Taping and Cabling

The goal of taping and cabling is: safety first.

We cannot have a successful event without cables. They are not a necessary evil, they are simply necessary. Even in a wireless world, we use cables for everything from sound systems to projectors to electricity for every event and this will not slow down in the near future.

There are reasons for cabling - minimal interference, strong AV signals and fast data transfer rates. Until the wireless world catches up, I'll trust cables over wireless any day.

That being said, I must acknowledge that cables can be ugly looking trip hazards, but good AV people know how to minimize safety issues and keep things looking as good as possible. During a site visit, the issue of cabling can be planned out properly with minimal interference, especially with air-wall doorways, which will tear up taped cables every time. The problem with these types of doors is that you can't simply route the cables over the door frame because there is nothing to hold them up. Even if you could, it sure does look ugly.

One solution to that problem is to hide the AV desk behind the screens so you can avoid long cables to the sound system. The only cables exposed will be those of the projectors, but they are up front (if floor-mounted) and have minimal traffic over them.

Hiding the appearance of cables is often done with matte tape that matches the carpeting, or at least camouflages pretty well on it. The one foreseeable problem here is that, if it hides too well, people can still trip on it, especially in low lighting conditions. My choice is to tape little X's on the taped down cables with thin masking tape that is clearly visible to anybody walking over the cables.

Cables can also be hidden well with stage skirts and clever taping to a podium. If the stage is to be an open concept, fireside chat style, the cables can come from behind the stage and taped down along the cracks of the stage sections (4' x 4' is quite common for stage sections).

If you have an event in a large room where the AV team insists upon setting up at the back of the room, they will usually require a 'snake' to run all of the audio cables from the front to the back of the room. Snakes are much thicker than other cables because they contain many cables inside of them. Running a 150' snake can be tricky and there is often no point of taping them down.

One option is to ensure there are snake covers for high traffic areas - they are like a shield for the snake with a tiny ramp on each side. Be careful, though because these are trip hazards, especially in a corporate meeting where people are walking by with drinks, food and cell phones and not necessarily looking at the floor.

Whatever the plan is, the routing and tape-down of cables is a very important consideration at any event. And one more thing - ensure any taping is straight and professional looking.

Cheers!

- Buck Moore