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SPOTLIGHT PATIENT ENTERTAINMENT RF over CAT cable A new twist on television signal distribution Distribution: RF A television signal distribution system sending RF content to the TV location. IP content can be added at any time. By Henry Collins and Amy Loder t used to be that in healthcare environments, CAT cable was utilized solely for transporting data throughout a facility. For television signal distribution to patient rooms, out-patient areas and lounges, coax has traditionally been the cable of choice. Today, however, the combination of tried-and-true radio frequency television, or RF TV, technology and high-bandwidth CAT cable has become an increasingly popular option for meeting the television distribution needs of hospitals. With the availability of CAT 5e/6a cable for television signal distribution, institutions have the ability to eliminate the use of coax cable from the TV system design and construction process if desired. When RF TV signals are transmitted over CAT cable, the result is a clear, reliable signal to every TV without the heavy bandwidth consumption associated with Internet protocol television, or IPTV. Medical facilities can standardize on one type of cabling. The result is a seamless convergence of voice, data and television over a unified type of standardized, structured cabling. Many medical facilities have the infrastructure in place to accommodate this type of technology because of utilizing CAT cable for IP/Ethernet content. Active RF television signal distribution systems follow the same "90m rule" included in the TIA/EIA-568 standard, which limits the maximum horizontal distance of CAT cable to 90 meters. Healthcare organizations looking to integrate RF TV into an existing CAT wiring infrastructure can do so without having to run a separate CAT cable. A typical 10/100 Ethernet network uses pins 1, 2, 3 and 6 within a CAT cable wire, leaving pins 4, 5, 7 and 8 open for television signal distribution. In the antiquated coax world, all components in the closets were wall-mounted (such as amplifiers, splitters and taps). Today's active CAT cable distribution systems use rack-mounted technology. In addition, CAT cable is a space-saver in the horizontal, taking up less space than thicker coax wire. I 20 Medical Construction & Design | January/February 2013 Distribution: RF and IP A television distribution system integrating both RF and IP content and delivering to the TV location. New building design and construction CAT cable can be included in the initial planning, design and construction of a new building. By incorporating the CAT cable into the horizontal distribution of the building, the MATV, or master antenna television system, can be designed utilizing an active RF television signal distribution system. This system can be specified within the Division 27 portion of the design package. Pre-planning in this way allows for the complete elimination of coax in the horizontal and standardization on CAT cable. Buildings are now being constructed without the use of any coax cable in the horizontal. And in the healthcare industry, standardizing on CAT cable is becoming a wide-spread best practice. Active versus passive system There are two types of RF television signal distribution systems over CAT cable: passive systems and active systems. The passive system still incurs many of the inherent problems of a coax system, including extensive manual setup time, external components and limitations on www.mcdmag.com