Metra Goes Long with 18Gbps Velox Active HDMI Cables

For years Metra Home Theater has led the custom installation industry's efforts to meet the latest HDMI standards to ensure full system compatibility. At CEDIA 2017, the company introduced its latest Velox Active HDMI cables to enable integrators to transmit bandwidth intensive signal distances up to 98 feet (30 meters). 

Metra says its new copper-based Velox Active HDMI cables are HDMI 2.0a compliant and verified to deliver full 18Gbps bandwidth to support Ultra HD 4K, high dynamic range (HDR) 60Hz refresh rates, and various chroma subsampling rates including 4:4:4, 4:4:2 and 4:2:0.

As part of its CEDIA exhibit, the company demonstrated the capabilities of the new Velox cables and ran its now annual “Lunch N' Learn” presentations, which feature Jeff Boccaccio, president of DPL Labs. 

Discussing the science behind its new Velox Active HDMI cables, Boccaccio conducted Metra's “Going Long with 18Gbps” on Sept. 7 and 8 on the show floor in its booth. 

In the presentations Boccaccio explained the Velox line's chemistry, electronics and wire layout, and the procedures Metra and DPL have developed to maximize equalizer chipsets to ensure reliable cable performance. 

Boccaccio also provided show attendees with a presentation that covered the HDMI 2.1 standard, along with the transition to 48Gbps, and how these new standards will affect the current A/V market. 

For situations that require longer distances than 98 feet, it offers its Velox Active Optical fiber cables. The fiber-based products support 4K and HDR at 18Gbps for distances up to 100 meters or 328 feet.

In addition, Metra says its Velox cables incorporate clock amplification and intra-pair skew correction to help ensure reliable signal transmission. Metra adds a 100-millisecond delay on the Hot Plug Detect to ensure the HDMI source device receives the EDID information correctly from the sync.