a/v cable into conduit

[southpawaz]

We just built our corner stage and a a/v sound booth.
They are about 80' away from each other. I am going to run conduit in the ceiling from the a/v booth to the stage.
My question is can I run both the audio cable and video cable in the same conduit without interference or do I need to run separate conduit for both audio and video.
Thanks
Southpawaz

[waynehoskins]

I can't foresee any issues with low-level audio and video cabling in the same conduit. You do want to keep your high-level (speaker) cabling in its own conduits though.

You didn't mention how many audio and video lines you'd be running, but here's a couple of pointers. You don't want to overfill the conduits (with any type of wiring), and you want to make sure there's also enough room to run more cabling in the future without overfilling it -- leaving a pull string in there to pull future wiring. You also might want to run more lines than you currently need, or possibly even foresee, for future expansion, the occasional need for an extra tie line, or a spare pair in the event that one or more of the main pairs goes bad (though this should be reasonably rare) -- you don't want to run 7 mic lines because that's all you currently use and then find you need an eighth line in a few months.

[southpawaz]

Thanks for the quick response.
I knew we needed to run extra lines for the future and several pull lines. we have plenty of room. We are using a 3" conduit which we have enough space to run anything through. Thanks for the heads up on the speaker cables.I will run a 2" line for them this is why I asked the question to save me a lot of trouble in the future.
Thanks again Wayne Hoskins

[davidmyers01]

As for a quick response, industry standards would say "no". Here at RAT Sound, our general policies are 12" minimum separation between audio and video cabling. Most consultants will follow those same guidelines with other factors that have to be considered based on signal type and environment. Bottom line is that it is generally a bad idea to place mic level, line level and video cabling in the same pipes. Consider placing your cabling in four signal type groups: 1) mic level 2) line level 3) speaker level and 4) video, rf and data cabling. In this case, the separations would be: type 1 to 2: 6", type 1 or 2 to 3 or 4: 12", etc. I hope this helps.

[D.R.HADDOCK]

Dont forget to use the best quality cable you can afford.
This will minimise the chances of any problems now and in the future.
I have had no problems to date, with long runs of video and sound cables,
dispite the many other lighting cables also running thru the building.

[Esoteric]

I tend to run 4 conduits. But then again, I always overkill on things like that.

Mike

[Earl H.]

We are building a new church building and I want to know if I should install conduit for speaker cables and for video cable to projector or just attach the cable to the wood truss in the attic? The cable length will be about 75 feet for the speakers and 60 feet for the video cable. Any info will be appreciated.