VDC Trading, manufacturers of Van Damme cabling, recently supplied RG Jones with over two kilometres of cable for the 2013 Wimbledon Tennis Championships.

Brown Series Star Quad Multicore Cable was brought in as part of the reconfiguration and relocation of some of the audio systems at The All England Lawn Tennis Club.

In total, VDC provided miles of Black, Purple and Brown Series multicores and multiple drums of FST for the permanent installation on the site. The cables were used throughout the tournament for the delivery of Public Address and Umpire announcements, as well as interfacing signals with the BBC for TV broadcast.

“It’s a major responsibility knowing that our cables have to perform in all conditions during the Championships – and beyond – and good to feel confident that they are always more than up to the task,” commented VDC Commercial Director Chris D’Aguiar.

VDC was also responsible for the ‘umbilical’ cables found on the umpires’ chairs, which consist of 16 pairs of Green Series cables terminated with VDC’s own VDM connectors on each end. Alongside the multicore there were four tour-grade Van Damme TourCat CAT5 cables and three 1.5mm power cables. The entire solution was wrapped in a black pliosil sleeve and used to relay data to the Umpire Score Pad and Telephone, and, of course, deliver the Umpire Microphone signal, which was then turn distributed to the PA system locally and the BBC for broadcast around the world.

RG Jones’ Tim Speight said: “We have used VDC as a supplier at Wimbledon for the last 12 years. They are able to supply all of the stock we require and the cables are accepted as industry standard; as such we have never had issues when dealing with prickly broadcast engineers. What can I say? ‘They do cables that work’…”

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