Technical Ethernet colour coding

[Bryson]

We're looking over our default specifications, and was hoping to poll people's opinions about colour-coding ethernet cable by data type / department.

 

We've been using the following scheme but not 100% sure that the majority of people are making the same associations in the real world.

 

We use:

 

Blue = Building LAN / Internet

Red = Audio Data (Dante etc)

Yellow = Video

White = Lighting

Orange = Audio Secondary (ie, secondary Dante network)

Violet = Control Data

Green = Other. (For example, proprietary audio network, like GigaAce, that doesn't like to share.)

 

No colour code: "Flex" cabling for general use.

 

What are you using?

 

 

(To be clear, we're not talking about the cable jacket unless it's all in conduit. No bright white cables for lighting ethercons! This is about colour coding rings/bushings/keystones/tags so it can be identified.)

[d_korman]

What are you hoping to achieve? The colour of the cable obviously has no bearing on its suitability to be used for any given purpose. Is this just for housekeeping? "Please Sir, the LX boys have nicked one of my sound CAT5E cables"

 

With my IT Networks Consultant's hat on - IMO I wouldn't bother. In 35 years in networks, mostly in the Finance Industry where the network is critical (I started before Ethernet was released - all point-to-point/star networks back then), I've seen it tried once or twice, and it doesn't take long for the system to break down. CAT5E is CAT5E - they are all electrically the same. People will use whatever cable they have to hand when they need one. By all means code for straight or crossover cables, though that's better done with the cable sheath (red for Xover only), and possibly use coloured Hellerman sleeves to identify CAT5E, CAT6 etc.

 

Now, colour coding the sockets on a patch bay - that's another matter, and can be very helpful.

Edited May 19, 2021 by d_korman

[richard]

I would disagree - I usually try to use colour coded cables - especially in patch bays as it makes it much easier to see what's going on (and means that each department can manage their areas of the patch more easily)

[gareth]

Another vote for colour-coded cables in cabinets and patch bays.

 

At my old venue we re-engineered our departmental network infrastructure about ten years ago (coinciding with the purchase of the new Eos lighting desks which, along with the ongoing shift to networked audio and video systems, meant a much-increased need). We were lucky in that, other than a link to the building's fibre internet connection, our infrastructure was completely separate from the building's telecoms and IT networking, so I could set it up in a way which worked for us without having to take anything else into consideration. In order to distinguish between lighting control, audio networking and general departmental IT, we bought a whole load of coloured patch cables and a few cassettes of corresponding coloured tape for the P-Touch labeller, and at every location where two or more of those things co-existed everything (patch cables, switches, semi-permanently-allocated tie lines, etc.) was colour-coded to keep it separate. It worked out pretty well.

[J Pearce]

A system I've used is choose a colour for the standard patch, then after an event you can clear the patch back to all the 'yellow' cables and know you're back to standard with no lingering bodge patches.

 

In our new extensively networked building we try to use Red for Dante, White/Grey for general network (with labels), Yellow for lighting (mostly DMX over CAT rather than SACN or similar), and Blue for analogue audio over CAT. Reality of stock vs urgent needs has meant that it hasn't been strictly applied but every end of year maintenance we try to clear it back to standard.

[Bryson]

Thanks all. It's pretty much for all of those reasons: housekeeping I guess, but it's more about labelling the actual receptacles and patch cables than the field cables, which are indeed usually all the same*. Also for single-purpose field ethercons (ie: dedicated Dante only or sACN only networks). Text labelled as well, of course, but to make things a bit easier at a glance. I was really hoping to work out what people's colour associations are. I always go yellow = video because of the old yellow composite video RCAs!

 

 

 

* = Except I'm told that Behringer consoles don't like Cat6, and Cat5e is the only "supported" cable type. Not sure if that actually matters in the real world, but apparently "are you using Cat5e like we told you to" is a common gotcha with them. Anyone come across that? Does it actually matter?

[J Pearce]

Our only active choice was red for Dante (a lot of our devices are Focusrite Rednet branded). The rest has sort of evolved off the basis of what colour was in stock with which department as cable went in.

 

The X32s have issues around grounding and shielded cables, it's something to do with the shield and the ethercon shell as far as I remember.

[Stuart91]

* = Except I'm told that Behringer consoles don't like Cat6, and Cat5e is the only "supported" cable type.

 

CAT6 Ethercon connectors won't mate properly with the sockets on the X32. We had a customer with this issue just last week. The shell latched, but the RJ45 innards weren't making the proper connection. It was enough to get some blinking lights but not enough to let signal pass.

 

With the shells removed, the cable seems to be working fine. Since it's a permanent installation, there's not much worry about physical damage.

 

I'm not sure if there's any problem with the actual cable itself, certainly our guys are getting on perfectly with theirs. But the Ethercon issue might be the source of many of the complaints.

[Shez]

I'm not sure if there's any problem with the actual cable itself, certainly our guys are getting on perfectly with theirs. But the Ethercon issue might be the source of many of the complaints.

This crops up on a weekly basis on the FB groups. There's an expectation that CAT6+ is "better" than CAT5, which is of course true for Ethernet networking but not for AES50 which was designed around the characteristics of CAT5e. CAT6 has tighter twists and greater differences between the tightness of twists and hence the lay length. Across 75m+ of cable, that's enough to throw the signal timing characteristics perilously close to being out of spec. Hence it works for some people on some days but not for others.

[Bryson]

 

This crops up on a weekly basis on the FB groups. There's an expectation that CAT6+ is "better" than CAT5, which is of course true for Ethernet networking but not for AES50 which was designed around the characteristics of CAT5e. CAT6 has tighter twists and greater differences between the tightness of twists and hence the lay length. Across 75m+ of cable, that's enough to throw the signal timing characteristics perilously close to being out of spec. Hence it works for some people on some days but not for others.

 

Good to know! I've been dutifully having CAT5e installed in the few projects where we use the Behringer, rather than the usual CAT6, so glad to know I haven't been wasting my time!

[Stuart91]

Thanks, Shez - that makes perfect sense.

 

I remember similar issues where VGA senders designed for CAT5 wouldn't work properly on CAT5e because the twists were different.

 

Luckily my customers have only a 40m run so should get away with it.

[sunray]

Thanks, Shez - that makes perfect sense.

 

I remember similar issues where VGA senders designed for CAT5 wouldn't work properly on CAT5e because the twists were different.

 

Luckily my customers have only a 40m run so should get away with it.

One of our jobs had tie circuits >250m and the difference in length caused big problems, A consultant (Possibly Jon Raper) calculated the lengths of each pair and a 8P8C patch panel on the back of the rack with correcting links between a pair of sockets resolved the problem.

 

Over that length of cable the difference was quite significant

Edited May 20, 2021 by sunray