S-Video-over-Cat5 via Netgear AC Network plug?

[Ted Bragg]

Here's a puzzler: I just saw an s-video to cat5 adapter -- this allows s-video signals to traverse a cat5 ethernet cable up to 500 feet with no loss in quality. That would be peachy keen, but for me there's a problem: I have no way to run cat5 from where my live camera is, to the switching booth upstairs.

Then I saw this networking thing from Netgear that plugs into an AC wall outlet, and uses the internal electrical wiring as a big honkin' network. You plug the cat5 into the wall-adapter, and bingo! You've got a network connection anywhere there's an AC outlet.

Any chance this would work? Anyone tried something like this?

I would go wireless, but the auditorium we're in has the switch booth waaaaay out of the wireless' 250' range.

[Andy Tejral]

Nah, ain't gonna work. Cat 5 adapter is a pair of transformers that put the signal on pairs of copper wires. The information is still transferred in the same way. Analog

The Netgear thingamagig takes computer data and modulates it on the AC line. Digital

You'd be crossing the streams. And we all know that that can't be good!

[Andy Tejral]

That is interesting though. I don't know if the netgear doohickey has enough bandwidth to do this:

Run yer camera into a dv convertor-->computer. Encode with Windows Media Encoder (or whatever). Run that down the AC line. Play it out through another computer.

Might work. Extremely and needlessly complicated though. Who's got a lot of time and money on thier hands?

[Jim Andrada]

I might be wrong, but I seem to recall that the AC wiring things need to be on the same circuit. I think they don't hop across isolation devices etc so if the two floors are on different circuit branches it might not work.

[Chris Soucy]

The only way I can see you getting a signal 250' + with any usable signal quality at all, without a dedicated cable, is to go FSO (Free Space Optical).

In essence, it's two pairs of Laser rec/ trans units in two boxes, one for each end. Plug your I/P signal into the box, line the two up sightwise and away you go.

Of course, in practice it's just a tad more complicated than that, but they have more than enough bandwidth (dependant on unit type) to transmit full HD if required, up to a range (again, depending) of two miles plus.

Google "FSO" or "Free Space Optical".

BTW, I didn't say this was a "cheap" option!

And yes, Jim, the system with the plug in AC units requires the appropriate circuits to be on the same phase. Any large site such as that under discussion will undoubtedly be running three phase, and you just know the two sockets will end up on different phases, ergo, probably no go.


CS

Oh, another BTW, you can get booster amps and highly directional aerials for wireless systems that increases their range from 250' (ish) to well over a mile, line of sight. That just might work out easier and cheaper than the FSO option.

[Mark Holland]

Originally Posted by Jim Andrada

I might be wrong, but I seem to recall that the AC wiring things need to be on the same circuit. I think they don't hop across isolation devices etc so if the two floors are on different circuit branches it might not work.

Correct. Assuming everything else worked, you still need to be on the same circuit...at least that's what I on the manufacturer's site many moons ago.