Fiber optic cables consist of either one or many thin strands of glass, which are protected by a flexible, transparent sheath. Rather than using electrical pulses to communicate information, this technology uses pulses of light. As a result, it offers technically boundless performance capabilities. The capacity may be even more than you imagine. The newest transatlantic cable is capable of transmitting 100 hours of digital video or 30 million phone calls from one side of the ocean to the other at speeds of a single second. This technology is the backbone of military networking, medical imaging and laser practices, and private and public networking for cable and internet.

One of the reasons fiber cables are so widely used is because they are extremely secure. This technology does not contain an electromagnetic field, so data cannot be intercepted, slowed, or jumbled with other signals. The safety, speed, and security of fiber optics does come at a higher cost relative to other cable options on the market. But compared to the rising costs of copper, which is used in other cable technology, it remains competitively priced in the marketplace. Plus, metallic wiring is naturally thicker, which reduces load capacity and makes installation difficult in more challenging environments. Fiber optics provide the clarity and safety that modern homeowners and business leaders expect in infrastructure projects.

Optical Network Technologies for Future Digital Cinema:

The optical communications technology would foster the transformation of the cinema industry into an all-digital immersive experience. This transformation will bring about disruptive changes to the cinematography work flow with more advanced acquisition and editing processes, video compression, communication, and transport mechanisms being deployed. The cloud based optical network architecture would enable a fully integrated global content distribution network for rich multimedia applications integrated seamlessly for home screening, broadcasting, and mobile viewing.

The future may bring the digital content migration from an intraonly (frame by frame) compression to exploiting interframe compression. The infrastructure will enable further advancements as the availability of high speed networks coupled with an unprecedented increase in multimedia communications from mobile and other capture devices will create both opportunities and challenges. The affordability of digital content generation and distribution will encourage new entrants to a previously restricted and specialized domain, ultimately bringing the art of movie-making into the public domain.