USB-C cables are not all created equal

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Today’s conference rooms and collaboration spaces are equipped with a wide range of devices, including high-quality webcams, microphones, speakers and dedicated computers, to ensure a seamless meeting experience.

Most high-end conference room peripherals have already adopted USB-C, as have the vast majority of laptops and mobile devices. The widespread adoption of USB-C in today’s consumer technology is causing a drastic change in AV applications, and because of this change, USB-C will radically change traditional conference room connectivity.

The main advantage of USB-C is that it allows for 4K video, audio, USB and Ethernet data, as well as charging, all over a single connection, eliminating the need for additional cables by combining the functionality of four cables (including AV cables, USB cables, Ethernet cables, and power cables) into one, effectively rendering older connections and designs obsolete.

This advantage translates into a wide range of benefits for both AV professionals and those who use USB-C-enabled meeting spaces in their daily work. For installers and integrators, it means offering simpler rooms with more versatile functionality at a better price. For businesses, it means lower investment while creating future-proof collaboration spaces. For end users, it provides an improved meeting experience by simplifying the way they connect to cameras and audio systems to share and present content in the room. Using a single cable to transmit all these signals also enables easy host switching, allowing users to hand over control of the room to other team members, providing greater freedom for BYOD operations.

USB Pyramid

By understanding one of the basic concepts of USB technology, you can easily avoid many problems. USB devices connect to their host in a pyramid-like topology, consisting of “tiers,” where the host (e.g., a BYOD laptop) sits at the top of tier 1 (or sometimes occupies tier 2, also known as the Root Hub). USB networks are limited by latency, and each USB peripheral, hub, or cable added to the chain occupies additional tiers and introduces latency. Based on average latency, the guidelines call for a maximum of seven tiers, and exceeding this can lead to connection problems.

Not all USB devices are created equal, and depending on the class of device, they can add different levels of latency, determining the number of levels occupied by the USB “pyramid.”

Lightware’s full-featured 1m to 5m USB-C cables do not add any additional levels to your USB system, just like our 8m and 10m Active Optical (AOC) USB-C cables do when transferring USB 3.0 data. However, when AOC cables transfer USB 2.0 data, they add one additional level to your system.

What’s in the cable?

The next set of installation complications comes from an often-overlooked but crucial component of any USB-C application—the USB-C cable. If we said that not all USB devices are created equal, then that’s especially true for USB-C cables.

It can be difficult to determine whether a particular USB-C cable is suitable for a professional AV application simply by looking at it, given that the connector shape does not reveal the function and data transfer speed of the cable. Therefore, it is crucial for AV professionals to choose the right cable for their application that is “full-featured”, allowing them to take full advantage of USB-C technology and helping them avoid operational issues such as failure to charge or insufficient video transmission.

To promote successful presentations and meetings, Lightware encourages system designers to clearly communicate to end users what USB-C functionality (USB host switching, AV, Ethernet, charging, etc.) can be implemented with specific cables in meeting spaces.

Lightware delivers

Recognizing the potential of USB-C connectivity, as well as the challenges it presents, Lightware introduced the Taurus UCX family of products, a versatile and powerful set of devices designed to improve connectivity and enhance the user experience.

Lightware’s Taurus product line simplifies USB-C switching in collaborative environments by allowing users to walk into a room, connect a laptop or device, and use all available USB resources.

While the Taurus UCX was designed for standalone applications, and therefore smaller rooms face challenges when the distance between components exceeds standard cable lengths, Lightware has addressed this issue by offering a “Full Featured” cable portfolio, including active optical cables up to 10 meters, and has also developed the Taurus TPX, which leverages SDVoE technology to extend USB-C capabilities to 100 meters in a point-to-point application.

Lightware has big plans for 2024 and beyond that address the future needs of collaboration environments. The vision of UC convergence with AV network architectures was recently introduced with the Taurus TPN. The next generation of Taurus with SDVoE is the latest from Lightware, enabling AV professionals to create UC-over-IP applications with HDMI 2.0 and full USB 2.0 bandwidth from multiple sources to multiple destinations over 10G Ethernet.

In addition to being a leader in USB-C signal management solutions, Lightware is dedicated to accelerating the adoption of USB-C connectivity in conference rooms and offers comprehensive training and educational resources for AV professionals to help them overcome initial challenges. Its mission is to help partners and customers develop more comprehensive room systems, lower project costs, reduce development effort and accelerate deployments.

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Lighting

(Image Source: Lightware)

Lightware has been creating and delivering signal management solutions for the AV industry for over 25 years, enabling AV and IT professionals to securely control, distribute, monitor and manage video and audio signals across multiple sources and multiple users. Using USB, USB-C and HDMI connectivity, their reliable and versatile extenders, matrix switchers and AV-over-IP devices enhance meeting spaces, educational applications and live events in over 30 countries across 4 continents.