Long XLR

[DSA]

Hi again,

 

how long can an XLR cable be, before there are problems with loss of signal etc???

 

Trying to think how to do OBs for the radio station around the Uni union....streaming via a laptop could be complicated!

 

Thanks,

David

[Brian]

depends very much on what is sending the signal and what is receiving it.

 

A good balanced output driving a good balanced input will be happy with 100m of good quality cable in between.

[the kid]

Just wondering becasue I know 0% sound.

If you needed more than 100m, god knows why, would you put something in between to boost the siginal?

[Jivemaster]

The more likely hazard is that someone will hurt themselves lugging 1000m of cable round or that someone will trip on an unguarded piece.

[david.elsbury]

Hi again,

 

how long can an XLR cable be, before there are problems with loss of signal etc???

 

Trying to think how to do OBs for the radio station around the Uni union....streaming via a laptop could be complicated!

 

Thanks,

David

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

"Balanced +4" as my boss calls it, or balanced line level (+4dB) should be fine for ages... we ran a test with powered speakers the other week, power & signal and got easily 300 or 400m of cable with no problems... and this was worst case scenario... all bundled together in coils on the floor... so yes, should work fine.

It's just that you need to be careful, cos the more connection points there are, the more chances of failure.. so if you strung together 50 x 8m cables, there's a much greater chance of failure than say 3 or 4 100m spools of cable with an XLR on each end. Use good quality cable, good quality connectors, and my tip for the day, tape up each XLR connection with PVC electrical tape... just a wee bit of extra strain relief. Make sure it's balanced though... I would imagine transformer balanced would be preferable to servo (electronically) balanced.

 

Regards

David

[bruce]

I work in a University. Many of the campus buildings date back to the late 60s and early 70s.

 

In those days, video tape players were rather expensive, and large - about the size of a small car. We apparently had one of them. It was located in a central building, and dozens of RF and balanced audio cables ran from there to all of the peripheral lecture theatres.

 

Of course, this is all now obsolete, and most of these cables haven't been used in years. But they're still there, and we've occasionally brought them into service for overspill lectures etc. You need a decent DA with adjustable gain to drive them, and a ground loop isolating transformer at the receiving end. You'll probably get a little hiss, but we've sent useable audio and video between sites which are separated by about a mile of cable.

 

Bruce.

[slim_mcslim]

A friend of mine did a large outdoor job, not using 100v line, but rather XLR and local power or long 16a leads where there was no local power! and he used cable lengths of about 500m as the longest runs between the central transmission point and the farthest outstation, he reckons he used nearly 10km of cable on the job!!

[IanG]

A friend of mine did a large outdoor job, not using 100v line, but rather XLR and local power or long 16a leads where there was no local power! and he used cable lengths of about 500m as the longest runs between the central transmission point and the farthest outstation, he reckons he used nearly 10km of cable on the job!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You really, really don't want to run power extension cables that far unless you deal with the earth-loop impedance problems doing it raises.

[StuRobson]

scratching my head I seem to remember being told at my C&G 1820 something like -3dBU per 6m of cable.

Not sure if that is correct but like telephone wire or networking cable It'll only go so long before the signal disappears.

The obvious answer is to make them as short as you need, don't over judge or estimate. :P

[audio]

Trying to think how to do OBs for the radio station around the Uni union....streaming via a laptop could be complicated!

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

David, I am head of engineering at LSR in leeds, and we do OBs with internet streaming, its not really any problem as long as you are conveniently located near a network socket.

 

Also, we have used a link transmitter before to transmit back to the radio station

[Jivemaster]

The major problem with truly live vox pop is that truly live people suddenly want to use profanities and indecencies over a live open mic. Interview pro's live but if there is a risk of unacceptable content then taks a MD walkman and record the interviews and courier ( runner ) them to playback.

 

Someone licenses your operation and likely they would call the program makers to account over foul profane or indecent language -- even in a vox pop.

 

Check the latency if you go digital.

 

With cable you risk some clown disconnecting you for fun!!

[DSA]

Trying to think how to do OBs for the radio station around the Uni union....streaming via a laptop could be complicated!

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

David, I am head of engineering at LSR in leeds, and we do OBs with internet streaming, its not really any problem as long as you are conveniently located near a network socket.

 

Also, we have used a link transmitter before to transmit back to the radio station

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well indeed, but I will need to speak nicely to Information Services to get some sockets activated to give internet access to my laptop/whatever we use.

 

David

[DSA]

The major problem with truly live vox pop is that truly live people suddenly want to use profanities and indecencies over a live open mic. Interview pro's live but if there is a risk of unacceptable content then taks a MD walkman and record the interviews and courier ( runner ) them to playback.

 

Someone licenses your operation and likely they would call the program makers to account over foul profane or indecent language -- even in a vox pop.

 

Check the latency if you go digital.

 

With cable you risk some clown disconnecting you for fun!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes this is a possible problem. Presenters are aware of the licencing rules, and it is up to them to spot any possible problems before they happen - so to speak. Personally I feel that as long as we make sure that it is all done in a professional manner, then it should be OK. No doubt there would be extra training for OB presenters/producers.

 

If there was some sort of special competition or something, it would probably be recorded first and played back for this very reason...and in case something went wrong!

 

David

[Jivemaster]

My local Hospital Radio tried to vox pop the locals in the supermarket. 100% useless cos of un-broadcastable language, even the most sensible looking respondants resorted to bad language just to torment the presenter.

 

Send the interview back to an edit suite and trackmark useful bits and ERASE bad language, then it can go to editorial and presenter selection. If its truly live as the presenter hears it so do your audience, no amount of presenter training can get a word back once it has gone out.

[DSA]

This is diverging rather off-topic, but I don't have a problem with that..I think the original question has been answered.

 

Jivemaster, you may have misundertood my thoughts of OBs - instead of chit chat at the local Sainsburys, I was thinking of live feeds off the gig in the venue downstairs, or the DJ session in the bar, or a show at the Freshers' Fair. All vox pops would go straight to the edit suite as a matter of course.

 

David