Cat5 Recomendations

[Joe Hinkens]

I’ve got my GLD sitting on top of our rack which houses our AR2412. I connect the two with a short Cat5 cable which works out fine since we mix from the stage most of the time. We have some upcoming gigs where I’ve lined up a sound man to run the mix from FOH. I have a 200′ cat5 on a reel with ethercon connections which works fine. The issue I’d like get some suggestions on is how to handle a second cat5 cable which connects from the Dante card in the GLD80 to our Macbook Pro which runs our Superior Drummer software for our e-Drums. I thought I could add another 200′ cat5 cable but then I thought it might be worth putting a network switch at each end. Not sure if that’s viable or even worth the hassle. Would just like to know what would be the best way to go.
Here’s a pic of the back of our rig.
Thanks,
Joe

[Nicola A&H]

Hi Joe,

A second cable is the quick answer.

dSNAKE is a Layer 2 protocol, it doesn’t like sharing a switch with third party traffic. You would need to create a dedicated VLAN in a managed switch, however managed / smart switches use a number of Layer 3 protocols which might conflict with dSNAKE. So unless you are willing to spend time troubleshooting and check for errors, I’d recommend a second cable.

[BobWitte]

+1 on separate cable. Keep it simple and separate.

[TJCornish]

Another benefit is you now have a redundant line if you lose your first one, though you may lose your drum feed.

[Joe Hinkens]

Thanks guys. The second cable isn’t that big of a deal, so I’ll run with that.

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