Firewire extension

Thomas C. Gass · **Voice Talent** Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 179

Tom Greenlee's topic regarding the MOTU Traveller interface just made me realize, that I haven't found a solution yet to one of my technical problems/questions:

I have a soundproof recording/editing room which is built like a radio station's studio: microphones, desk, mixing console, MIDI-equipment, computer screens and everything else that makes no noise is in there (my wife calls it "Tom's living room", no you know how many hours I spend there... Wink

All noisy equipment like computer, harddisks, audio-link a.s.o is placed in a machine room which is about 12 meters (ok: 35 feet for you guys in the US) away. The cabling between consists mostly of balanced audio cables, a network cable, VGA-cables and USB-cables (with a couple of repeaters in between).

I would love to have my firewire interfaces in the studio as well (first, because I could "see" the interface's panel and the level meters, second because I then could use much shorter audio connections), but how the heck could you connect them to the computer then? Does anybody know about a technical solution to have a kind of firewire extension that works for 35 feet distance?

Thomas

Bob Bair · **Voice Talent** Joined: 06 Oct 2003 Posts: 274

Firewire can be extended fairly easily. I have my FW extended an additional 20 feet w/o any degradation in signal. I believe it's all digital, so with a good cable, you should be fine. They make extenders for this.

Todd Ellis · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007, 15:36 (GMT) Post subject:

I've seen FW cables 50 - 100 feet long - so that part probably isn't a problem. What about just getting a FW hub?

Thomas C. Gass · **Voice Talent** Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 179

Robert & Todd

thanks for your replies! I haven't seen any firewire repeaters here, my Mac dealer told me that this does not exist... Do you have any brand name? Also longer firewire cables can't be found here - the longest one I saw in the stores is 15 feet...

I'm wondering how other studios deal with this: a lot of mixing consoles are firewire connected, but you usually don't have your computer in the studio 'cause of the fan noise... Hmmm, anbody else here who uses looooong firewire cables?

Cheers,

Thomas

Todd Ellis · Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007, 20:40 (GMT) Post subject:

http://www.pccables.com/cgi-bin/orders6.cgi?action=Showitem&partno=70982&rsite=f.70982

http://www.pccables.com/cgi-bin/orders6.cgi?action=Showitem&id=ID823349&partno=70924&search=FIREWIRE&rsite=f.70982&rcode=

Ian Blumfield · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 19 Jan 2007 Posts: 5

Hi,

You could use one of these couplers like this - http://www.cablecity.co.uk/product_info.php?cPath=43_62&products_id=356

Then you can easily join a couple of cables together. The other solution is if you are handy with a soldering iron you could make a bespoke lead up yourself.

Thomas C. Gass · **Voice Talent** Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 179

Ian & Todd

thanks for your replies... I really got stuck with the fairytale that firewire above 15 feet isn't working. I went to different stores asking for 30 feet cables or repeaters but all I ever heard was: nonono, that doesn't work or doesn't exist.

After your replies I spent about an hour on the internet finding a supplier near me - and I got it! I just ordered a cable from an online store withing my country Smile

Let's see what happens - Il'd love to take my Traveller to the studio room and will keep you posted about the outcome!

Thanks a lot and cheers

Thomas

Todd Ellis · Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007, 21:10 (GMT) Post subject:

Cool, Thomas ... good luck!

Frank Frederick · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 29 Dec 2006 Posts: 142

Datavideo has a Firewire Extender for approximately $60-90.00 USD. This is great for extension for lenths up to 500 feet. (I do not think you will need this length, but...).

Datavideo also sells firewire in 30+ foot lengths.

Toodles

Frank F

Thomas C. Gass · **Voice Talent** Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 179

Hi Guys,

here I am again with news: I bought a 14m (52feet...) extension with a repeater. Here is what it does: connecting a harddisc is no problem - it takes longer to copy files from it, but at least it works! Connecting my Traveler Firewire interface: no chance. I finally found out, that connections longer longer than 10 meters or 30 feet cause the transmitted bitrate to drop from 400 Mbit to 200 Mbit causing a lot of dropouts in the soundstream.

How do "professional" studio deal with that? I mean nobody has his computer in the recording studio but *faaaar* away - so how could audio data been transmitted over long distances?

I simply don't get it....

Thomas

Anthony Williams · **Voice Talent** Joined: 24 Oct 2006 Posts: 663

Thomas ,

Picture yourself in a room with four walls when you are in some professional studios. So some of the ones i've been in , this is how they are structured.

1.They build a enclosed box room 8x8 for example
2. The put the sound proofing material on the walls
3. They insulate the door properly because you need someway to get in and out of the recording room without letting noise in . deaden the room
4. In this room they are sometimes instruments to play, a chair and most importantly " A microphone"

The Microphone cable is usually routed to a interface thru the wall or in the wall to the room you see where the console is. This room consists of everything you need to do the production of the work being performed inside of that recording room with the microphone . This room also has one or many computers in it depending on where you are recording.

So a computer does not have to be that far away. Sometimes if you have a long XLR microphone (good) cable to the interface and have the interface close to the computer in the production room that will solve the issue as well.

It did when i recorded my album in the studio and it came out just great

my 2 cents

i'm sure you will hear more

J.S. Gilbert · Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007, 21:41 (GMT) Post subject: SPDIF is one way

This is often acheived using SPDIF digital interfaces. Analog out to an SPDIF interrface wiuth a firewire output. You should be able to run a 100' length of SPDIF without signal degradation.

I use to run out SPDIF to a flying cow dedicated AD/DA andt hen from there go out firewire to the computer. Some people szeem to think this cuts down on jitters

depending on how you go about this, solutions with cabling will run $300 and up

There's also a solution by a company called I ONE - it's a little pricy

http://www.ioneconnects.com/ around $1,000 - $1,500

A firewire extender, which allows you to run long lengths costs around $1,000

this is a link

http://www.smartvm.com/FIREWIRE-EXTENDER-VIA-FIBER-OPTIC-CABLE-3280-ft-P7230.htm

One potential solution is an "active" firewire extension cable at around $20 for every 14 feet or so. The manufacturer says these can be chained together without apparent data loss.

here is the link
http://sewelldirect.com/FirewireExtension.asp?semt_adcatid=1036&semt_keywords=firewire%20extension&semt_match=Broad&semt_search=search&gclid=CLCF5dWEqosCFQ5IYAodCSoMcw

Good Luck

The answer to the question as to how this is doen is that it unfortunately costs money.