GigaACE Runs over CAT or Fiber

dLive dLive General Discussions
1

Hello,

We currently have a CDM48 at FOH connected to our surface and a copper snake running from the stage to it. (Around 200ft distance) Alot of the inputs are starting to wear and have issue so we want to switch over to a digital box like the GX4816. Do we need to use converters and run fiber instead of cat6? We have enough shielded cat6 to get there but i worry about signal loss. We already have a fiber line linking 2 switches for our wireless management and if we could use that, that would be nice but ive been looking around and people have said it wont work.

Thanks!

2

I don’t get the point…
Place the CDM at the stage. There is no need for a GX.

It depends…

3

Yes, if it makes sense to put the CDM on stage, that is the way to go. But it might not always make sense (it does not for us).

Several points come to mind:

  1. 200 feet is well within the 100m spec for copper. So copper GigaACE should work fine at that distance, either for a GX4816 or for relocating the Mix Rack.

  2. Theoretically GigaACE can run over fiber. But it needs the entire 1Gbps bandwith, so running it along with other traffic is “possible” over a high bandwidth link with VLANs and other complicated voodoo. A dedicated strand of fiber with converters is much more likely to work, but I have never tried with GigaACE myself.

  3. I do, on the other hand, use an installed fiber link for DX full time. For similar reasons as you state (existing fiber, somewhat long run for copper). DX is 100Mbps so it is limited to 32 channels per connection but on the other hand, a CDM has two DX links so it does not require a card or take up that one precious I/O slot on a CDM like GigaACE to a GX4816 would. We use copper<->fiber converters with SFP modules appropriate for the fiber we had. The converters are Gigabit, and although A&H recommend only 100Mbps infrastructure for DX due to potential speed negotiation issues, we have had zero issues.

4

We have used media converters and fibre links between GX4816 and SQ and dLive without any problems. This connection has been used for 30 days non stop during a circus show last winter and it worked like a charm.

It’s also possible to run GigaACE through layer 2 switches if you configure them correctly. We’re currently running a whole setup of PTZ cameras, DANTE and up to four GigaACE links through a pair of layer 2 switches that are connected by a single 10 GBit fibre. To make this work you need more than just basic networking knowledge, though.

5

One more point about the GX4816, it needs an additional GigaACE card.
But the CDM already has 48 inputs.

6

I agree that the CDM Mixrack should really be on stage (or back stage). Then use the existing cat cable to connect your Surface to the Mixrack. The way you currently have it set up is more complicated and requires more cabling and connections (the analog snake for example) that can fail and cause issues.

Now that being said, my church has a DM0 Mixrack & DX168 at FOH with an installed GigaAce I/O card that is connected to a GX4816 on stage. However we already had the stageboxes and replaced an Avantis console with the DLive system. For us, simply swapping out the Avantis for the DM0 Mixrack at FOH was the easiest thing to do and didn’t require any changes in our wiring setup. We decided on the DM0 because it was a more cost effective than other MixRack options due to the fact that we already had the GX & DX boxes. In our case, the cable length from the FOH position to the stage is probably 150’. We have no problems using a good quality Cat6 cable. I don’t think going 200’ would require fiber.