Mr. Bailey--
You and I have known each other professionally for 35 years, plus or minus--just sayin'.
A few points:
4. The S4WRD is not aimed at the high-end professional market. It's primarily aimed at places where a daisy-chained lighting position with 20 fixtures really does not care about RJ45 vs. XLR5--other than the fact that the XLR connectors add significant cost.
5. We are in a different world now--one created by LED luminaires. That creates new realities--such as the acceptability of RJ45 in low- cost DMX applications.
6. I suggest that if you analyze the cost, the use of RJ45's on an S4WRD daisy chain makes economic sense, despite the fact that it might cause us to initially recoil due to "non-standard" application. This is likely true even in a system with other equipment using XLR5 connectors--one that requires an RJ45 tin in parallel with an XLR5 run.
7. I will take this opportunity to remind you that S4WRD represents an order-of-magnitude reduction in LED conversion costs. The reality is that there are compromises associated with that reduction. At the end of the day, the market will tell us if we did the right or the wrong thing.
I am sure that you, and others, will tell me how you feel on this issue!
Best regards,
ST
All well stated in a nutshell, as always.
It is indeed a new world we live in in some ways and I am reminded of a generation earlier then us who lamented the move to tungsten halogen.
Thanks Steve.