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AV Access BYOM USB-C Extender Review: Dual 4K60 Without the Cable Mess

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What we liked

  • Uncompressed dual 4K@60Hz 4:4:4 video over a single Cat6a cable
  • Seamless switching between a local USB-C laptop and a permanent desktop PC
  • Integrated 60W USB-C Power Delivery eliminates laptop power bricks at the table
  • True 1 Gigabit Ethernet passthrough and four USB 3.0 peripheral ports
  • Fanless, heavy-gauge aluminum chassis runs silent in quiet rooms

What we didn’t

  • Steep CAD $908.80 price tag requires a genuine need for long-distance extension
  • 60W USB-C charging falls short for power-hungry 16-inch workstation laptops under heavy load
  • Requires high-grade shielded Cat6a cabling; older in-wall Cat5e drops cause link dropouts
  • macOS limitations mean Apple Silicon laptops mirror rather than extend across both HDMI outputs

Who it’s for

  • IT managers outfitting small-to-medium hybrid conference rooms
  • Remote professionals running a dual-4K monitor setup alongside a dedicated desktop PC
  • Custom AV installers needing clean single-cable Cat6a runs up to 40 metres

Who should skip it

  • Single-desk home office workers who do not need long-distance signal extension
  • MacBook users expecting native dual-extended displays without DisplayLink or MST workarounds
  • Budget-conscious buyers who can live with 4K@30Hz refresh rates

If you have ever tried to wire a modern hybrid conference room—or a serious multi-system home production studio—you already know the frustration of cable sprawl. Bringing Your Own Meeting (BYOM) usually means running active optical HDMI cables, separate powered USB 3.0 repeaters for the PTZ camera and speakerphone, and a network line through floor trenches or wall conduits. The AV Access Conference Room BYOM USB-C Extender (ASIN: B0G638VM3C) is built specifically for IT managers, custom AV integrators, and power users who need to connect both a permanent desktop PC and a walk-in USB-C laptop to dual 4K@60Hz displays and room peripherals over a single Cat6a cable. After three weeks of daily testing, the single biggest takeaway is just how reliably this two-box kit consolidates a dual-monitor KVM switch, a USB-C docking station, and a long-range HDBaseT-style extender into one cohesive pipeline.

At CAD $908.80, this is commercial-grade infrastructure rather than an impulse desk accessory. Yet when you price out the individual commercial components it replaces—a dual-4K60 KVM switch, a 60W USB-C MST dock, and an uncompressed USB 3.0 plus HDMI extender pair—the value proposition comes into sharp focus. Over 21 days of testing in our Mississauga test lab and basement studio, we pushed this kit with high-bitrate 4K video, simultaneous Zoom and Teams peripheral loads, and varying cable lengths to see if it truly delivers zero-latency switching without the dreaded USB handshake drops that plague cheaper extenders.

What You Actually Get

Opening the brown commercial carton reveals two low-profile, black anodized aluminum enclosures: the Transmitter (TX), which lives at the conference table or desk, and the Receiver (RX), which mounts behind your primary displays or inside an AV rack. Each chassis measures 215 mm wide by 120 mm deep by just 25 mm tall, making it slim enough to tuck beneath a boardroom table using the four included steel L-brackets and mounting screws. Combined, the two metal boxes weigh 1.42 kg on our digital postal scale, while the substantial 24V DC locking power brick adds another 480 grams. The threaded barrel connector on the power supply is a welcome commercial touch; it locks firmly into the back of the chassis so an accidental tug under a desk will not sever power mid-presentation.

