Long distance lightpipe

Mike Diack

Sophomore
Jan 12, 2011
135
0
16
New Zealand
What products exist which would enable me to emulate the functionality of a pair of ADA8000s and adat cables, but without the inherent limitations to a few 10s of metres of the cables. I need to send 8 channels each way ofer about half a mile. Prefer optical to copper. Budget is not huge.
Cheers
M
 
Re: Long distance lightpipe

This stuff looks wonderful:

Fresh digital gear...
Oh, it is. Only you have to repeat every 100m, that would add to the cost a bit.
ADAT Multicore Extender ADX-32B / ADX-64B-PRO
Given the low overall cost, it may be feasible to try this system, but you will need power every 100m for the repeaters. Not ideal but low budget.

Stagetec can do those distances, I believe the budget doesn't allow for that:
NEXUS Overview

MADI optical can reach well over 1 mile in distance, with good fiber. I'm not sure, which I/O options are fine for 8 channels, there are a lot of hardware option out there, like:
RME: M-32 AD
RME: M-32 DA
Or, with existing analog to ADAT optical:
http://www.directout.eu/en/press/releases/directout-announcing-adat-madi-converter.html
 
Re: Long distance lightpipe

I'm wondering if I already have the solution to my problem but due to my total abysmal ignorance of Cobranet and how it works, dont know it. I have a monster pile of Peavey Mediamatrix CAB-8i and CAB-8o boxes. I have tried hooking an "i" and an "o" together with a crossed over RJ45 cable and they seem to be happily talking to each other but (set for the same address), audio put into the "i" is not appearing at the "o". Can these puppies be made to work autonomously or is some sort of network controller essential, and if so, what?. Those Audiorail and Appsys boxes look ideal and the price is right - pity about the 100 metre limitation.
M
 
Re: Long distance lightpipe

I'm wondering if I already have the solution to my problem but due to my total abysmal ignorance of Cobranet and how it works, dont know it. I have a monster pile of Peavey Mediamatrix CAB-8i and CAB-8o boxes. I have tried hooking an "i" and an "o" together with a crossed over RJ45 cable and they seem to be happily talking to each other but (set for the same address), audio put into the "i" is not appearing at the "o". Can these puppies be made to work autonomously or is some sort of network controller essential, and if so, what?. Those Audiorail and Appsys boxes look ideal and the price is right - pity about the 100 metre limitation.
M

You should be able to make the Mediamatrix boxes talk to each other, then all you need is a pair of media converters to change twisted pair Ethernet to fiber optic Ethernet, and a fiber pair between your two locations. Half a mile is well within the limits of even multimode fiber.

Mac
 
Re: Long distance lightpipe

I'm wondering if I already have the solution to my problem but due to my total abysmal ignorance of Cobranet and how it works, dont know it. I have a monster pile of Peavey Mediamatrix CAB-8i and CAB-8o boxes. I have tried hooking an "i" and an "o" together with a crossed over RJ45 cable and they seem to be happily talking to each other but (set for the same address), audio put into the "i" is not appearing at the "o". Can these puppies be made to work autonomously or is some sort of network controller essential, and if so, what?. Those Audiorail and Appsys boxes look ideal and the price is right - pity about the 100 metre limitation.
M


I'm a user of both and I'm writing up product reviews soon. They both have advantages and disadvantages, but one thing in common besides being very neat products is the 100m limitation. You could use the same units as "repeaters" but for a kilometer it would really start to add up in terms of money, and power would be an issue also.
 
Re: Long distance lightpipe

You should be able to make the Mediamatrix boxes talk to each other, then all you need is a pair of media converters to change twisted pair Ethernet to fiber optic Ethernet, and a fiber pair between your two locations. Half a mile is well within the limits of even multimode fiber.

Mac
The only way I've been able to make the CAB-8i talk to the CAB-8o (and pass audio) is with a router and a MF280 mainframe (with DSP cards). How can I get then to talk peer to peer without the MF280?.
M
 
Re: Long distance lightpipe

and it's only 2 channels.....I just put it in as a general interest of where things are going .......the real solution could be the merging technologies Onouris optical long distance interface and I found some from Merging so Mike might be interested in that solution, the interfaces are not all that expensive but an optical cable that length would certainly be .........

Ray
 
Re: Long distance lightpipe

Prefer optical to copper. Budget is not huge.
Hi Mike,
I'm the guy behind the Appsys stuff and recently stumbled across your question. Half a mile is best done using optical cables because you don't need a repeater then. I could imagine that even a custom-made solution is affordable for you....can you give me a rough estimate what you mean by "budget is not huge"?