Fiber optic box is a type of technology that uses an optical signal instead of an electrical one to send data from one place to another. The cable is made either of glass or plastic coated in plastic, instead of the copper wire that was commonly used in the past. A fiber-optic splitter is a device that takes a single fiber optics signal and divides it into multiple signals. The use of fiber optic technology has become increasingly popular for several reasons. Fiber optic cables are much less sensitive to electrical interference, making them more reliable than older types of cabling. They are also able to carry very large amounts of data in comparison with what older systems can handle. This makes them much more efficient, despite the facts that there are some drawbacks to the system. The cables require a thicker covering to protect the optical cables and they also need to have repeaters installed to boost the signal strength in order for the system to work, two hindrances to the use of this technology. An optical cable splitter is a device used to combine two or more optical audio signals into a single output cable. This allows multiple devices to work on a single audio system that only has one input socket. Although the user will not need to repeatedly unplug and replace cables, he will need to either press a switch to change the input source, or make sure only one source is active at a time. Optical cable is one of two main types of cable used for digital audio signals, the other being known simply as digital cable. The optical cable transmits light signals rather than electrical pulses and can be distinguished by its transparent plug that will display a light when unplugged during use. Contrastingly, digital cable has a more traditional metal pin plug. Optical cable is also known as TOSLINK, which is the name of the transparent plug at the end. Sometimes optical cable is referred to as S/PDIF, though this should be avoided as the term covers the technology behind coding the audio signal and can equally apply to digital cable.