Game Changer: Revolutionizing Extended-Distance Ethernet

Game Changer Cable transforms traditional cable infrastructure design by extending Ethernet reach to 200 meters, quadrupling coverage area while delivering up to 2.5 Gbps and 100W of PoE.

• Simplifying designs by extending Ethernet distance capabilities from 100 meters to 656 feet (200 meters)
• Reducing telecommunications room requirements, resulting in valuable real estate savings for clients
• Available in multiple varieties including plenum, non-plenum, indoor-outdoor, OSP, hazardous location, and armored versions
• Supporting up to 2.5 Gbps bandwidth and 100W of PoE across the extended distance
• Cost-effective alternative to fiber solutions or traditional copper with PoE extenders, with documented savings of 70-80%
• Compatible with industry standards and eligible for 25-year warranty certification
• Requiring fewer specialized technicians and simplifying troubleshooting by eliminating mid-span devices
• For distances between 656-850 feet, setting switch ports to 10 Mbps ensures stable connections
• Available through major distributors including Anixter, Wesco, ADI, ScanSource, and through Graybar via Omni

Join us Wednesday nights at 6 PM Eastern for live Q&A sessions on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook where you can ask your structured cabling and design questions.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Let's Talk Cabling
• 2:16 Designing with Game Changer Cable
• 4:08 Simplifying Infrastructure Design
• 11:06 Game Changer Product Varieties
• 15:48 Space Savings and Real Estate Benefits
• 17:22 PoE and Technical Considerations
• 24:50 Project Timeline and Labor Benefits
• 30:53 Costs, Savings, and Value Proposition

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey Wiremonkeys, welcome to another episode of let's Talk Cabling this show. We're talking about how to design with Game Changer Cable.

Speaker 2: 0:10

Welcome to let's Talk Cabling, the award-winning podcast where knowledge is power and the low-voltage industry connects. Hosted by Chuck Bowser, rcdd. We're here to empower installers, designers and industry pros with the tips, stories and best practices you need to stay ahead. From copper to fiber, standards to innovation, this is the show that keeps you plugged into success. So grab your tools, turn up the volume and let's talk cabling.

Speaker 1: 0:45

Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers, technicians, foremen, project managers, estimators, even customers. We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube, would you mind hitting the subscribe button and the bell button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, why not leave us a five-star rating? Those simple little steps help us educate, encourage and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Wednesday night, 6 pm, Eastern Standard Time. What are you doing? You know I do a live stream on TikTok, instagram, linkedin, Facebook, anywhere else I can do it. Well, you get to ask your favorite RCDD and you know that's me. Questions on instant certification, design, project management, even career path questions. Also, while this show is free and will always remain free, if you find value in this content, you click on that QR code right there. You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can schedule a 15 minute call with me after hours. Of course, you can also even go to our Amazon links and buy stuff there, where we get a small stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:55

A few weeks back, we did a show on going beyond 100 meters and we talked about copper solutions and fiber slash copper solutions and testing those solutions, about copper solutions and fiber slash copper solutions and testing those solutions. And it's an association between one of my guests and I that I wanted to dive into it, but we literally didn't do it for that show because we made that show two hours long. So I invited him to come back to talk specifically about designing and estimating game changer projects. So let's talk about this. Welcome back to the show, david Coleman from Page Connect. How are you doing, my friend?

Speaker 4: 2:30

I'm doing great. Thanks so much, Chuck. Happy to be back.

Speaker 1: 2:33

Yes, absolutely Good to have you. Like I said, when we were doing that conversation, I was thinking, man, I got all these former estimator right, I got all these questions I want to ask you. But I look at the timer and we were like 35 minutes. I'm like I try to keep my episodes between 30 and 40 minutes and that was a three-part show and I'm like I got two other parts to do that show still. So I was like you know what?

Speaker 1: 2:55

We just need to break this up and and talk about this, because you mentioned in that previous show about skeptics, right, yeah, it's one thing for a technician to be a skeptic. It's something else for an estimator to be a skeptic, because the estimator or the project manager, they're going to be the ones who decide whether or not to use your solution or not. Yeah, so tonight's show, today's show I really want to focus on, let's talk about some things that are of interest to them, that bring to light that they may not have known about Game Changers. You and I talked about it on the pre-show. There was stuff you told me about Game Changers. I thought you guys just did that single solution for cameras that are 800 feet out. I didn't know you had this whole other wealth of product and stuff.

