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TELE-satellite International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 12-01/2012
— www.TELE-satellite.com
signal distribution? What
the heck is that for, you may
ask yourself. As a matter of
fact, fibre optic cables are
perfectly protected from
outside damage and dirt
thanks to sturdy metal and
plastic mantling. But what
about plugs? They are the
weakest link of the chain
and flawless signal trans-
mission can only be guar-
anteed if they are kept to-
tally free from dust, dirt and
even minor damage.
With the Fibre X400 mi-
croscope
GlobalInvacom
has come up with just the
right installation aid to make
sure small scratches and al-
most invisible damage can
be spotted before they may
cause failures once the dis-
tribution network is fully up
and running.
We put the X400 to the
test and found that it does a
wonderful job. It does show
even the smallest deficiency
and when we had a look at
the fibre optic cable we in-
stalled some three years ago
for our first optical LNB test
report, we were surprised
that a signal can make it
from the LNB to our receiver
at all – considering the sad
state of the plug surface.
What the X400 actually
revealed was a connecting
plug covered all over with
dirt and dust, giving us a
desperately needed wake-
up call to do some thorough
cleaning every once in a
while. Speaking of which,
GlobalInvacom has the per-
fect aid for keeping your op-
tical network neat and tidy:
Cleaning material
As mentioned just before,
dust and dirt can kill even
the most state-of-the-art fi-
bre optic connection, so ab-
solute cleanliness is a must
when setting up an optical
distribution system. It’s the
cabling between satellite
antenna and converter box
near the receiver that re-
quires most attention, as it
frequently runs through an
attic, terrace, backyard or
cable duct and therefore is
most prone to collecting un-
wanted dirt and dust parti-
cles.
GlobalInvacom’s product
range includes a number
of cleaning aids to combat
unwanted contamination:
One of them is an easy-to-
use cleaning pen filled with
a cleaning agent. Together
with specially developed
cleaning wipes it constitutes
the perfect cleaning system
for fibre optic connections.
This is how it works: A 2
cm patch of the cleaning
wipe is moistened with the
cleaning pen. Next, the fibre
optic plug is slowly moved in
a 90 degree angle from the
moistened patch of the wipe
to a dry area. This proce-
dure is repeated until the Fi-
bre X400 microscope shows
a spotlessly clean surface.
When cleaning the connec-
tion it is paramount to use
any patch on the wipe one
time only to make sure pre-
viously removed dust is not
transferred back to the fibre
optic surface again.
Another helpful product
is a set of foam swabs for
cleaning connections and
contact points. These swabs
When installing a fibre system
it is imperative that the end-
face of every fibre cable is
spotless. The FibreCLEANING
Kit comprises of Wipes, a
cleaning fluid pen and a pot
of swabs which provide the
complete cleaning solution.