MCBEE
Kordz, an Australian cable manufacturer built for the custom-install trade, makes the active-optical HDMI cabling MCBEE specifies for long cable runs a passive cable simply can’t carry at full bandwidth. Its current PRO4 line combines OM3 fibre with oxygen-free copper and tip-to-tip foil shielding to deliver full 48Gbps uncompressed bandwidth — 8K/10K-capable — over runs up to 100m with zero external power required; the PRS4 line covers shorter Ultra High Speed-certified runs to 20m.
Cable is the component nobody sees and everybody blames when it fails — a marginal passive HDMI cable run through a wall cavity is one of the most common causes of intermittent video dropouts MCBEE is called in to diagnose on other integrators’ work. Specifying certified, purpose-built active-optical cable for long runs removes that failure point entirely, rather than hoping a passive cable happens to work at a given length.
PRO4 active-optical HDMI specification for long, high-bandwidth runs · PRS4 Ultra High Speed-certified cabling · Bravo passive 8K HDMI cable for shorter runs · cable-run planning engineered alongside the rest of the AV signal chain.
A passive HDMI cable’s usable bandwidth degrades with length — a cable that works at 3m can drop frames or lose HDR signalling at 15m, especially at 4K/8K data rates. Kordz’s active-optical cabling uses a fibre-optic core specifically to carry full bandwidth over long runs without that degradation, which is why MCBEE specifies it rather than a generic passive cable for any run beyond a few metres.
A signal chain is only as reliable as its weakest link, and an undersized cable is one of the most common causes of AV faults MCBEE is called in to diagnose on systems built by other installers — so yes, it’s specified with the same rigour as the processors and displays it connects.