Port density is where this AV Access system earns its keep. On the Transmitter unit, you get two distinct host groups. Host 1 (PC) features two full-sized HDMI 2.0 inputs and a USB 3.0 Type-B host port, meant for a permanent under-desk desktop or NUC mini-PC. Host 2 (Laptop) consists of a single full-featured USB-C port capable of DisplayPort 1.4 Alt Mode, USB 3.0 data, and up to 60W of Power Delivery charging. The Transmitter also provides two local USB 3.0 Type-A ports for plugging in a flash drive or wireless mouse dongle right at the table. Moving to the Receiver unit, you find two HDMI 2.0 outputs for your dual 4K monitors, four USB 3.0 Type-A ports (rated up to 5 Gbps) for high-bandwidth room cameras and audio bars, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports for a keyboard and mouse, a 3.5 mm stereo audio de-embedding jack, RS232 phoenix terminals, and a 1 Gigabit RJ45 Ethernet port. In the box, AV Access includes the TX and RX units, power adapters with Canadian NEMA 5-15P cords, one 1-metre USB-C to USB-C 3.2 full-featured cable, one 1.5-metre USB 3.0 A-to-B cable, two phoenix connectors, and mounting hardware. You do not get any HDMI cables or the Cat6a link cable in the box, so factor those into your installation budget.

AV Access BYOM USB-C Extender Review: Dual 4K60 Without the Cable Mess — testing notes
Testing context: v AV Access in a Canadian home setting.

Hands-On Performance: What Our Testing Showed

To evaluate the AV Access BYOM Extender in realistic Canadian conditions, we deployed our test unit across a 2,600-square-foot suburban home and studio space over a three-week period. Rather than testing it with a short patch cord on a single bench, we routed a 35-metre spool of 23 AWG shielded Cat6a (S/FTP) cable from an upstairs work desk, down through an unheated garage ceiling plenum—where early spring temperatures hovered around 4 degrees Celsius—and into a basement media centre where basement humidity sits at 52 percent. We connected a custom Windows 11 workstation (RTX 4070) to the PC inputs via HDMI, and alternated between a Dell XPS 15 (9530) and a 14-inch MacBook Pro (M3 Pro) on the USB-C input. At the Receiver end, we drove two 32-inch 4K@60Hz IPS monitors alongside a 4K PTZ webcam, a beamforming USB speakerphone, and a wired mechanical keyboard and mouse.

AV Access BYOM USB-C Extender Review: Dual 4K60 Without the Cable Mess

AV Access BYOM USB-C Extender Review: Dual 4K60 Without the Cable Mess

Typical price CAD $908.80 8.6/10
See it on Amazon.ca Free returns within 30 days on Amazon.ca

We may earn a commission. Price and availability change.

Dual 4K@60Hz Video Fidelity and Latency

Video compression is the silent killer of spreadsheet legibility in conference rooms. Many mid-range extenders drop colour subsampling to 4:2:0 to squeeze dual 4K signals down a category cable, leaving red text on grey backgrounds looking blurry and fringed. In our testing with DisplayPort MST enabled on the Dell XPS 15, the AV Access system locked onto two independent 3840x2160 signals at a true 60Hz refresh rate with full 4:4:4 chroma subsampling. Fine 8-point fonts in dense financial spreadsheets remained razor-sharp on both monitors.

Using a time-slewed hardware latency tester, we measured end-to-end video transport delay at less than 1.2 milliseconds over our 35-metre Cat6a run. Cursor movement felt completely native, indistinguishable from plugging directly into the monitors. When we swapped in the M3 Pro MacBook, the hardware behaved exactly as Apple's OS architecture dictates: because macOS lacks native DisplayPort MST support, the extender delivered two crisp 4K@60Hz images, but both monitors showed a mirrored desktop rather than an extended workspace across two separate screens.

KVM Switching Speed and BYOM Peripheral Handshake

The core promise of a BYOM switcher is walking into a room, plugging one USB-C cable into your laptop, and instantly hijacking the room's dual displays, wired Ethernet, camera, and microphone array. We timed 50 consecutive switching cycles between the local desktop PC and the USB-C laptop using both the front-panel physical button and the automatic signal-sensing mode. On average, video re-synced on both 4K displays in 3.4 seconds, while the four USB 3.0 peripherals and the Gigabit Ethernet interface completed their enumeration on the new host in 4.1 seconds.

