Doesn't matter if
USITT comes up with a standard or not, no major company is going to invest the time or money in adapting to the new system if they have a good one working for them. Oh' sure it would be nice for a standard, but it's just not going to happen. Here is the depth of not only there being a problem in choosing one color, but the different systems in use. And it's not only lighting companies and theaters that would need to standardize the cable, it's scenic and sound companies too. That's a lot of money that would be going into such a system.
My college and subsiquentially me use the stipped cable standard. That's where you put one wrap of tape around the cable for each 10' of cable, or a double wide stripe for 50' and a half wide stripe for 5'. The color of the stripes was according to where the cable was designated to be used or who owned it. In my case it's light blue. Really easy to read the length of cable even if you don't know the color code just by counting the rings.
ILC uses electrical tape also, but one color or series of colors per length of cable. Not the same colors my company, or any other company I have noticed uses, we have our own standards. A good attempt at color coding would be to use ROYGB color code, another good system would be to use the electronic wire code as I remember someplace else using. The rainbow color code would probably be best to use. Too bad I don't know of anyone I see cable from using it much less me.
Design Lab - another Chicago company uses Orange tape to designate it's design lab's property and paint markers to designate the length. Many other local companys use a similar system.
As I mentioned, the company I work for, and more and more others are investing a lot of money in their markings, and with thousands of pieces of cable, re-marking them would not be cost effective.
I use colored 3" heat shrink pre-printed labels over the companie's cable that has the logo, and phone number. Atop that, I use the P-Touch to mark the size, grade and length of cable, and on the more expensive stuff, the serial number, date of manufacture and maker of it. Covering all the printed heat shrink is clear heat shrink. Much of that is being glued directly to the cable so it won't stretch out and fall off. In other words, once glued on, it's not coming up. I'm not changing. Just replacing the area code on cable from (312) to (773) to (847) has cost the company enough money. With the size, grade and length of cable marked on the cable, you don't need to know our color code, you can read the cable for size. That's simple.
Only thing I use colored stripes of tape for is in designating different types of cable such as Purple for the L6-15 cable, as opposed to no colored stripes marking for the L5-15 cable, Green for the 5-Pin
DMX as opposed to nothing for the 3-pin
XLR cable
etc.
For any color code system, it needs to be perminantly marked on the cable so it doesn't become gooey and fall off with use like just taping the cable will have a problem with. Without the name and phone number of your company on the cable, it's really hard to return it when it walks. Light Works puts a LW on their connectors and since I'm local, I know it's them. Can't tell it's them by the color markings on the cable, but I see the warn away white paint marker or Sharpee markings and frequently return it to them if I catch it before someone else does and marks it as ours. With other companies that just put their initials or something stupid on them that they can identify but nobody else can, it's hit or miss if they are getting their cable back. Some companies use stickers or printed heat shrink also. If not under clear heat shrink to protect the label, it gets damaged or warn away really easily. Love those companies with a name but no phone number. Give them about 1 minute of searching for who to send it back to before my wire wheel and goof off takes off the markings.
Some places like Frost Lighting, Navy Pier, and McCormic Place buy their wire pre-printed with who it belongs to, than they can mark it's length any way they want if at all. Those companies pay extra for their wire, but they always get it back.
Light Works/ILC has the only workable solution for marking cable and that's putting a color code chart on their road boxes. We adapted a similar system so when you are in the box, you can just look for the color of the marking. Our color code is much more simple than Light Works system in that we only get into double colors after say 150' and I'm going away from that system towards just repeating colors. Easy to tell the difference between a 15', 75', and 175' cable.
I stole one of ILC's box marking charts from a road box about two years ago and posted it up so that when we rent from them, our tech people know how long the cable is. It's a very popular chart to look at amonst people in the shop. We based our own chart off the one we stole, just with different colors. Charts are a good thing, wish at least if there was no standarization, at least more companies would provide cable length charts.
But I still prefer using the pre-printed heat shrink and labeling the cable for grade, type and length under a clear heat shrink. That way, there is no confusion and to be quite frank, it not only looks better, but looks much more professional no matter what your color code.