Re: AC and signal cable of whatever type
Hi Dan and Darren,
I'd like to take the opportunity to advise on some statements/postings which were made in the course of this discussion. First of all, Behringer did not and does not endorse the use of UTP (unshielded) CAT5 cable for two reasons. On one hand the international regulations, i.e. FCC and EN, are very strict about radiated electro-magnetic interference, and we can only ensure reasonable dB margins when even the tiniest contributions are controlled--here shielding actually makes a difference. And on the other hand, there may be common mode interference by extreme spikes from neighboring lighting cables for example, which we rather do not want to allow entering the console at all. Of course, the receiver's CMRR will prevent mis-interpretation, but it is definitely sage to prevent any sort of uncontrolled HF noise penetrating the console, if there are so simple means for achieving it. (Needless to say, when we are talking about shielded TP, the shield obviously needs to be reliably connected to ground on both sides)
Nevertheless, I think we are all in accord with a couple of crucial facts:
> For good reasons the X32 has got the best available CAT5 connectors using orginal NEUTRIK Ethercon.
> It has got one of the most robust networking interfaces, which is 100% Klark Teknik FPGA based SuperMac technology, the same as MIDAS.
> AES50's physical layer is 100 MBit Ethernet based, all proven and mature technology for many years.
> AES50 provides extremely solid clock propagation, superior to many other networking standards (which is why it was chosen by MKT in the first place).
> The X32 has successfully passed all the international certifications, which includes radiated and received electro-magnetic interference.
> The S16 and X32 (... and P16) are performing flawlessly, are set up with ease and have absolutely no inherent communication issues
> Considering roughly ~35k units (X32 and S16) out there, working in all sorts of venues, simple and insane applications, operated by skillsets from seasoned audio pro's to absolute beginners...
And what we are talking here about is less than a handfull of non-reproducible glitches...
People who have followed us during the market introduction of X32 and S16 know that we are considering customer concerns v e r y seriously, and I garantee we are doing our best to spot any room for improvement. In this case however, it seems there are outside factors, fairly unrelated to the products, that generally would deserve attention. There are many recommendations and best-practices, which apply to basically every digital sound reinforcement system, digital networking or mixing console in the audio world:
> use the same power lines for all audio equipment
> preferably use power line filters and/or a quality UPS with integrated filters
> prevent running audio and lighting or other high-current or switched-mode equipment from the same outlet etc.
These general precautions have helped improve the reliability in many applications throughout the industry, and using the S16 / X32 is no exception to these rules.
The people who had visited us at WNAMM13 in January, might have noticed how easily we had setup a system of 13 X32 consoles (including the first prototypes of the new models) with all sorts of Wifi routers attached and Protools PC feeding the multitracks. Everything was working 5 days in a row in an odd tradeshow environment, without the slightest glitches whatsoever. ;-)
BTW, the development of the new babies is proceeding extremely well, and we started purchasing some of the production material already... I am too curious hearing about your first-hand experience with these incredible new products.
Best,
Jan