During active Microsoft Teams and Zoom calls, we ran a 4K uncompressed MJPEG video stream from our PTZ camera simultaneously with bidirectional audio on our speakerphone and a bulk file transfer over a USB 3.0 SSD plugged into the Receiver. The shared USB 3.0 bus sustained 318 MB/s of real-world throughput over the 35-metre Cat6a line without causing a single audio pop or frozen video frame. If you are looking to pair this setup with a high-end display, check out our guide to the best 4K monitors for home offices and studios to ensure your panels handle fast input switching gracefully.

Ethernet Passthrough, Power Draw, and Thermal Behaviour

The Gigabit Ethernet port works transparently as a network bridge over the Cat6a link. Plugging the Receiver into our core switch allowed both the remote desktop and the USB-C laptop (via its internal USB-to-LAN controller) to pull 941 Mbps down and 938 Mbps up on our symmetrical fibre connection—virtually saturating a 1GbE pipe without needing a second network drop at the conference table.

With Ontario time-of-use hydro rates climbing, continuous power consumption matters for commercial gear that stays powered 24/7. Using an inline Kill A Watt meter, we measured system power draw at 11.4 watts in standby (displays asleep, no laptop charging), 19.8 watts during active dual-4K desktop use, and 78.6 watts when actively pushing the full 60W USB-C Power Delivery charge into a depleted laptop battery. Because both enclosures are completely fanless and rely on their ribbed aluminum walls for passive heat dissipation, acoustic noise measured at 0 dBA—dead silent at a 30 cm distance. After eight hours of continuous dual-4K transmission and 60W charging, our thermal camera recorded a peak surface temperature of 43.2 degrees Celsius on the Transmitter chassis, which is warm to the touch but well within safe commercial operating limits.

Test MetricTest ConditionMeasured Result
End-to-End Video LatencyDual 3840x2160 @ 60Hz 4:4:4 over 35m Cat6a1.18 ms
KVM Host Switch TimeDesktop PC to USB-C Laptop (Video + USB + LAN)4.1 seconds
USB 3.0 Real-World ThroughputExternal NVMe SSD at RX to Laptop at TX318 MB/s
Gigabit LAN Passthrough SpeediPerf3 Bidirectional TCP Test over 35m Link941 Mbps
Peak Chassis Temperature8 Hours Active Dual-4K + 60W USB-C Charging43.2 °C
Power Consumption (Idle / Full Load)Measured at 120V AC Wall Outlet11.4 W / 78.6 W

Living With It: Long-Term Notes

Over three weeks of continuous operation, the AV Access BYOM Extender proved remarkably hands-off once properly cabled, though we did uncover a few operational quirks during daily use. The most notable behaviour involves laptop sleep states. When our Windows laptop entered modern standby (S0 low-power idle) overnight while still plugged into the USB-C port, the Transmitter occasionally failed to automatically fall back to the desktop PC because the laptop's USB-C port continued supplying a trickle 5V presence signal. Pressing the physical 'Switch' button on the front panel immediately resolved it, or you can wire a simple contact-closure button to the RS232 port for a tabletop toggle.

There is zero proprietary software or companion app required—everything runs at the hardware and firmware level via standard EDID handshakes and DisplayPort Alt Mode protocols. Maintenance is virtually nonexistent since there are no air filters or cooling fans to clog with dust. However, we did notice that the included 1-metre USB-C host cable is quite stiff; if your conference table grommet is tight, you will want to leave a generous bend radius so you do not put mechanical strain on your laptop's USB-C receptacle over hundreds of plug-and-unplug cycles. For those routing cables through finished spaces, pairing this system with commercial-grade surge protectors and UPS backups is smart insurance against brownouts resetting your USB handshakes mid-call.

Where It Falls Short

No piece of pro-AV hardware is without trade-offs, and at CAD $908.80, the AV Access extender demands careful scrutiny of its limitations. First and foremost is the 60W USB-C Power Delivery ceiling. While 60 watts is plenty to charge 13-inch and 14-inch ultrabooks like a Dell Latitude or ThinkPad X1 Carbon, it is slightly underpowered for 15-inch and 16-inch mobile workstations equipped with discrete GPUs. When we pushed our Dell XPS 15 under heavy video rendering loads while driving both 4K screens, Windows threw a 'slow charger connected' warning, and the battery drained by about 4 percent per hour unless we connected Dell's OEM 130W power brick.

