Cabling in floors, walls

[Dan Merrill]

I've got three rooms to connect with snake cabling: the control room, iso booth, and amp room. Basically, I'll have three multipair cables coming to the mixer, a few Cat5 cables and perhaps a coax. I'm putting a hardwood floor in the control room and am wondering what solutions you guys have used for neatly getting cabling to the console. I'm planing to run at least some of this through the floated floor, but how can I get them to the mixer short of putting holes in the floor with XLR pigtails coming out? Hate to do that to the new floor. Should i use a floor box or something of the like?

Anyone have some pics of what they've done?

Also, I think I've anticipated and over compensated for my cabling needs, but, am I a fool to not put in some sort of cable conduit while the walls and floors are open?

 

[frederic]

Depending on the size of the room, you could do wall boxes around the perimeter (my preference) or floor boxes. If your room has columns in it (egads!) they make great locations for installing boxes.

My new studio will unfortuately have two columns in rooms, so I'll be making those the central point of audio wiring, with outlets around the perimeter so AC and audio aren't too close to each other.

In my home studio, I simply mounted electrical boxes on the wall of the vocal booth. Why? Quick and dirty, and the floor is hinged to floor mount was out of the question.

There are several ways to do floor boxes. One is to mount the floorbox with a metal, hinged top and run conduit to it, and put the audio cable inside. Nothing wrong with that, good for EMI protection.

Another option is to make a duct to the center of the room, and have the hardwood cover the duct, but not be nailed down. This way, you can lift up the duct "covers", run whatever wires you need temporary or permanently, then drop the covers down. Thats the solution I prefer, only because across my life, no matter how many "extra" TRS pairs I've run, someday, somehow, I always need one more at some point. Pulling cable through conduit is a real pain in the ass, so the duct/trough idea is a good one. Lift covers, drop cable, close covers. If you are building a floating floor, its even easier!

I included a picture of the inside of my vocal booth, before the top plates were drilled for XLR, Midi and TRS 1/4" jacks, just to illustrate the idea. I didn't include pictures of my pro studio because we're still drawing pictures

Sorry its fuzzy, microsoft paintbrush is a crummy program.

Notice I also mounted a JL Cooper cuepoint on the wall... this affords me several things. It shows the vocalist in the booth (or other artist) the SMPTE time as well as if any tracks are armed. It also allows me to play and record my guitar in there and still control the transport from afar. A neat little extra I thought was cool since I had the thing sitting around anyway.

 

[Michael Jones]

I'm interested in this too, because I'm detailing out a cable trough for my project. My case is a little different though, because I wasn't planning on doing a floated floor.

Attached is what I was planning to do; which is set a form for the trough when the foundation is poured. Doing it as illustrated allows you to remove the forms when the foundation is cured, and have your trough and a nice little concrete ledge at the top for the floor plates to slip into. The finished inside dimensions are about 3"d x 5"w.

The only problem I was thinking of is that it may be difficult to remove the bottom 1x6 after the concrete sets.

Here's a construction photo of Joe Egan's studio showing the cable trough set in concrete, going around the console perimeter.

 

[Dan Merrill]

Frederic,

I'm planning wall plates in each room, including the control room, with multipair snake running in wall or floor back to console area. I like the trough cover idea. Maybe I'll combine the ideas and make a floor box with a removable flooring panel cover ( that's well sealed) where the snakes can congregate.


Michael,

Since it will be covered, any reason not to leave the bottom board right in your trough?

that big trough at joe's is cool and I assume it runs the perimeter of the console and racks so you can pull you cables right up into the bottom of the racks from there.

My set up is more desktop oriented, a few preamps and compressors, sound modules, and a keyboard etc. Probably set up on a simple workstation type desk. Which is why, if I have to make access to the floor I'd like it to be somewhat aesthetically pleasing as it may not be hidden from view by a rack.

 

[Michael Jones]

Michael,

Since it will be covered, any reason not to leave the bottom board right in your trough?

Well, the 1x1's and 1x4's would pry out easy enough, but once you pry out the 1x1's and the 1x4's, the 1x6's would have nails sticking up through them. (You'd have to nail the 1x4's to the 1x6 through it's bottom.
Maybe I could grab onto the nails with plyers and muscle it out.

I dunno, it'll probably come out easy enough.