Speaker 4: 3:42

Oh, for sure, yeah. Other wealth of product and stuff oh for sure, yeah. So it definitely started with humble beginnings and, as the audience has told us, we like this, we want more of this. It's grown to be quite a bit more than that.

Speaker 1: 3:56

So let's start off with the first question right out of the gate. From a design perspective, how does incorporating Game Changer Cable impact the overall infrastructure of a project Like, for example, like telecom rooms and stuff like that?

Speaker 4: 4:08

Yeah, absolutely so. The goal in using this as a design tool is to simplify. So the shortest answer I can give you is it simplifies your design. How does it do that? Well, when you are considering the area that you can cover from an IDF, you're thinking about going 100 meters in all directions. We're going to just say horizontally to begin with, right. And when you look at that area and you try to determine how big that is, you'll take pi times the radius, squared Right, and you're going to get a number which is about 31,400 square meters right. So that's 3.14 pi times 100 times 100. And when that 100 doubles to 200, now that number overall has quadrupled. So the area that you're covering has gotten four times larger, which means you have many fewer IDFs needed to cover that entire area, and that extra floor space can now be used for things that your end user wants a whole lot more than just another computer room, right?

Speaker 4: 5:20

So we see airports that are like boy, I don't have a space near this gate to add a closet, but that old coax, you know, was run for 500, 600 feet. What am I supposed to do? Well, game changer, is your answer right. When you're looking at designs that are going up and down, your area is actually more than just quadrupling. It's now, you know, able to service floors up and down as well.

Speaker 4: 5:45

So, really, as a designer, what you're hoping to do is solve my customers' problems in a manner that is as simple as possible, both for my design purposes and for the fact that when it goes to be installed by the techs, it's easier to do, and when it comes time to service it, there's less to service. And boy isn't it also nice to finish my job faster, get paid sooner, move on to the next thing. So, simplifying your design, that's what we're here to do, and the Game Changer is just a nice, simple tool, and once you understand it, boy, it's like I put a hammer in your hands and I don't need to tell you what to do with it after that. You're going to just figure it out. You're going to know. So, if you're using Ethernet protocol and if you need to connect a large area, think about how Game Changer could simplify that for you, and a whole bunch of opportunities are going to open up for you.

Speaker 1: 6:43

You know, I think we kind of skipped a step right, because maybe there's designers or project managers out there who were like me only knew about that application for cameras. You guys also sell plenum rated game changer cable to be used inside of buildings for regular structured cable systems, right? Oh, of course yes.

Speaker 4: 7:03

So we use a wide variety of game changer out in the market. So it starts with non-plenum or riser rated, then we have plenum rated. We have an indoor-outdoor plenum rated version. So as you're in the outdoor wet space and it comes into the building, into a dry plenum spot, no need to transition. We have OSP versions, both shielded, non-shielded, and even those shielded versions, 600 volt rated. They can go wet, they can go indoors to a CM sort of space and you can put it into a street pole without having to separate it from the higher voltage product. We have class one, division one hazardous locations. We've got aluminum interlocked armor versions.

Speaker 4: 7:44

So whether it's an industrial application, a commercial setting, you know, all you're really thinking is hey, I've got a large area to cover, which is the right game changer for me, and we've got a lot of different choices.

Speaker 4: 7:57

The nice thing is, all of them share the same electrical performance and the same technical claims. Twice the distance, no matter what. You know, you got 656 feet or 200 meters and at that distance you're getting up to two and a half gigs and 100 watts of PoE. So you really are going to have a great amount of flexibility for your Ethernet, and it isn't just for cameras. You know we love our camera partners. We're very appreciative of the folks at Axis and Bosch and Hanwha and others who are out there promoting our products. But we're seeing it used on Wi-Fi. We're seeing it used for all things Ethernet. So whether that's IP audio or some sort of an access control, you know Ethernet based system or it's going to be digital signage, or you know VoIP or whatever it might be, you're able to to use the benefits of Game Changer across wide spaces and a number of applications.

