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[Jamin Lynch]

I've been using a digital snake with a tactical Cat5 cable for a while now with no problems. It's been used for a few outdoor shows across asphalt with people standing right on it. (Isn't it funny how everyone just has to stand right on your snake?)

I do an indoor show once a month where I have no choice but to run the snake across the floor in the middle of the seating. It's a sit down crowd with chairs. I'm always worried about somebody setting a chair leg on the snake and cutting it or causing damage. I do have a back up cable, but it still worries me. It seems less likely for somebody to set their chair on a traditional snake due to its size.

How well do Cat5 snakes hold up over time to these types of conditions?

Thanks

[Brian Jojade]

You're correct in that the sheer size of a traditional snake gives it some additional protection against damage.  Another thing with a traditional snake is catastrophic failure is a less likely occurrence.  i.e., maybe it gets damaged and you lose a couple channels, but the odds of the entire snake being cut are slim to none.  Any damage to the cat 5 cable, and it can be a show stopper.  I always make sure there's a spare pulled, and if possible using a different path. 

As far as cable protection, I like using these for the cat 5 cables.

http://www.grainger.com/product/5D698?gclid=CJ3ykrnY2LsCFclcMgodQAIAoQ&cm_mmc=PPC:GooglePLA-_-Electrical-_-Wire%2520Management-_-5D698&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=5D698&ef_id=UqDWfQAAAeQa7Loe:20131230193410:s

[Bob Leonard]

People see any cable lying on the ground where they stand as a trip hazard. People will then stand on the trip hazard which makes them aware of it's presence and in a humans mind safer.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

I've been using a digital snake with a tactical Cat5 cable for a while now with no problems. It's been used for a few outdoor shows across asphalt with people standing right on it. (Isn't it funny how everyone just has to stand right on your snake?)

I do an indoor show once a month where I have no choice but to run the snake across the floor in the middle of the seating. It's a sit down crowd with chairs. I'm always worried about somebody setting a chair leg on the snake and cutting it or causing damage. I do have a back up cable, but it still worries me. It seems less likely for somebody to set their chair on a traditional snake due to its size.

How well do Cat5 snakes hold up over time to these types of conditions?

Thanks

My solution for this is to put my mixer on stage, rough in the settings and the monitors, then mix from the house with an iPad.  It's not how I'd like to do it, but having no cables sometimes becomes the trump card.

[Jamin Lynch]

My solution for this is to put my mixer on stage, rough in the settings and the monitors, then mix from the house with an iPad.  It's not how I'd like to do it, but having no cables sometimes becomes the trump card.

Unfortunately I'm not able to locate the mixer to the side of stage...no room. But that's not a bad idea for NYE. I had the same concern for there too.

Maybe people won't think I'm the DJ.

[Dave Bednarski]

Are you able to run overhead?  Cat5 is much easier to hide or discreetly run overhead... those greasy sliding partitions in hall runs always work.

[Dan Mortensen]

How well do Cat5 snakes hold up over time to these types of conditions?

The "over time" is a bit of a wild card, but we found that a regular (not "tactical") CAT 5 cable can withstand being driven over in the same place by a 4000# scissor lift with HARD rubber tires 20+ times on a hard wooden floor. And not only continue to pass signal during this abuse, but able to subsequently pass rigorous testing by a Fluke CAT cable tester. It went from round to flat, the thickness of a couple of pieces of paper, and still worked just fine.

I would not expect that one to withstand too many more coilings, but yours could last until it's too ratty looking to use, or has been somehow abraded beyond usefulness.

Still, I think it's a good practice to always have a spare.

Read more and see pics at

http://www.aes.org/sections/pnw/pnwrecaps/2013/jun_cat5/

PS No snake lasts forever, although I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that. It might be a good idea to replace it when the jacket gets torn, as a rule of thumb that I'm making up now.

[Tim Weaver]

When I worked at A&M we had thousands of feet of standard cat5 being used everyday for the many computer setups we rented out.

You would not believe the condition some of this cable came back to the shop in. We used student labor for most of these setups and they would trash these things. Coiled over arms, stuffed into bags, knotted and pulled tight, driven over, slammed into doors and windows, completely sheathed in gaff/duct/masking tape. But 99.998 percent of the time they still functioned just fine.

Cat5 is tougher than we all think it is.

[Bob Leonard]

CAT 5 doesn't have the inner guide that most CAT 6 and better cable must have in order to maintain it's electrical properties. If you step on or run over CAT 5 cable the pairs tend to move and lay beside each other hence the flattening effect. You pretty much have to cut CAT 5 in order to stop it from working. Pretty durable stuff CAT 5 and like Tim I've seen some pretty screwed up cable over the years that works just fine. CAT 6? All bets are off.

[ProSoundWeb Community]