 

[MikeA]

Cabling

Try checking out this site. On the left click on the control room-inside link.
www.treemm.com/backup/tree/construct.html
Are you putting the hardwood down over concrete or are you framing it up like these pics show?

 

[Dan Merrill]

Mike,

wow, what a cool place!

I'm planning on floating a hardwood floor over the existing subfloor with 2x4's on neoprene.

do you suppose there is full access to those cable ducts in the floors after they install the cable and put the floor down?

 

[MikeA]

cabling in floors

They will have access holes near the console cable duct, back at the outboard rack, at the amp rack and maybe a couple of other places so I guess you could say its full access. I would put a pull string leading to each area that was marked and left in there permanently. I make it twice as long as the run and tie it off at each end. I neatly coil the extra at one end and that way it is there until I need it. I can then pull new cable in without having to pull a new string each time cable is added. With ducts as wide as those and not conduit, if you have to add cable down the line you don't run near the chance of burning the insulation off of cables already in there. Of course, I would also label each cable where I can see the label each access hole and not just near the ends where they come up to the console, rack, etc.

 

[frederic]

I'm planning wall plates in each room, including the control room, with multipair snake running in wall or floor back to console area. I like the trough cover idea. Maybe I'll combine the ideas and make a floor box with a removable flooring panel cover ( that's well sealed) where the snakes can congregate.

Yes, well sealed is good. Keeps it from rattling on lower frequencies and keeps the soda out

The concrete work that I'll be doing in my new studio will have troughs as I said, but instead of wood, I'll be lining them with galvenized steel for shielding purposes. The covers will be hardwood, with a plywood backing, with a lip that has neoprene and/or rubber on the edges. Enough to seal it, but not thick enough to allow the covers to be "spongy" when you walk on it. Hard rubber more than likely.

I find galvenized steel easy to work with simply because I can weld, and its significantly thinner than wood, thus making for more room inside for cables, assuming the notch in the concrete is the same for metal/wood troughs. Pretend its a HVAC duct without a top, and you can picture it easier.

Since I expect water/moisture to collect in the trough, my architect suggested instead of having galvenized steel on the bottom, simply run 3/8" diameter rods across the bottom, 1/2" off the bottom of the trough, spot welded to the galvenized sides, this way the cables don't actually sit on the floor. Since there is nothing underneath the slab that emits EFI, shielding on the bottom is unnecessary. Sides, tops, yes.

I'm still leaning towards using the two columns that will be present as box junctures however. I find bending over to the floor annoying

 

[sbcgroup2]

Cabling, etc.

Depending on the size of the room, you could do wall boxes around the perimeter (my preference) or floor boxes.

Notice I also mounted a JL Cooper cuepoint on the wall... this affords me several things. It shows the vocalist in the booth (or other artist) the SMPTE time as well as if any tracks are armed. It also allows me to play and record my guitar in there and still control the transport from afar. A neat little extra I thought was cool since I had the thing sitting around anyway.

First off...where can I find something like that JL Cooper box...that is a super cool idea.

Second, do I have to run my cables thru a conduit (they're going to be running thru the ceiling). Does this help with RF rejection?

Third, do I need an Isolation Transformer if I already have the studio on it's own breaker panel?

Thanks!

-Ed

 

[sbcgroup2]

Cabling, etc.

Depending on the size of the room, you could do wall boxes around the perimeter (my preference) or floor boxes.

Notice I also mounted a JL Cooper cuepoint on the wall... this affords me several things. It shows the vocalist in the booth (or other artist) the SMPTE time as well as if any tracks are armed. It also allows me to play and record my guitar in there and still control the transport from afar. A neat little extra I thought was cool since I had the thing sitting around anyway.

First off...where can I find something like that JL Cooper box...that is a super cool idea.

Second, do I have to run my cables thru a conduit (they're going to be running thru the ceiling). Does this help with RF rejection?

Third, do I need an Isolation Transformer if I already have the studio on it's own breaker panel?

Thanks!

-Ed

 

[dgatwood]

I posted pictures of one possible solution a while back: a wire tunnel through the wall. Not soundproof, but it's a small enough opening that it doesn't transfer much sound.

Or you might be happier with a wall plate or floor plate with connectors. Depends on how often you realize, "Oh, crap, I need three more cables through the wall".