Speaker 1: 8:59

So Game Changer is no one trick pony. They've got lots of things. I like that because, like I said, I think, if I'm thinking that there was only that one solution, I know there's other people who thought that as well. So that's why, as you were going through your explanation, I was thinking people may not know that and that's why I figured we better circle back around and cover that. And I like the fact that you pointed out that, using the GameChanger solution, you'll use less telecommunications rooms. Customers most customers rent their office space and they pay based on the square footage and so they're paying square footage and they don't want to dedicate, you know, you know, a 10 by 10 or 10 by 11 room to something they don't have to, and I can see where game changer could certainly give them that's.

Speaker 4: 9:44

That's a room for another office to put somebody Absolutely. We see, you know end users of all kinds. That's their biggest win right. They like the fact that it was less expensive to put in, they like the fact that it's less expensive to maintain, but it all pales in comparison to the real estate benefit they're getting when that square footage can be used for something else. It's a parking structure that has more places for cars, it's an office building that has more places for offices. It's an airport that has more place for passengers. Whatever it might be, there's an operational benefit, the reason they're building out this space. And when you give them more of that space back, especially when it's more than they expected, they are going to be calling you again. That know that is going to be a big deal for them.

Speaker 3: 10:26

Let's take a short break. Are you looking to grow your low voltage business? At Bowman Vision Media, we don't just market to the low voltage industry. We come from it With decades of experience. We uniquely understand your business and how to help it grow. From social media to content creation, we deliver marketing that works as hard as you do. And while you're leveling up, check out the 49 Volts podcast, your go-to source for industry insights and expert interviews. Visit bowmanvisionmediacom to learn more and subscribe to the 49 Volts podcast on YouTube or wherever you listen.

Speaker 1: 11:09

So for that project manager or that estimator who's making a design or maybe even responding to an RFP or an RFQ, what are some of the project design documentations in the bid process? What are some of the key considerations they need to think about for the design documentation or bid proposals?

Speaker 4: 11:28

Yeah, first, of course, is going to be how much bandwidth and power am I supposed to be delivering to all of these locations? Right, when you have a good sense of what your bandwidth needs are, then you're going to have a sense of what your distance limitations are, right, so there may be on the edge of something. Hey, I've got this one camera or this one digital sign or this one access point or whatever it might be. That is really far away 800, 850 feet but I only need 10 megs to support it. No problem, you can go out that far, right. Maybe, if I need more than 10 megs, I'm going to then say 656 feet, 200 meters.

Speaker 4: 12:06

That's my new basis of design, and when I start laying out these sort of cellular circular areas throughout my design, I realize how much more I can cover.

Speaker 4: 12:18

Now I'm starting to think about OK, I don't need all of that equipment.

Speaker 4: 12:22

I don't need to have so many switches with unmanaged ports everywhere.

Speaker 4: 12:27

I'm going to have smaller number of areas, bigger switches, full port utilization and, again, fewer things to maintain, fewer things to pay for the heating, the cooling, the power of it, and it means my bill of materials is starting to get smaller.

Speaker 4: 12:47

So there's things I'm not going to need and the money that I would have put into that hardware I'm now maybe putting into higher end cameras, or I'm a little bit more profitable or I'm saving my customer a little bit more money. Those are the types of things that you're going to start to think about. And, by the way, if you're an estimator, if you're a specifier, you want to show the value of your expertise compared to the next guy. And when you're able to deliver this simplified system that costs less and it gets installed faster and there's fewer things to maintain and I gave extra square footage back to my end user you are going to be beloved and you as an individual are now more important to your customer, you're more important to your company and you know you're going to be out there doing some dangerous things, winning a lot more projects.

Speaker 1: 13:38

Yeah, as a former estimator, I see a lot of requests for proposals coming out, you know, saying the work will meet and or exceed the ANZ standards, you know. And then they're going to want you to sign a contract stipulating that. So if they have a device or some kind of a scenario where we're going to be going beyond those things, I'm probably going to issue them an RFI, a request for information, and then when they let them respond back, they say, look, hey, you do realize these devices are beyond the 100 meters of the nearest telecom room. And when they come back and say they understand that, then I say, look, here's a proposed solution. Do you guys have any kind of formal document on corporate game changer head letterhead? Formal document, you know, on corporate game changer head letterhead. Somebody could send that to a customer and say, look, this has been tested, it's certified. Or you know, hey, this works.