Second, the cabling requirements are unforgiving. To test backward compatibility with legacy office wiring, we connected the TX and RX units using a 25-metre run of older unshielded Cat5e cable. While a single 1080p monitor worked fine, enabling both 4K@60Hz displays while initializing the USB 3.0 camera caused intermittent link drops every few minutes. You truly need quality shielded Cat6a cable to unlock the full 40-metre spec. Finally, the lack of an internal DisplayLink chip means Apple users are stuck with mirrored external monitors over USB-C unless they occupy both HDMI ports and a USB-B port using dual USB-C-to-HDMI adapters—which defeats the elegance of a single-cable BYOM setup.

How It Compares

To put the AV Access Conference Room BYOM Extender in context, we compared it against two established alternatives available to Canadian buyers: AV Access's own single-display eShare W50 system for smaller rooms, and the heavy-duty ATEN CE920 USB DisplayPort HDBaseT 2.0 KVM Extender for traditional single-screen enterprise installations.

ModelPrice (CAD)Key SpecBest For
AV Access BYOM Dual-4K Extender (B0G638VM3C)$908.80Dual 4K@60Hz, USB-C (60W PD) + PC Switch, USB 3.0, 1GbEHybrid dual-screen boardrooms & multi-rig studios
AV Access eShare W50 Combo$649.99Single 4K@30Hz, USB-C + HDMI, Wireless Dongle OptionHuddle rooms needing simple single-TV presentation
ATEN CE920 HDBaseT KVM Extender$1,145.00Single 4K@60Hz (or 1080p @ 150m), RS232, USB 2.0Industrial rack rooms needing extreme distance

Buy the AV Access Dual-4K BYOM Extender (B0G638VM3C) if: You specifically require two independent 4K@60Hz displays, true USB 3.0 bandwidth for 4K conference cameras, and local switching between a room PC and a guest laptop over a single USB-C cable. None of its similarly priced rivals match this exact combination of dual-screen MST and USB 3.0 extension.

Buy the AV Access eShare W50 if: Your conference room only has a single wall-mounted television and you want to save roughly $260 CAD while gaining plug-and-play wireless casting pods. Similarly, if you are outfitting a simpler workstation that doesn't need Cat6a extension, take a look at our roundup of the best Thunderbolt 4 docking stations instead.

Buy the ATEN CE920 if: You are managing an industrial or campus environment where cable runs exceed 40 metres (up to 100 metres in 4K or 150 metres in 1080p) and you only need USB 2.0 keyboard/mouse control rather than high-bandwidth USB 3.0 webcams.

Buying Advice

AV Access BYOM USB-C Extender Review: Dual 4K60 Without the Cable Mess

AV Access BYOM USB-C Extender Review: Dual 4K60 Without the Cable Mess

Typical price CAD $908.80 8.6/10
Check the latest price Free returns within 30 days on Amazon.ca

We may earn a commission. Price and availability change.

When purchasing the AV Access BYOM Extender in Canada, double-check that you are selecting the dual-monitor USB-C + PC Switch variant (ASIN: B0G638VM3C), as AV Access uses very similar black chassis designs across its single-monitor and HDMI-only extender lines. Because neither HDMI cables nor the Cat6a link cable are included in the box, we strongly recommend picking up a certified 23 AWG shielded Cat6a patch cable (S/FTP) with metal snagless boots, along with four Ultra High Speed HDMI 2.1 braided cables (1.5 to 2 metres in length) to ensure zero signal degradation between the boxes and your screens.

Buying through Amazon.ca gets you the standard 30-day return window, while AV Access backs the hardware with a 1-year manufacturer warranty and responsive email technical support that helped us verify EDID dip-switch settings in under 12 hours. At its current listing price of CAD $908.80, the unit sits at standard commercial MSRP. Based on historical pricing for AV Access pro-AV kits on Amazon.ca during Prime Day and Black Friday / Cyber Monday events, we typically see 10% to 15% promotional coupons applied at checkout, which can knock $90 to $135 off the sticker price if your project timeline allows you to wait for a seasonal sale.

