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Wired for Sound: Steve Lampen
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What's more important -- and overlooked -- than the wire and cable that provides the infrastructure of our broadcast facilities? Steve Lampen is Multimedia Technology Manager at Belden.
Until our new data system is fully integrated, please
click here
for articles prior to September 1, 2006.
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Voice Over Wire: Imagine That
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by Steve Lampen, 5.07.2003
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Come gather 'round, little ones, as Old Mr. Steve blathers on about the history of wire. We left off in the April 7 issue just as the telephone was being invented.
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The Development of Wire Gages
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by Steve Lampen, 4.07.2003
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Where did the idea of wire sizes come from? Even ancient wire came in various sizes, and there are dozens of systems, many still in use. As late as the 1800s, there were no useful standards.
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Up for a Quick Game of Ttlachtli?
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by Steve Lampen, 3.12.2003
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Come, children, and sit as Grandpa Lampen continues his story of wire, which we began to tell in September and discussed most recently in the Jan. 15 issue.
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Brunel's Ship Makes Cable History
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by Steve Lampen, 1.15.2003
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We left our last installment talking about Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the obsessed mad genius.
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Pop Goes the Cable: More History
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by Steve Lampen, 11.20.2002
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Over the last few months, most recently in the Oct. 23 issue, we've been looking at the history of wire and cable.
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The History of Wire and Cable
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by Steve Lampen, 10.23.2002
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Gather 'round, boys and girls, as Grandpa Lampen continues his journey through the history of wire and cable.
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Dipping Into the History of Wire
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by Steve Lampen, 9.25.2002
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We left our Sept. 1 column talking about VGA (video graphics), S-VGA (super video graphics) and RGB cables, variations of multiple coaxes for supporting analog or digital monitors. (S-VGA cables include pairs for other uses.)
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From Regular to Super Graphics
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by Steve Lampen, 9.01.2002
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We left our July 3 column talking about VGA (video graphics) cables and RGB (red, green, blue) cables. These are multiple coaxes used to display progressive-scan computer monitors or analog component video, respectively.
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USB & FireWire, Fired Up for Data
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by Steve Lampen, 7.03.2002
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Both of these trademarked protocols use "plug-and-play" architecture - you can attach or disconnect devices while the network is running.
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Data Cables, Moving Audio Around
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by Steve Lampen, 6.19.2002
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We left the subject of "category" cables in the April 24 issue, talking about return loss.
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Is This Cat Really a Dog?
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by Steve Lampen, 4.24.2002
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So we arrive at the emerging Cat-6...As of this writing, the TIA/EIA 568 committee is on Draft 10a. How many drafts until they are finished? Well, it took until Draft 14 to finish work on Category 5e, so don't hold your breath.
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Are You a Data Commander?
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by Steve Lampen, 3.01.2002
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Today’s headline recalls Commander Data, the android on the TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation."...I recently toured Paramount Studios and saw workers building the sets for the coming Star Trek movie "Nemesis." I also had a chance to see some of the sets for the "Enterprise" TV series.
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Speaking of Speaker Cable
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by Steve Lampen, 10.24.2001
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We’ve been talking about speaker cable and have covered resistance and capacitance in past columns, which are also posted in the Wired for Sound index page.
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A Re-Volting Idea for Speakers
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by Steve Lampen, 9.12.2001
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In the Aug. 15 issue, we began a discussion on 70-volt distributed loudspeaker systems...This approach uses transformers inside the power amp, and on each speaker, to change the impedance of the system so the resistance of the wire has much less effect.
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Resistance Is Futile
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by Steve Lampen, 8.15.2001
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Fellow "Star Trek" fans will no doubt recognize the Borg title of our column. But the resistance I’m going to talk about is the resistance in speaker cables.
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Who Put the Zip in Speaker Wire?
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by Steve Lampen, 7.18.2001
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Well, I’ve been writing this column for almost four years. You’d think I would run out of things to say about wire and cable.
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Who Put the Gory in Category?
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by Steve Lampen, 5.09.2001
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I’ve spend more than a few columns in the past extolling the virtues of Category 5 premise/data cables. And more than a few readers have taken the plunge and are using it not just as data cable but also for things like RS-422 and RS-485 machine control, digital audio or even analog audio.
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Uncle Steve’s Weird Wire Stories
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by Steve Lampen, 4.11.2001
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I promised last time to talk about weird wire stories. So here goes!...Back in 1985, I was working for a small FM here in the San Francisco Bay Area. Management had finally bitten the bullet and approved a new transmitter and antenna.
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Ruminations on Digital Audio
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by Steve Lampen, 3.14.2001
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Every so often, someone sends me an e-mail or corners me at a trade show to tell me their weird story about wire. Sometimes, a certain kind of wire worked in a situation where it shouldn’t.
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Choose Appropriate Cables
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by Steve Lampen, 1.01.2000
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Charles "Buc" Fitch and I have been trying to coordinate our columns in RW. He writes about the National Electrical Code, while I’m talking about wire and cable, which is supposed to meet the NEC.
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