Speaker 4: 14:30

Yes, absolutely so. Lots of documentation available and a lot of support from great organizations like Bixie. You know where the 007 standard which came out here in 2024, has a section for extended distance cabling and in that section they put in language to support the use of Game Changer cable, and you're able to then explain to your customer that this is a solution that's been around for well since 2017. You know there's lots and lots of it installed all over the place. You can talk to other customers just like yourself who have used it and hear what they think. You can have it certified to a 25-year warranty. We have the support of groups like Bixie who are saying, yeah, long-distance solutions come in a few different flavors. This flavor is totally acceptable and when you compare them, I like to think that this flavor costs less money, has fewer points of failure, delivers the power that you need, has a bunch of other benefits that you know we've already talked ad nauseum about.

Speaker 1: 15:33

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you mentioned power over Ethernet and obviously connecting to network switches and stuff like that and you said that GameChanger C cable integrates with those systems and stuff. Is there any kind of pitfalls that they need to on a design side that they need to watch out for when using game change cable with PoE devices or network switches?

Speaker 4: 15:55

Yeah, great question. And this comes as like an edge case, right? So we talked about how we can guarantee that high bandwidth up to 656 and then low bandwidth out to 850 feet. So if you're in that 657 to 850-foot range where we're only guaranteeing the low bandwidth, a great move is to say, okay, I'm only getting 10 megs. I'm going to set the port on this switch to 10 megs, so you're using a managed switch. You'm going to set the port on this switch to 10 megs, so you're using a managed switch. You're able to set the port speed on that Instead of having auto negotiate.

Speaker 4: 16:28

I set that at 10 megs and that's going to stop what I call the hokey pokey. You know where you put your right hand in, you take your right hand out. Sometimes those switches, they want to switch between 10 and then a hundred, then a thousand and back to 10. And we would sometimes hear from a customer hey, I put this in, it's 700 feet, it's working great, but now it's sort of dropping every once in a while. Well, I'll ask them did you set the port on that switch to 10 megs? Oh, no, I forgot to do that. It's really the only pro tip. You only have to do it when it's beyond 656 feet. You're going those extra distances for the low bandwidth applications and it's a great way to force a more reliable connection.

Speaker 1: 17:12

Other than that. You're really just sort of running and gunning like you would with a normal Cat6. And I assume for the PoE, unless you get into something really extraordinarily long, just a regular voltage drop calculation will probably suffice.

Speaker 4: 17:24

Yeah, so we do have voltage drop calculation sort of graphs on documents on our website. We'll put a link in the description to get that information and more. The PoE standards are going to come with different supply side voltages that you're able to use. So if you're a manufacturer of a switch or a PoE injector or whatever it might be, and you're going to deliver, you know a, let's say, 15 watt solution, right, that's the output power. The camera on the other end is going to need less of it. You're going to have some supply side voltage and then the camera at the end is going to need less of it. You're going to have some supply side voltage and then the camera at the end is going to need less of it. So what you're looking for is how much supply side voltage you're starting with in certain cases 50, 52, 54, those sorts of things. When you look up at the chart, you'll see some solid colored lines. As long as those solid lines stay above the dotted line at that distance, you know your goal, and so when trying to design these types of PoE budgets, a lot of people are thinking about watts. It's also good to think about volts, especially in the supply side. There is like a buffet you get if you're a manufacturer of PoE. You can go in and still be service, you know, or standards compliant, but you need to choose what your voltage is going to be. Higher supply side voltages that start off are going to be better because you're going to have more power at the end of it as well, and that's really what you need to think about with PoE.

Speaker 4: 18:57

I will give you one other situation. The National Electric Code has a table that they broadcast for PoE bundle sizes right. So based on the ambient temperature in your install environment and the number of cables that you have in a bundle and the amount of power that you're going to distribute across that, you're going to see heat rise and you're going to see the performance of the overall cable degrade at a certain point. So with Game Changer at the full power and in warm settings there's different temperature settings. I'll put a link in there for the NEC code to the table if you're interested. You can get 192 cables in one bundle because it's 22 gauge. So that's the sort of thing to consider if you're going to be doing some super dense, high cable count, high PoE applications. Don't get above 192 game changer cables in a bundle.

