BillFitzmaurice.info

Hello all,

Last year I setup my small PA to MC a parade. I had to run one of the speaker wires overhead about 25'. After I noticed that the rubber sheath had ripped in a few places. The wire was still ok so I just repaired it with electrical tape and it was still functional. I don't my wire will last this year.

Is there a speaker wire that can be pulled to span 20'-30' without being damaged?

Thanks,

oscar

Pro grade speaker wire should do the job. There must have been a sharp edge somewhere that damaged your wire. Tape rubber pieces to these place before running any other wire unless you will damage them too.

There may have been a sharp edge, but it was mainly tears where the wire was pulled and streached. I will look into ProGrade wire. If it is not too costly. If it is I just thought of running a guide rope and then zip tie the cable to it.

Thank you Frederic for the quick reply,

Oscar

Is there a reason you have to pass speaker level overhead? I do a job every summer that involved setting up PA on two sides of a drag strip, I've always used XLR to get over the track and placed amp racks (hoping to move to powered cabs this year) on both sides of the track.

We run a length of cable over the rack (cable similar to what your clothes line might be made of) and tie off the XLR cable to that, no tension is applied to the XLR cable that way.

Hello rotebass,

Yes, the reason I need to run it overhead is due to there being a high traffic area between the place where I setup and the speaker location. After the parade starts and everyone is seated it would not be a problem, but we have to setup early and I find it better to get it up out of the way than risk someone kicking it up. If I had all pavement I would duct tape the hell out of it and be donem but 1/2 is grass so overhead is better.

Clothes line is another possibility, may need to visit HD and see there selection. Thanks for the recomendation. Wire should be better than rope,

y2kindyz wrote:Hello rotebass,

Yes, the reason I need to run it overhead is due to there being a high traffic area between the place where I setup and the speaker location. After the parade starts and everyone is seated it would not be a problem, but we have to setup early and I find it better to get it up out of the way than risk someone kicking it up. If I had all pavement I would duct tape the hell out of it and be donem but 1/2 is grass so overhead is better.

Clothes line is another possibility, may need to visit HD and see there selection. Thanks for the recomendation. Wire should be better than rope,

My point is that a XLR cable will weigh less (I'm not sure what your total length is but my guess is that you really should be using at least a 12AWG speaker cable), it will also cost less to replace if it does get damaged.

rotebass wrote:
My point is that a XLR cable will weigh less (I'm not sure what your total length is but my guess is that you really should be using at least a 12AWG speaker cable), it will also cost less to replace if it does get damaged.

While this is true, you then have to worry about an amp rack in an unmonitored location, not to mention ground loops from drawing AC from two different sources.

OP, +1 on zip ties and a guide rope or running the wire across the ground with cable covers. With rope, you need to put enough tension on the rope that it holds all the weight, but that's easy enough most of the time. With cable covers, make sure to secure the cable covers to the ground if possible, unless they are heavy enough to stay put on their own.

BrentEvans wrote:While this is true, you then have to worry about an amp rack in an unmonitored location

We have the luxury of putting it inside the fence, nestled safely between concrete barriers, the eventual move to powered would help at the expense of complicating the AC distribution.

not to mention ground loops from drawing AC from two different sources.

http://www.radialeng.com/r2011/prodi.php

OP, +1 on zip ties and a guide rope or running the wire across the ground with cable covers. With rope, you need to put enough tension on the rope that it holds all the weight, but that's easy enough most of the time. With cable covers, make sure to secure the cable covers to the ground if possible, unless they are heavy enough to stay put on their own.

Yellow Jacket is nice, but it is heavy and expensive. The larger models will fit a big multicore no problem though.

BrentEvans wrote:you then have to worry about...ground loops from drawing AC from two different sources.

Not with balanced sends.
http://www.rane.com/note110.html

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote:Not with balanced sends.
http://www.rane.com/note110.html

I've had to use isolation transformers for this purpose on balanced sends several times. Maybe they weren't technically ground loops, but that's what the problems sounded like.

BrentEvans wrote:

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote:Not with balanced sends.
http://www.rane.com/note110.html

I've had to use isolation transformers for this purpose on balanced sends several times. Maybe they weren't technically ground loops, but that's what the problems sounded like.

If you did it was a gear issue. If you read the link they note how not all manufacturers adhere to the correct protocols.

Bill Fitzmaurice wrote:If you did it was a gear issue. If you read the link they note how not all manufacturers adhere to the correct protocols.

Indeed. Adding to that is all the unknowns behind the outlet... if the outlet you're using is wired improperly, or the ground is compromised somewhere.

In any case, you can never be certain of anything you didn't set up when it comes to mains power, so its best to be prepared in these situation.

The cable organiser looks good!

I'm used to seeing old conveyer belts (say 2' or 60cm wide) to cover ground cabling.
It's heavy enough to not lift up, or be a trip hazard, but a mongrel to cart around if you have a long length...

Thank you all for the replies I appreciate the help.

O