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[Kurt Hansen]

BTW Bigmax7 - Did you terminate your CAT5 w/the data standard RJ-style modular jack or did you use XLRs for DMX compatibility?

I'm looking at doing some additional mic & control wiring @ my daughter's high school & may do it all w/CAT5.  (I have an article audio over CAT5).

[BigMax7]

I used XLRs and made my own terminators.  You terminate at the last fixture of each run.  If you are using a opto splitter, you will have more than one run.  Anyway, there is a XLR "out" jack on the moving light itself, that is where you plug in your terminator.  If you used an RJ jack, you would have to build some kind of XLR to RJ converter anyway, if I am followintg what you are asking. So keep it simple and just use the XLR.

As far as your other topic:  I am not much on audio but I know some audio cable is a heavier gauge wire and not very backwards compatible with XLR or DMX cable.  Although, at church they are talking about relocating the 48 channel sound board and going digital; therefore replacing all the wires that go between it and the stage rack with 2 Cat5 cables.  It actually only needs one, the other is a redundant backup.
Cat5 is fairly cheap and it seems like a lot of things are moving towards it.  I would run shielded Cat5 whenever I am running cable even if I did not need it at that time or at least have and empty conduit to pull it in later.

Make sure you do all your research before choosing and pulling wire.

Sean

[Kurt Hansen]

I may have misread/mis-assumed -
I thought you terminated the cat5 at a wall outlet or patch panel then ran a 'regular' dmx cable from the panel to the 1st fixture in the chain.  Did you run cat5 all the way to each fixture?

[Jordan P.C. O'Neil]

I've done a few jobs in a small club where the DMX was all routed by CAT5. Next to every power wayline is a labelled 2 port RJ45 panel. You connect to lights with a RJ45 to 3 or 5 pin xlr, and then back to the panel if you wish to continue your chain. Back in the control room is a large RJ45 patch panel under a DMX splitter modified with RJ45 outputs, so you simply patch the outputs, then jumpers to join your 'INs' and 'OUTs'.
While complicated at first seeing it, the system was quite practical, and meant no running of cables by ladder, under doors or whatever; and never seemed to have any issues signal quality wise (although in a smallish room).

[Kurt Hansen]

Reflexj:
Is there a standard pin-out for RJ to XLR for DMX or did you just come up with your own?

[BigMax7]

Sorry for the confusion.  Originally I ran Cat5 instead of DMX to the stage and to all the fixtures.  I had XLRs on all the ends.  But since the Cat5 that I used is not that flexible and kinks easily, I kept the run from the board to the stage floor with the Cat5 with an XLR on the end and now use DMX cable from this point on.  Eventually I will put the Cat5 end it in a wall outlet with an XLR jack so it looks more professional.
I would stick to XLR ends on everything to keep it simple and less confusing to anyone else who comes in after you.  In addition, XLR connections are soldered to the wire, so they are the most durable.  I have seen more RJ ends go bad than XLRs.  XLRs just hold up better, the soldering thing again.

Sean

[Kurt Hansen]

I used to do computer network installations in harsh industrial environments (oil refineries, pulp mills, etc.)so I'm right with you on the durability of standard CAT5 cable & RJ connectors.  But if you veer away from the CAT5 standard with a different termination you may lose some functionality.  If you need to put something like a laptop w/a projector, for example you won't have enough pins in an xlr (unless you use XLR-5's)to run ethernet.  
The original goal of the CAT5 wiring standard was to provide a single physical infrastructure capable of supporting a wide range of technologies.  There are lots of companies & catalogs out where you can order all sorts of adapters/baluns to run just about anything over CAT5.  Our facility manager made a mistake early on before the CAT5 standard was finished & wired a whole building with a customized wiring scheme (used 3 pr. cable & jacks to save $).  From that point on we had to special order  custom-made patch cables that were RJ6-to-RJ8.  But hey, the facility manager saved $15 per patch panel buying RJ6 instead of RJ8...

[BigMax7]

--"The original goal of the CAT5 wiring standard was to provide a single physical infrastructure capable of supporting a wide range of technologies."--
  Yes, but I don not believe that DMX was not designed to be run with everything else.  So for reliability reasons, I would have one shielded Cat5 cable dedicated to the lights.  Yes, you can get many pairs in one cable, but my lights are critical and I don't want any chance of interference.  I would run a separate Cat5 for other applications. It is almost just as easy to run 2 wires at the same time as it is one, but it is a pain in the butt to go back an add a second one. Down the road I am sure there will be enough test to prove or disprove that everything can be run on one cable, but I do not want my system to be a guinea pig.  

Sean

[Jordan P.C. O'Neil]

'Twas whoever did the install that came up with it, and I can only assume that all of the adapters were configured the same

[Kurt Hansen]

I wouldn't mix multiple applications on the same 4 pr cable either.  I would pull multiple runs.  there's even a 25 pair CAT 5 cable that gives you 6 4-pr drops.  But you can pull multiple CAT 5 cables (or the 25 pr cable) instead of a coax for video, another 1 or 2 for audio, something else for data, etc.