Nexo NUAR - Manual (Page 81)

NXES104 EXPANSION BOARD, REMOTE CONTROL AND ASIO DRIVER
unlicensed frequency or, among others, infrared line of sight. Wireless access points (base
stations) are connected to an Ethernet hub or server and transmit a radio frequency that
can penetrate walls and other non-metal barriers. Roaming users can be handed off from
one access point to another like, for example, in a cellular phone system. Wireless LANs
are not suitable for EtherSound networks due to significant bandwidth limitations.
Ethernet cables
Cables used within the EtherSound network are straight cables. The cable used to connect
directly the remote control PC to the Primary Master or to any of the “Remote ES100 port”
is a crossover cable.
The following paragraphs describe the main twisted pair cable types used. Among them,
you will find descriptions of cables listed for reasons of completeness, but that are not
suited for EtherSound networks.
Level 5 cable supports transmission rates of up to 100Mbps (200Mbps in full-duplex),
CAT5e, even 1Gbps - is the most common today. Category 6 supports up to 10Gbps, for
CAT6 and CAT7 new standards are under development.
Horizontal (solid) cable and patch (stranded) cable
Both UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) and STP (Shielded Twisted Pair) come in stranded and
solid wire varieties. The stranded wire is the most common and is also very flexible for
bending around corners. Solid wire cable has less attenuation and can span longer
distances, but is less flexible than stranded wire and cannot be repeatedly bent (and
therefore not suitable for live applications). Following are the twisted pair categories.
Horizontal cable (also called solid cable) is made of plain copper conductors and has a low
characteristics shift with aging. It must be used for long runs of steady cabling (typically
the cables inside walls and ceiling).
Patch cable (also called stranded cable), more flexible, is made of stranded copper
conductors and has larger losses and characteristics shifts than horizontal cable. It can be
used for versatile termination between wall outlet and device, or between devices. These
cables are explicitly labeled “PATCH”. The TIA/EIA 568A wiring standard allows the use of
horizontal cable up to 90m (295ft) lengths with a maximum amount of 10m of patch cable
for both ends added together.
UTP, FTP (ScTP), STP, SFTP cables
UTP stands for Unshielded Twisted Pair. It is a cable type with one or more pairs of twisted
insulated copper conductors contained in a single sheath. It is the most common type of
cabling used in desktop communications applications.
FTP stands for Overall Foil Shielded Twisted Pair (ScTP for Screened Twisted Pair): Cable is
wrapped with an aluminized plastic foil). That kind of cabling is not recommended for
applications where the cable is repeatedly bent. The foil tends to break leading to severe
loss of performance over the distance.
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