James Remo Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 So, I own several, and am happy to fork out the £1200 for a luminex gigacore 12, but considering you can buy cheap network switches for pennies these days, I'm looking for a bunch of cheap rackmount gigabit network switches with ethercon sockets on them. Yes, I could re-box a cheap switch, yes I could use a patch bay, but I'd rather have the network activity indicators by the actual sockets I'm using, and a 240v IEC / powercon in - not a wall wart. Does anyone know of a source of cheap (And by cheap I mean sub £200, I'm not a total miser) ethercon gigabit network switches that meet my requirements? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac.calder Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 The only unmanaged switch I can think of is dmXLAN DLN5DC from ELC - It is certainly not cheap and it is only 10/100. I think because you are looking at over £100 in connectors just to service a 12 port switch its marketshare would be limited and I don't know if they would sell in the thousands to make it viable. For AU$60 I can buy a rack mount 12 port PoE gigabit switch. 12 connectors would cost me $252 list, and a pre-punched plate would cost me $30 - $60 if I need an enclosure because I don't want to rack mount. Patch cat5 cables would cost me a few cents each. A few consumables, and I have change from AU$360 - and I can guarantee small-run ethernet switch PCBs with custom spacing for ethercons would not have the price/scale advantage of production that would make getting anywhere near that figure possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Remo Posted June 1, 2016 Author Share Posted June 1, 2016 I'd tend to agree, but with lighting networks becoming more commonplace on even small shows, surely there is a gap in the market for something like this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac.calder Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 I don't think the space is there for gigabit - generally I would expect perhaps gigabit from a console to a 'primary' switch (which would probably benefit from being managed and having QoS and vlans) which would deal with lines to things like MA NPU's and media servers - often that would not require ethercon as these items often end up racked together and then that switch doing off-shoots to smaller switches for distribution to truss lines etc - high chance that 100mbit would be more than enough -which is where the dmxLan comes in. II think when you are getting to a scale of show where you are looking to need multiple 12+ port gigabit switches which need ethercon you are possibly looking at a show where you are needing to use managed switches purely to manage the amount of data you are throwing down this pipe. Even at a DIY price point you are already at for an unmanaged 12port switch with ethercons (about the cost of a regular L3 managed 12 port switch or 5 unmanaged switches) you start to loose out to the tight-pocket brigade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Remo Posted June 1, 2016 Author Share Posted June 1, 2016 It's not so much the need for multiple switches, or even gigabit level, certainly not the amount of network traffic, its more the locking connectors. I am done with RJ45's in a gig enviroment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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