CAT Cable

I just been using a regular patch Cat5E from the pressbox (although I'm planing on upgrading to Cat6 since so much data is transferred with indentlynx, wingauge, micrograph and camera)not sure what "flex means". I've taped wire around corners of rails, windows and strung over tracks. Best price, for the quality, I've found is from "Deep Surplus" which offers in different colors (helps at times) and snagless boot (a must). Get a pastic spool from Home Depot for $7 to wrap it on.

Frys electronics is a great source for these cables too. You can buy crossover cables there premade up to 100 feet as well.

The higher the CAT number, the higher bandwidth the cable will handle, and the higher noise resistance it will provide.

Lynx has extraordinarily robust data buffering, so bandwidth is largely irrelevant. Lynx will handle pretty much anything.

Looking at your particular situation, keep in mind that the poly insulation on ordinary indoor riser and plenum ethernet cable is pretty crappy (for cost reasons), it is meant to be installed in conduit (once) and never touched again. If you are planning on keeping it on a spool and deploying it like an audio cable, it will not last long. A couple of hits from a rolling equipment cart or a couple of 180-degree bends and it will fail.

Consider buying outdoor or even winterized CAT cable. It's more expensive but it will take some punishment. I also recommend you buy an RJ-45 crimper, a bag of RJ-45 ends, an ethernet cable meter, and learn how to use them. If your cable is going to be lying around, rained on, dragged through the grass and mud, and so forth, the ends will inevitably be damaged and you will need to be able to replace them in the field. Buy a length of cheap CAT cable and practice, practice, practice.

We have had good luck actually with Cat5e. We buy 1000 feet, cut it in half and end it. 500 feet will get you most anywhere in a stadium including far corner and press box (but not both with the same cable). We spool it on the electric cord reels being careful to not have any kinks in it. Like master we have done all of those things with it successfully, used it on artificial and regular turf, etc. We have usually just purchased it at Home Depot or a local professional supply store.

I agree that TheMightySkunk gives very solid advice - you will have to periodically re-end.

We buy In-Line RJ45 couplers like this:
http://www.monoprice.com/produ...=7280&seq=1&format=2
We keep on on the end of the all of our cables when on the reel or when dragging. It keeps the end clean and prevents break off of the lock tab on the cable end.

Your most likely point of failure on all of this equipment is the simple little things like cable ends. So always carry a spare.

Being able to test and repair network cables is very important. A couple of little things to help are firstly find a nice little color picture of the color pin out of the rj45 plugs. laminate it and stick it on the back of your cable tester. Its a bit of a trick to hold them between your finger and thumb in the corect order all trimmed to the same length to push into the plug for crimping. Here in New zealand we can purchase nice little boots that slide back up over the back of the plug. They not only keep out the moisture but protect the tang on the plug when you are winding it back on a reel. But as the others say practise heaps. good luck.

We cut off most of those little boots as they are very stiff when cold and difficult to get to. So we prefer the method above to protect the little "tang". We have seen some better ends on some commercial cables that go in an out easier, but often you can't hardly get your fingers on the little guys and they clearly were not meant for removal and insertion regularly.

We also buy a color other than blue making it easier for us to know it's our cable. We also label both ends of our cables or color code them so that we can tell which is which when running a multi-camera set.

Two things to add to this. First, with lots of digital sound application and professional installations reeling and unreeling cat 5, we've found this:

http://www.fullcompass.com/product/338283.html

Rubberized like speaker wire, flexible in the cold, good performance. A little more challenging to put new ends on, but works great.

We've put 300 ft lengths on schill reals from thetimingguys.com and been very happy.

If you're not using RJ45 EZ connectors (they're available in Cat5, 5e, 6 and I think 6e with the associated boots) you're wasting time. The special tool will cut back the wire, leave about 1-2 inches of pairs available, feed pairs RIGHT THROUGH THE END OF THE CONNECTOR. You can easily feed one wire in at a time to make sure you get your pairs right. When you attach the connector with the tool, it cuts off the excess clean, and crimps the boot on, making it almost as good as molded. Available from lots of places online, but we prefer Allied Electronics for price and speed.