Bazz339 Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 I recently came across a sound system using what looked like multicore telphone wire between various small stage boxes and the mixer. I presume it is a Krone based system, as the whole system was a to my mind a little bizarre I did not look at this too much at the time. Has anyone experience of using it ? I don't think the pairs were individually screened, is there an overall screen? Where say a 12 pair cable feeds 12 XLRs is the screen terminated then linked across the 12 XLRs? What is crosstalk like using this system and how good is it at rejecting external interference e.g. an induction loop which I suspect much of the cable is adjacent to ? Looking at the tightness of the windings of the pairs I would think pretty good. Where can you buy XLRs (single and in blocks) to Krone punch down ? I had a brief look at Canford Audio but nothing lept out at me. How is the wiring done at the tail end into the fan out to say a desk? It appeared that similar cable (6 core unscreened) was used to wire to loudspeakers over a considerable distance (10s of metres ) and not using 100V line, 3 cores being joined together to form each of send and return. Anyone come across this before? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimWebber Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 We refurbished our hospital radio studios a couple of years back - (Well, it was a whole new build to be honest) and all the tie-lines were punched down in Krone strips, and again, the individual twisted pairs were not individually screened.... Like you, I was kind of surprised to be involved in such a build, but apparently in the world of radio, it is fairly common... I am hardly golden ears, but the quality sounds brilliant to me.... There is a small amount of cross talk on PFL, but I suspect that is a problem with the desk, rather then the wiring... Breakouts were handled with individual twisted pairs terminated to XLR Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 ... apparently in the world of radio, it is fairly common...And in TV. Crosstalk was never a problem. The only thing we took care of was to send LTC down a separate multi. Lots of Krones... ...and a good friend sadly missed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peternewman Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 The balanced signals should reject any common noise, so the screen should be less important. They're used quite a bit in telephony too, the box on your street will probably have a lot in. That looks like enough for a medium sized TV or radio studio Brian, now a central apparatus room has a LOT of krones. Mostly before my time, but prior to krones they used to have Christmas tree solder tag blocks at work, the same sort of idea, but you have to solder each wire rather than just punching it down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 That looks like enough for a medium sized TV or radio studio Brian, now a central apparatus room has a LOT of krones.That set served a medium sized VT area with three small packaging video edit suites attached. I don't have pictures of the other 5 or so similar sized ones serving other areas. And that was just for the basement area... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 Like Brian, when I was in TV, all our audio went through Krone frames--literally tens of thousands of connections. We had a central frame linking everything plus sub frames in every suite and area. There were also Krone frames behind every jackfield--that's how we terminated for the inputs and outputs of the jackfield strips. Because it was all balanced wiring, crosstalk was never an issue--also like Brian we kept all time code in separate runs and on separate jackfield strips. I certainly remember the solder tag blocks Peternewman describes--they were the standard until into the 1980s. I recall that, in an installation we did in 1982 we used a wire wrap system instead of solder to save time (and a wireman's sanity) but that was short lived and, by the end of the 80s, we'd moved totally over to Krone frames. As far as I know, they're still the standard in the broadcast industry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ynot Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 Not entirely sure, but I believe that the Krone IDC (Insulation Displacement Connector) was developed for the telecomms industry. I certainly remember it when it first arrived. And yes, the solderless wire-wrap which preceeded it, and the 100-pair solder terminals before that. Personally I preferred the solder terms, as you could SEE that there was a good connection (and quite often a fault) and you didn't need an expensive 'gun' as you do with the wrapper. Krone is OK, but if not done correctly is a minefield for problem issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimWebber Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 Not entirely sure, but I believe that the Krone IDC (Insulation Displacement Connector) was developed for the telecomms industry. I certainly remember it when it first arrived. And yes, the solderless wire-wrap which preceeded it, and the 100-pair solder terminals before that. ............ I too was under the impression that Krones and other IDCs were developed for the telephone industry. I can also remember doing the occasional bit of wire-wrapping between the Main Distribution Frame, (And was it the Intermediate Distribution Frame????) on an old Strowger exchange during my apprenticeship. (And that was only back in 1990!) It then seemed strange to go out to the other end of the line, and fit these nice new "modern" connectors... Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.