Point Grey Research announced at the Vision 2008 the addition of the LDR (Long Distance Repeater) to its FirePro family of professional IEEE 1394b components. The FirePro LDR is a compact and cost effective solution for applications that require multiple IEEE 1394 devices to be extended beyond the standard 4.5 m cable length.

Using a Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) physical layer to transport FireWire data using GigE signalling, the FirePro LDR can transmit and receive IEEE 1394b 800 Mb/s data in real-time over 100 m of standard Category 5e (Cat5e) cable. This allows users to construct a dependable, high-speed FireWire-based network of multiple cameras that is physically separated by up to 100 m from the host system.