Speaker 1: 19:54

Yeah, you're referring to charge 725, 144 is what you're referring to. For those who want to go look it up.

Speaker 4: 20:01

Is this guy good right? Is what you're referring to for those who want to go look it up, is this guy good right? I mean, is this guy not your favorite Bixie or CDD to have? It's just at the top of his head.

Speaker 1: 20:10

You know I love the NEC. That's the problem. So let's talk about. We talked about how Game Changer helps.

Speaker 3: 20:17

I love it too, hey friends, I want to tell you about a great organization Tech Knowledge Worldwide, an active community of tech professionals dedicated to elevating our industry and each other. It's the real deal and I'm grateful to be part of this community 23rd and 24th in Nashville, tennessee, and will feature amazing speakers, workshops and even Bixie continuing education credits. Stay up to date and lock in your spot now at techfestorg. That's T-E-K-F-E-S-T dot org. I encourage all my low voltage followers to consider joining to see if they want a seat at TKW's table too. All are welcome to learn, grow and see what putting community over competition can do. Go to techfestorg for more information.

Speaker 1: 21:17

We talked about how the game changer cable helps the smaller projects where you're putting less telecoms and you've kind of skirted around some larger scale projects like airports and stuff like that. Oh yeah, let's talk about some potential challenges or maybe limitations that might arise for that complex or that really large scale project.

Speaker 4: 21:35

So large scale projects have really big savings, right? Small scale projects can still have big savings. We're used to seeing our customers save thousands of dollars every time they pick up a box. Sometimes we see tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars are being saved, and more.

Speaker 4: 21:55

You know your challenges for large scale projects are not going to be unique. When it's a large scale game changer project, it's going to be the same as if it's a large-scale Cat6 project. In fact, I'd say you're going to have fewer of those issues and problems because you're going to have a simplified design. So some of your challenges or questions are going to be how much space can I cover from this given idea and where's the best place to put it? And what I would suggest is don't simply optimize for the greatest area of coverage by putting it in the middle, up near the ceiling, for example.

Speaker 4: 22:33

Right, if you're in a warehouse when we know that, hey, we can move that IDF from up top, where I need maybe to rent special equipment to get up there, where I maybe need to take away space that that warehouse wanted to use for inventory, right, and instead I've moved it off to the side wall down towards the bottom of the floor where I can access this more easily, not disrupt the operations of the warehouse, not take up any of their space, and that extra distance to go to the nearest wall and then back down to it is totally fine, because Game Changer Cable gives you that extra distance.

Speaker 4: 23:10

So my suggestions are when you're thinking about placing these, optimize for what's going to be easiest for the customer and you afterwards Optimize for simplifying, having fewer of these things as opposed to more of them, so there's less stuff for you to buy, install and maintain and power and cool, and then you know you'll find that sweet spot that's right for you. It doesn't always have to be hey, I used to have 10 IDFs and now I only have two. While that is great, while that is great, not every job is looking for that level of IDF reduction. Some of them are looking for greater flexibility in servicing these things after the fact. So just consider that you've got lots of different benefits that you can optimize for and try to, like a Rubik's Cube, consider all sides of the equation before putting your final solution together.

Speaker 1: 24:05

So we talked about the length and stuff. How does using Game Changer Cable influence a project, for example, maybe when you're thinking about project timelines and labor requirements?

Speaker 4: 24:19

Yeah for sure. So first thing to notice if you're in a large scale project with a big footprint, you're going to have long distances. You're going to be considering fiber as well, and fiber has its place. You know, and you know some of the downsides. You know, or maybe I'll say it this way Some of the upsides to an all copper solution are going to be that you're going to get your power over your Ethernet as well, and your labor talent, your pool, is going to be larger and less expensive than it is when looking just for fiber talent, right? So this is going to open it up and give you the ability to, you know, use a technician who's trained on TAT6 and not have to wait for that tech who is, you know, going to be your guy polishing, you know, glass.