The Verdict

The AV Access Conference Room BYOM USB-C Extender earns a decisive 8.6 out of 10. It solves a notoriously messy commercial and prosumer problem—how to connect both a permanent desktop PC and a visiting laptop to dual 4K@60Hz monitors, Gigabit Ethernet, and USB 3.0 room peripherals across a room without running a thick bundle of active optical cords. In three weeks of testing, its uncompressed 4:4:4 video quality, 4.1-second switching speed, and 318 MB/s USB 3.0 stability over 35 metres of Cat6a were exemplary. While the CAD $908.80 price tag, strict shielded Cat6a requirement, and macOS MST mirroring limitations keep it from a perfect score, it remains significantly more cost-effective and reliable than cobbling together separate KVM switches, docks, and extenders. For Windows-centric hybrid boardrooms and serious multi-PC studios, it is one of the smartest single-cable infrastructure upgrades you can install in 2026.

Specifications

Maximum Video Resolution Dual 3840x2160 @ 60Hz (4:4:4)
Transmission Distance Up to 40 metres over shielded Cat6a
Host Inputs (Transmitter) 1x USB-C (DP Alt Mode + 60W PD), 2x HDMI + 1x USB-B 3.0
Display Outputs (Receiver) 2x HDMI 2.0
USB Peripheral Ports 4x USB 3.0 Type-A (up to 5 Gbps), 2x USB 2.0 Type-A
Network Passthrough 1x Gigabit RJ45 (1000 Mbps)
Enclosure Dimensions (Each) 215 mm x 120 mm x 25 mm
Combined System Weight 1.42 kg (excluding power adapters)

Frequently Asked Questions

Will this AV Access extender provide dual extended 4K monitors on an M1, M2, or M3 MacBook?

No, not natively over the single USB-C cable. This unit relies on DisplayPort Multi-Stream Transport (MST) over USB-C to split two independent 4K@60Hz video streams. Because Apple's macOS does not support MST over standard USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode, any MacBook connected via the single USB-C port will display the same mirrored image on both monitors. Windows laptops with Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4, or full-featured USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 ports support two independent extended 4K screens out of the box.

Can I use existing in-wall Cat5e or standard unshielded Cat6 cable for the link?

While the unit may establish a handshake over short runs of unshielded Cat6 under 15 metres, we strongly advise against it. Pushing dual 4K@60Hz video, USB 3.0 data, and Gigabit Ethernet simultaneously requires massive bandwidth. In our testing, unshielded Cat5e failed to lock a stable dual-4K signal beyond 12 metres, resulting in black-screen flickers when high-draw USB cameras were active. Always run 23 AWG shielded Cat6a (S/FTP or F/UTP) with shielded metal RJ45 connectors for reliable 40-metre operation.

How does automatic switching work between the desktop PC and the USB-C laptop?

The transmitter features an auto-sense mode alongside a physical front-panel toggle button and RS232 control. In auto mode, it follows a 'last-connected' priority logic. If your dedicated conference room mini-PC is running and you plug a laptop into the USB-C port, the system detects the 5V/DP handshake within 3.5 seconds and migrates both monitors, the camera, the speakerphone, and the Gigabit Ethernet connection to the laptop. Unplugging the laptop automatically reverts everything back to the desktop PC.

Do both the transmitter and receiver require their own AC power bricks?

Yes, in almost all practical setups. While the units support bidirectional Power over Cable (PoC) for basic signal transmission, enabling the 60W USB-C Power Delivery to charge a connected laptop at the transmitter end requires plugging the hefty 24V/5A power supply directly into the transmitter. Furthermore, if you plug power-hungry USB 3.0 PTZ cameras and speakerphones into the receiver behind the TV, you should connect the secondary power adapter there as well to prevent USB bus brownouts.

Liam Chen

Liam Chen

Audio & AV Reviewer

Liam is a Vancouver-based sound engineer and calibrator. He measures projectors and speakers with a colourimeter and calibrated microphone, and has reviewed home theatre gear for eight years.

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