Tracking where a panel goes

Dustincoc

Active Member
I found a Panel with 2 Speak-on connectors in the wall hidden beside the sound patch. I want to figure out where it goes because no one has any idea where it comes out(there are not other Speak-on panels that we know of). The connectors are labeled Left and Right. Since these are not located near the Amps, I suspect the other end must be located somewhere in that area.
 
Get a toner and tone out the wire. Basicly, they are wire tracers. Odds are you found an old run to stage or something. A toner will solve it. http://www.ambientweather.com/extgwitrgeki.html

Otherwise, you can look on the cable and see what type it is and what ft marker it is at and start digging around. Or... if there is any type of label on the cable. Thats about all I got.
 
It's probably not an old stage run because the booth was put in in 2000 and its in the wall of the booth. The sound system was also designed and installed in 2000 gy a guy who was more of a sound guy then a theatre guy and so the system is quite complex(as my teacher puts it).
 
It's probably not an old stage run because the booth was put in in 2000 and its in the wall of the booth. The sound system was also designed and installed in 2000 gy a guy who was more of a sound guy then a theatre guy and so the system is quite complex(as my teacher puts it).

Where physically is the sound patch. Is it onstage, in a booth, in a backroom, in the basement, what other racks are near there. It could be a monitor jack, could be anything. Have you pulled the panel off the wall and checked to see if anything is soldered to it?
 
If the installer was more a sound guy then there should be proper documentation of the system showing what those connections are for and where they connect. Just another example of the importance of proper documentation.

You might pull off the plate and see how it is wired and what cabling is used, there may even (should be) wire labels or cable numbers. Those may give some hint to the intended use. Given the description, it might have been intended for booth monitors so it could go to an amp or possibly just terminate in a rack somewhere.
 
The Panel isn't listed on the "System Block Diagram". The Patch is located in the booth right next to the sound board. As far as I can tell, they aren't connected to any amp that we know of, The amps are located in a rack SL, but they are housed in the light lab which is always a mess as it doubles as the orchestra "pit" and a catchall for broken equipment in need of repair. I haven't had a chance to pull off the panel and it's rather hard to get to because the patch bay is located about a foot from the wall its on. I'm guessing that it should come out at an amp somewhere since the the only use of Speakon connectors in the space is between amps and speakers and the Amps are not located near tha patch.
 
WAS installed correctly, He left shortly after it was installed and the system has been changed for every show as far back as I can remember. No documentation for any of these changes, resulting in no-one knowing exactly what goes where.
 
WAS installed correctly, He left shortly after it was installed and the system has been changed for every show as far back as I can remember. No documentation for any of these changes, resulting in no-one knowing exactly what goes where.
If your dept. head is willing to hire in outside help i'll come up and fix it for you.
 
I'm not a hum-head, but, perhaps these are monitor outputs? If they are labeled left and right and their in the booth, and your amps are onstage, it sort of stands to reason that they are outputs from the amp rack as, as you stated, there are no other Spaekon connectors, and typically, I see speakon connectors on outputs and as someone else stated any number of connectors used as inputs to a speakon termination. Make sure the systems powered down, put a cheap circuit sniffer on it and start waving the wand around behind your amp racks, I bet you'll find it.
 
The place is getting gutted in the next year or two so I don't think there going to spend anything of sorting the place out.
 
I just went down to out the panel somemore and found a label saying Booth speaker input. I also found out that someone is coming in next week to evaluate the system. The teacher scares me, he said he wants an extremely low tech system, going back to reel to reel if he could.
 
In the next year or 2 their completely Renovating our current theatre and adding an actual lobby. In the next 5-10 years, their planning on building a another theatre sharing that lobby. Most of the lighting and sound equipment will be transfered over to the new space. That's why they want to get the equipment now.
 

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