Two decisions hiding inside one question
“Cat6A or Cat6?” is usually asked as a single question, but it contains two separate decisions: which category (Cat6 or Cat6A) and which shield construction (unshielded or shielded). They are decided by different things, and treating them as one question is how projects end up paying for shielding they do not need — or installing a cable that cannot carry the channel count they planned.
This article separates the two decisions and gives a rule for each. It assumes the terminology is already understood; if UTP, FTP and SFTP are not yet clear as structures, the shield terminology guide covers that ground and is the right starting point.
Decision one: the category is about headroom, not speed
Both Cat6 and Cat6A carry AV-over-IP traffic. The difference is the frequency the cable is specified to handle, and what that margin buys you in a real installation.
The practical consequence is not “one works and one doesn’t” — it is how much of the cable’s capability your installation is consuming. Every AV-over-IP link has three things eating into that budget: the bandwidth the stream itself needs, the number of channels running over the same cable or bundle, and the physical length of the run. A short single-channel run leaves a lot of margin; a long multi-channel run in a tightly bundled pathway consumes far more.
Cat6A gives you more headroom to spend on those three factors. LBS offers the Cat6A SFTP 10G shielded twisted pair construction (LBS6ASSTP), sitting at the top of a network range that runs across Cat5e, Cat6 and Cat6A in unshielded, foil-shielded and double-shielded twisted pair. The decision rule is straightforward: if you cannot state your run length, channel count and bundle density, you are not in a position to pick a category yet — because those three numbers are what the category is being measured against.
Decision two: the shield is about the interference environment
The category decision does not answer the shield question. Shielded construction matters where interference actually exists, and interference in an AV-over-IP installation comes from places that are easy to overlook:
- Power cabling running parallel to the signal pathway. Long parallel runs of mains cable alongside network cable are the classic coupling path.
- Dense bundles. Cable trays packed with many cables put every link inside the electromagnetic environment of all its neighbours.
- Rooms with real electrical noise. Plant rooms, kitchens, stage areas with dimmers and lighting equipment, and mechanical spaces are not neutral environments.
- Long horizontal runs through shared pathways. The longer two cables run together, the more opportunity there is for coupling along the way.
Where none of these apply — a short run in a clean riser, away from power, with few neighbours — an unshielded construction is not automatically a compromise. The failure mode to avoid is specifying shielding as a default rather than as a response to a condition you can actually name.
What “shielded” changes at the construction level
Within a shielded network construction, the screen is a conductive layer around the pairs, with a drain path bonded to the connector. The LBS range publishes three shielded constructions alongside unshielded cable, and the naming matters when you are writing the specification:
- FTP — one foil screen around all pairs, with a drain wire.
- SFTP — a braid screen over foil around all pairs.
- SSTP / per-pair screened — each pair screened individually in addition to an overall screen, used on Cat6A where crosstalk between pairs matters most.
The difference between these is a structure question, not a category question. For the AV-over-IP decision, the only thing that matters is that the screen is continuous and correctly bonded — an ungrounded or intermittently bonded screen is worse than no screen, because it can act as a conductor for the noise it was meant to divert. The Cat6A SFTP 10G shielded twisted pair cable and the other constructions in the Cat5e, Cat6 and Cat6A network range are published with their screen structure, so the specification can name what it is buying rather than asking for “shielding”.
The grounding condition that decides everything
This is the part that is routinely left out of the specification. A shielded cable only performs as shielded if the installation gives it a proper ground path. The screen has to be terminated at the connector, and the connector has to reach a valid ground reference at the equipment end.
Three things break this in practice:
- Field-terminated connectors with the drain not landed. The screen exists in the cable and goes nowhere at one or both ends.
- Mixed shielded and unshielded cable in the same link. The screen is discontinuous, so it does not form the continuous path the construction assumes.
- Specifying shielding for the cable and forgetting patch cords and panels. The permanent link is shielded, the connecting hardware is not.
If any of these describes the installation, adding a screen to the cable specification buys structural margin you will not actually realise. Both decisions have to be answered in the same document.
The decision rules
Answered in order, these resolve most AV-over-IP cable questions:
- Can you state run length, channel count and bundle density? If not, settle those first. They set the category.
- Is there a coupling path you can name? Parallel power runs, dense trays, electrically noisy rooms or long shared pathways. If yes, specify a shielded construction; if no, an unshielded construction is a legitimate answer.
- Will the screen be bonded end to end? If the field termination, patch cords and panels will not carry the screen through, the screen is decorative. Fix the grounding plan before specifying the cable.
- Does the AV-over-IP stream have headroom over the length you are actually running? If the answer is marginal, Cat6A buys back margin that Cat6 cannot.
One physical condition decides more installations than the cable category does: what else shares the path. A Cat6A run inside a conduit that already carries loudspeaker feeds, dimmer tails or motor cables is a different noise problem from the same cable in dedicated trunking — and that conduit also fixes a hard limit on how many of these cables can share the run. The fill arithmetic and the published outside diameters are in cable outside diameter and conduit fill.
Where this connects to the rest of the installation
The cable is one layer of a networked AV system. The protocol side — how audio streams are carried, and what the network expects from a cable — is covered in the Dante network cable guide, and the wider picture of which cable belongs in which AV-over-IP deployment is in the AV-over-IP network cable article. This article sits between them and answers the single question both assume: Cat6A or Cat6, shielded or not, and under what condition.
For installers and system integrators building the link end to end — permanent link, patch cords, panels and outlets — the installer supply route covers how the cable is specified together with the rest of the installation hardware. Where the cable is part of a private-label programme rather than a single project, the OEM and ODM manufacturing page explains how a construction is confirmed before sampling.
Cat6A vs Cat6 for AV-over-IP FAQ
Q: Is Cat6A always the right choice for AV-over-IP?
A: No. Cat6A buys headroom, and headroom only has value if your installation consumes it — through long runs, high channel counts or dense bundling. A short single-channel run in a clean pathway does not need it. The right question is not “which is better” but “how much margin does this specific link need,” which means knowing run length, channel count and bundle density before choosing.
Q: Does a shielded Cat6A construction improve performance on its own?
A: Only if the screen is bonded through the whole link — terminated at the connector, carried through patch cords and panels, and connected to a valid ground reference at the equipment. An ungrounded screen can behave worse than no screen, because it can act as a path for the interference it was meant to divert. Shielded cable and the grounding plan are one decision, not two.
Q: Can shielded and unshielded cable be mixed in one AV-over-IP link?
A: Mixing them breaks the screen’s continuity, which means the shielded section no longer forms the continuous path the construction assumes. If the permanent link is shielded, the patch cords, panels and outlets that complete the link need to carry the screen too. Where that cannot be guaranteed, an unshielded construction specified deliberately is a more honest choice than a shielded one installed without a ground path.
If the same network also carries Dante or AES67 audio, the cable decision shifts: shielding and grounding matter more than raw bandwidth. The audio side of the same installation is covered in Dante Audio Network Cable: Choosing Shielded Cat6.
Discuss your AV-over-IP cable specification
If the installation has a coupling path you can name, or a run that is marginal on headroom, send the link conditions — run length, channel count, bundle density and the interference environment — and the LBS team will confirm which construction fits. Use the specification enquiry form to send your requirements, or message the LBS cable team on WhatsApp at +86 133 5282 6333. To see the constructions themselves, start from the Cat5e, Cat6 and Cat6A network cable range.