integrity and geometry stability."

Stranded conductors can induce electromagnetic radiation (EMR) interference among the strands. More importantly, however, stranded wires make poor candidates for field termination because the strands can shift when compressed.

"Thus they won't create reliable contact when the V-shaped pins in the field termination connectors try to make a good contact to the strands," Lu says.

AudioQuest's single-conductor design gives the company an advantage when it comes to field termination.

But that's not all. The company invented a connector – code-named Bayonet – utilizing V pins that cut cleanly through the wire insulation. There is no need to strip off any vital insulation.

Do You Still Get Full HDMI Transmission?

After testing the field terminated cables, AudioQuest engineers were surprised to find that the HDMI signal was actually better than with traditional HDMI cables, including its own soldered varieties.

Because the termination does not require insulation removal, the impedance on the new AudioQuest cables is maintained at the optimal 100 Ohms throughout the connector. AudioQuest performed TDR (time domain reflectometry) tests on its own Bayonet connector, as well as the more traditional soldered and crimped connectors.

While impedance throughout the AudioQuest connectors (shown in green) hovered around 100 Ohms from the tip to the cable, impedance on standard crimped connectors (red) fluctuated between 93 and 113 Ohms. Soldered connectors (blue) fared even worse.

"We just wanted to make sure it would be simple to terminate in the field," says Lu of the new connector. "We were surprised it would be even better than soldering."