OT: Furman HDS-6

[Riad]

Can anyone confirm for me that you can use any ethernet switch for the distribution system? I know Furman sells one, but I don't think it's any different than any other 10/100 switch.

When I connect the Furman directly to one of the remotes it works just fine, but nothing when I run the cables through the switch.

Thanks!
Rob

[Rail Jon Rogut]

I've never tried running mine through a switch.. never thought it would work.

Rail

[Riad]

I've never tried running mine through a switch.. never thought it would work.

Rail

The way I wired my studio is that I have a set of blue/gray ethernet cables running from the live room into the control room and another set of blue/gray ethernet cables from the vocal booth into the control room... this is from Furman's website:

"Additionally, simple paralleling of HDS-6 outputs can be accomplished using appropriate ethernet patch panels to facilitate multi-room installations where daisy-chaining is not practical."

Hmmm...

[cybership]

It needs to be passive. I looked into this a few years ago and most everything I found at the local computer stores were active. It just worked out better for me to buy the Furman Star module. I think it was around $100 from Full Compass.

[Riad]

I agree... I just have a million dollars worth of networking equipment in my house, would hate to not be able to utilize it.

I believe I figured out the problem. You need a managed switch, in other words you need to vlan off the ports so if you have a 16 port switch you need to set ports 1-8 to vlan1 and ports 9-16 vlan2 then you plug the gray wire into vlan1 and the blue wire into vlan2 - this prevents broadcasting traffic across the switch.

The Furman star module is physically separated across the blue and gray ethernet cables - so no management is needed. If you're not familiar with networking then it's really the only option since setting up vlan's on switches can be a PITA.

Thanks guys,
Rob

[Straatocastoer]

I have the HDS-6 as well ... and love the way that it works. I run 4 HR-6 successfully, so I am wondering: why the need for the switch? Can you run more than the 6 max HR-6 with a switch? Is there some other benefit? Please enlighten.

[Riad]

I have the HDS-6 as well ... and love the way that it works. I run 4 HR-6 successfully, so I am wondering: why the need for the switch? Can you run more than the 6 max HR-6 with a switch? Is there some other benefit? Please enlighten.

My guess is that you have your HR-6 clients daisy chained. In otherwords you have ethernet connections out of the HDS-6 into your first HR-6, then you have ethernet cables from THAT HR-6 to your next one and so on.

What I'm looking to do is have all the HR-6 units terminate in the control room... since there is only one gray/blue ethernet port on the back of the HRS-6, that's a problem.

Rob

[Rail Jon Rogut]

I thought you just buy their star splitter.... I suggest you guve them a call on Monday... but let us know what you finally end up doing.

Rail

[Straatocastoer]

My guess is that you have your HR-6 clients daisy chained.

Absolutely correct.

What I'm looking to do is have all the HR-6 units terminate in the control room... since there is only one gray/blue Ethernet port on the back of the HRS-6, that's a problem.

I assume this is for logistic/aesthetic purposes. I do agree that the one drawback to running my headphone distribution system in this fashion is that there are many unwieldy CAT5 cables with which to cope -- up to 4 cables strapped to each HR6.

I think that in a permanent installation environment, there are ways to address this issue. You could install Ethernet cabling in a circuit accessible through plates in the walls with an in/out configuration. You could then use short cables as sort of “jumpers” to keep the Ethernet circuit intact so that you could install an HR6 anywhere along the circuit. The external Ethernet cables used to connect the individual HR6’s could be run inside of flexible conduit to dress up the studio/control room – not to mention keep the studio safe from tripping over CAT5 cabling all over the floor. This is the solution that I am considering for my studio construction.

I have to admit, I didn’t even realize that there was such an animal as the Star Splitter. One thing that did catch my eye while reading about it is that using this box limits your maximum HR6 clients to 5 instead of 6. This may not be an issue for you, however.

[katoramone]

I would get a schematic and find out what the pin-out is on the headphone recievers is. Keep in mind there are 2 basic types of ethernet connections. Cat5 twisted pairs done,1 crossed tips and paralell. It's probably a pin-out type problem.