Digital cabling

[Mario C]

I've a question concerning the need for digital (AES) cabling for our facility.

Within each room, we use 110ohm cabling for all of the digital gear: DAT to mixer, buses to Digi's 888, etc. However, from room to room we are using pre-existing analog cabling. I can't tell you what it is for sure, but most of it is Mogami stuff.

We use it primarily to lay-back to Digi-beta in the machine room (or load programs from), and I've not noticed any degradation. (16bit/48kHz) Maybe I don't know what to look for.

We are currently planning some minor renovations, and I'd like to recommend moving up to some proper AES cabling. But I know the bosses will ask "Why? It's working just fine now, isn't it?"

The runs are only a couple of hundred feet or less. Typically straight from our mixer's digital out, patch-bay to machine room, then into the VTR (and return for monitoring).

Are we tempting fate? I really like things that are set-up "by the book," but is our scenario fine as long as it's working? (It aint' broke, so don't fix it!)

How long can we get away without proper AES quality wire between rooms? At what point can I see the limitations of the analog wiring and show it to the powers?

Any insight please. I thank you.

PT 5.1.3, OS9.22, Mix Plus, 888, Sync, AVXL

[lemix]

Mario,
Without having an electronic design background ( for detailed explanation ) I can only suggest to use proper 110 ohm cabling.
It has much wider transmission bandwidth and better build quality. Much lower capacitance design.
That of course goes against the saying "if it works, don't mess with it"..but ask your boss;
Doesn't the extra couple of hundred bucks worth your peace of mind ?
I've ran a 50' mic cable once between an AD converter and the DAW's AES input. There were locking problems.

cheers,