137: Cables (DMX & Analog)

Let's talk about DMX cables... I recently received and email from a blog monitor that said... "There are MICROPHONE cables and there are DMX cables and one can NOT be used for the other". That's a very strong statement. Very "Black and White". Unfortunately, it's also very untrue. That statement would be like saying that Chevy's are for taking your kids to school and Ferrari's are for racing and one can not be used for the other. I have seen many people race Chevy's successfully and I have also seen a few Ferrari's in the school pick up lanes. I don't know exactly why people make those black and white statements about DMX cables. Perhaps they merely lack real world experience in the field. If they had real world experience, they would know that there were companies like NSI making digitally controlled lighting boards and dimmer packs with signals carried thru 3 pin XLR cables long before the term DMX was ever heard of here in America. (NSI calls their proprietary signal MICROPLEX and they still use it today). What do you think those digital signals were carried thru back before the late 90's when DMX was introduced to the commercial market here in America? MICROPHONE CABLES. That's all we had back then, that's what was used and that's what worked for years. Perhaps some cables marked "DMX Cable" might perform better than some cables marked "MICROPHONE Cable", but it can also be proven that some mid to high grade MIC cables work better than some DMX cables and if you and your audience can't tell the difference, who cares? What does matter is which pins the wires are connected to on the 3 pin XLR plug. At High Energy Lighting (CheapLights.com), we currently buy "MIC" cables and "DMX" cables from over 22 different suppliers. Regardless of how they are marked, we test samples from each different "MIC" and "DMX" cable model to make sure they work in a DMX chain before we ever offer them to our customers. Here's an interesting fact... In the ten to fifteen years that we have been selling cables for transmitting digital signals for light processors, we have never had any cables returned by customers saying they didn't work as a DMX cable, unless the cable actually had a physical defect, such as a wire not connected to the plug or a cut in the wire. That's a great statement to be able to make! Here's a few more interesting facts... 1. "DMX" was created in 1986, but not widely used or known. At that time, the popular method for transmitting signal to dimmer packs was zero to ten volts. 2. "DMX" was revised in a major way and started gaining recognition in 1990. (But not in America). 3. The first DMX lighting controllers were displayed at the American LDI Lighting convention in 1999 by LitePuter. 4. "DMX" was introduced as the "Standard" digital signal for the World Wide lighting industry in 2000.

137: Cables (DMX & Analog)

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