RE: [KAT5] Re: Wiring House (Next Step)

["Keith Doxey" <kat5users@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Ant,

Answers below

> 1 - Sharing Audio - I notice you mentioned about speakers being
> an issue Ke= ith - can
> you clarify this further regards how to use audio then? Am I
> right in think= ing that by
> this you mean audio should be "sent" via cat5e, for example,
to
> an amplifie= r rather
> than speakers themselves?
>

Not an issue, just that CAT5 cable is not suitable for carrying the large
currents demanded by loudspeakers.

CAT5 is ideally suited to the distribution of Balanced Line Level Audio
from
source to amplifier using KAT5 or similar units.

For Speaker level signals you need a much thicker conductor to carry the
current hence the recomendation of 79/0.2 or 2.5mm2 cable.


> 4 - Shielded or Unshielded cable? I really can't decide - to be
> on the safe=  side I'd
> prefer to go with shielded but is it really necessary for home
networking?
>

UNSHIELDED - for 4 reasons.

1 - its much cheaper, no point wasting money.

2 - shielded actually has greater losses within the cable due the extra
capacitance caused by the screen.

3 - you need to use shielded patch leads and patch panels to gain the
benefit of the shielding and if not installed and earthed properly you can
actually make things much worse.

4 - if there is a source of interference within your home that justifies
CAT5 Sheilded then you have a much bigger problem. The levels of
interference needed to upset CAT5 will totally kill all radio and TV
reception and most likely break through on the phone line as well.

Hope that helps

Keith