Speaker 4: 25:05

10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10. Um, you're going to be terminating one type of cable. You're going to not have to worry about where your power is located and where you're moving it around. Um, the benefits of PoE are fantastic. I think we all know them, and this allows you to really leverage them. Have you guys done case studies on that? Yeah, absolutely so. Pagedatacomcom, slash game changer you'll find case studies there. And, uh, we're always sort of looking to add more and we always have great stories to tell. And if you're one of these folks out there listening and you want your story told by us, reach out to me, let me know. We'd love to showcase it as well.

Speaker 1: 25:57

So the only downfall that I can really think of off the top of my head? I mean, I see the savings in the labor, I see the decreased time for the project timeline, which are all benefits. I'm thinking now about the service technician who's troubleshooting something, and we know things go wrong sometimes. So now, instead of walking from the telecom room you know 300 feet to that jack, now they've got to walk 600 feet, 800 feet. That to me would me probably the only.

Speaker 4: 26:27

The only downfall to this whole solution is the extra time needed for for troubleshooting well, I'm glad that you brought it up, because what we hear our customers tell us about troubleshooting is that they're used to if that camera's 600 feet away from from the uh, from the idf, searching for the booster or extender or something that got hidden in the ceiling somewhere in that 600 foot and and maybe the as-built drawings weren't um done the way that makes sense to them or at all, and they spent a lot of time crawling through ceilings with their flashlight looking for where that extender went in. And this is a much easier way to start troubleshooting because you know, I've got an end device, I've got a IDF and there's nothing in between that I have to go search for. So if it is something that is farther away, then you kind of have two options and we think the game changer one is actually saving our customers steps in the long run.

Speaker 1: 27:30

So we talked about those, those really long runs, those are one offs. And we also talked about projects with game changer cable. If I was to go to my local distribution, I'm assuming game changer could be is going to be purchased. Gray bar Anixter CSC.

Speaker 3: 27:46

Yeah so our platinum distributors are Anixter, Wesco and ADI.

Speaker 4: 27:49

We also have in gold distribution ScanSource and Accutech and GCG, and then we also have authorized resellers, including Graybar, that are able to get their product through Omni, who is a redistributor, get their product through Omni, who's a redistributor. So really all distribution will be able to find some level of access to Game Changer cable.

Speaker 1: 28:11

So no matter where you are, if you want to buy Game Changer, we have a way to make that easy for you, so an estimator can go through their normal contacts inside outside sales reps with their local distribution instead of having to go find some off the wall kind of place to buy this. So if I was to buy a thousand feet of plenum cat 6a cable, right, you one of the major manufacturers, not, not, not the, not the copper clad stuff off of amazon, whole nother conversation. Um, and I buy a thousand feet of game changer cable. How do those costs compare to each other?

Speaker 4: 28:45

yeah, yeah, I would say that you should expect Game Changer cable to cost around double, and when you consider the price of the cable relative to the price of the overall project, spending twice as much on the wire or more is going to sound at first like yeesh. And then you start looking at everything else in the bill of materials that goes away, the four times the area that's covered and everything else that we talked about. Yeah, it's a big money saver ultimately.

Speaker 1: 29:13

Yeah, yeah. So the true savings is in the is the. It's not the perfect price, because the reason I asked this, because sometimes estimators get asked to price to give, do add deletes per foot Right. To do add-deletes per foot right? Sure, and that's why I asked that question. And I totally understand why game-changing cable is more, because it's 22-gauge, it's a bigger conductor. There's more copper yeah, if you haven't looked at the market lately, copper is going through the roof. It's bananas, right, and that costs money. So I understand that. So the true overall savings is not comparing two boxes of cables next to each other. The true savings is you're doing less telecom rooms, right, that saves less racks, less patch panels Well, it doesn't say patch panels, but definitely saves less racks because actually you have a consolidation of ports. I think you mentioned that in the previous previous episode.

Speaker 4: 30:04

Yeah. So basically, yeah, your bill of materials is going to dramatically shrink. So we've got an example of pricing analysis on our website done by a consultant looking at three options for a large parking structure in Texas, and the three options were Cat6 with PoE extenders, a hybrid fiber and power cable and Game Changer. And the bill of materials before labor on these three options were the fiber option was about $125,000. The Cat 6 and PoE extenders came in less expensive, about $104,000. So you're saving $20,000. And then the Game Changer option was like 22 grand, so you just saved a fortune. When you got rid of all the other equipment that needed to be put in there to show, and when those things go to zero, you're going to really look clever. And when you're able to save the customer money and give them back square footage boy, you could have charged them a whole lot more for wire and they wouldn't have batted an eye. Boy, you could have charged them a whole lot more for wire and they wouldn't have baddened I.

Speaker 1: 31:27

All great points and it's funny because a lot of customers well, most customers will tell you I don't really care about the price, I just want the best solution I can afford. It always comes down to price every single time. Yeah.

Speaker 4: 31:41

You know what they want is value right. So they're going to complain about price more when they feel like they're not getting the value that they're looking for and when our customers are able to do things for their customers that they didn't think were possible. You know the discussion moves away from price real quickly. They're saving a lot of money for their customers oftentimes and they're giving them, on top of those savings, benefits that last a long, long time. So I think one of the coolest things about what I get to do for a living is, you know, every part of the channel really is winning when providing this particular product. It's a lot of fun. I've been in wiring cable for four generations in my family. I've never had more fun than I do selling the Game Changer cable.

Speaker 1: 32:32

I'm just glad to finally meet somebody who's as passionate about cable as I am.

Speaker 4: 32:39

There's not a lot of us nerds out there.

Speaker 1: 32:43

I went to a sales meeting one time for my day job and I was being introduced to people who were outside of my normal family and they said, hey, oh, yeah, yeah, he's got his own podcast. And to this one guy that I didn't know, you got a podcast, what are you doing about it? I said Cable. He goes. Oh yeah, I don't think about Cable Dude. I'm always thinking about Cable Without looking up to see how the cable is supported or what kind of cable they use or how they mount the racks.

Speaker 4: 33:13

It drives my wife crazy Every single time I'm looking at it.

Speaker 1: 33:17

I'll tell you another thing that drives my wife crazy. We'll sit there and be watching a movie and it'll be like maybe somebody in their office and they'll pick up their phone. I'll say that phone's not even connected. There's no lights on the phone.

Speaker 4: 33:29

There's no cable going to the phone. We know better. We know better, yeah, but to anyone else who's a wire nerd out there, you may be listening to this right. You know this is not everybody's podcast, but we appreciate you and we have you in mind when we're doing this. You know, we really do try to ask the right questions and then we try to shut up and listen and have you tell us what you need.

Speaker 4: 33:56

And there are plenty of times where we do more talking than we need to.

Speaker 4: 34:00

You know we do Bixie accredited trainings where you'll hear us talk for an hour, you know, but hopefully, if we're doing our job well, when we're talking we're asking smart questions and listening to hearing what you guys really need out in the field, and then, you know, when the answers come back to us, trying to use our expertise to apply a solution that may change things for you in a big way.

Speaker 4: 34:28

And we think with the Game Changer Cable, we've done that. I certainly know that when we brought it out at Bixie the first time, people looked at us like we had three heads and we were just complete yahoos. Over the time that changed and we just were kind of humbly taking our lumps out in the field day after day educating people that this is possible, seeing that it's working, supporting them, having their success, kind of fuel ours, and it's been a great run. And now we're seeing you know, you know people talking about it like you're saying in your classes on a regular basis. I'm humbled by it. I appreciate it, but I still think there's a whole lot left to do.

Speaker 1: 35:12

Yeah Well, I appreciate you coming on the show to cover the second half because, like I said, we did the first half. I was like man. We got to talk about design and estimating this stuff.

Speaker 4: 35:19

I appreciate you coming on, Dave. Thanks so much. Really appreciate you, Chuck. You do a great job of the show.

Speaker 2: 35:25

Thanks for listening to let's Talk Cabling, the award winning podcast where knowledge is power and the low voltage industry connects. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with your crew. Got questions or ideas for the show? Chuck wants to hear from you. Stay connected, stay informed and always aim for excellence. Until next time, keep those cables clean, your standards high and your future bright. Let's Talk Cabling empowering the industry, one connection at a time.