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Drafting - SYS-ID & Cable Labeling Standards

INTRODUCTION

Cable labels and SYS-IDs are used by the L3AV Operations team as a means of uniquely identifying each piece of equipment and cabling that is part of an AV system. It is the responsibility of the Build Engineer (BE) assigned to a project to ensure that the deliverables provided to the Operations team (drawings, network schedule, cable schedule, etc.) utilize a coherent and logical naming convention that is consistent with L3AV standards. While the examples shown in this document are all from signal flow pages, these standards shall apply to all project deliverables.

REFERENCE DOCUMENT

Drafting - L3AV Standard Reference Drawings

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Drafting - SYS-ID Reference Guide

Drafting - Cable Label Reference Guide

DEFINITIONS

  • ‘AV System’ is defined as all equipment specified on a project BOM that is intended for a specific room/area that is self-contained (eg. Conference Room, Huddle Room, Auditorium, etc).
  • ‘Multiple AV Systems’ is defined as two or more AV systems that are interconnected somehow, usually when there is a common headend rack that houses equipment for multiple rooms.
    • Divide/Combine rooms are considered Multiple AV systems since each dividable room/space has a similar product mix and there is a central rack or headend location that houses equipment common to all spaces.
    • If you have a project with multiple rooms where the only shared device common to the rooms is an OFE network switch(es) (ie. where all AV equipment is connected to OFE LAN) then these rooms would typically not be considered 'Multiple AV Systems' and would use the standard 'AV System' definition.
      • There may be exceptions to this where we are routing video and/or audio around from room to room, in which case it could be beneficial to use the 'Multiple AV System' definition to make it easier to keep track of signal pathways in programming.

GENERAL NOTES

  • All cable labels and SYS-IDs shall be in UPPERCASE on all project deliverables.
  • Each cable and piece of equipment that is part of an ‘AV System’ shall have a unique identifier (eg. ‘A00101’, ‘A00102’, ‘HD01001’, ‘HD01002’, ‘MIC-1001’, ‘MIC-1002’, ‘FPD-0101’, ‘FPD-0102’, etc.).
    • As of 08/2025 we are revising our policy on allowing cable labels to be the same when a cable connects through a disconnect plate, floor plate, wall plate, etc. All cables must now have a unique cable label, so for example our previous policy of using the same label on the rack-side and field-side of a disconnect panel is no longer allowed.
  • For projects where there are no ‘Multiple AV Systems’ (ie. all rooms/areas are standard ‘AV systems’), cable labels and SYS-IDs may be reused from one room to the next.
  • For projects where there are ‘Multiple AV Systems’ unique identifiers shall be used for every piece of equipment that is considered part of the ‘Multiple AV System’.
    • For the other rooms/areas of the project that are standard ‘AV Systems’, cable labels and SYS-IDs may be reused from one room to the next.

SYS-ID NAMING CONVENTIONS

  1. A SYS-ID shall be comprised of an alpha prefix and a unique 2-number (for AV Systems) or 4-number (for Multiple AV Systems) suffix separated by a hyphen (eg. FPD-01 or FPD-0101).
  2. The alpha prefix can range from 2-6 letters (eg. PC-01, AMP-0101, CONV-01, SCREEN-0101, etc.)
    1. Refer to Drafting - SYS-ID Reference Guide for the list of approved SYS-IDs.
    2. There are special cases where an additional alpha prefix will precede the normal alpha prefix. Most cases usually involve either a transmitter, receiver, accessory, or distribution amplifier. Some examples include: RX-USB-0101, TX-AVC-01, ANT-DA-0101, etc.
    3. Consult with the Drafting SME or Engineering Dept. Mgr. for assistance with SYS-IDs for equipment that doesn’t easily fit into one of the established categories.
  3. The 1st two numbers of the 4-number suffix are used to identify the room/area where the equipment is located.
    1. For ‘AV Systems’ the first two numbers are not required and can be omitted, and a 2-number suffix used instead (PC-01, MSW-01, FPD-01).
    2. For ‘Multiple AV Systems’, the first two numbers will start at ‘01’ and will increase for each additional room/area. So for a two-way Divide/Combine room, Room ‘A’ will have SYS-IDs with ‘01’ as the first number (PC-0101, SPK-0101, FPD-0101), while Room ‘B’ will have SYS-IDs with ‘02’ as the first number (PC-0201, SPK-0201, FPD-0201).
    3. Equipment in a headend rack that is shared between different rooms of a ‘Multiple AV System’ should use ‘00’ as the first number. For example, if multiple rooms connect to the same network switch, matrix switch, and DSP, then those devices would be labeled ‘NSW-0001’, ‘MSW-0001’, ‘DSP-0001’.
    4. Equipment in a headend rack that is specific to a room should utilize the same number scheme as the equipment that is located within the room. For example, if there are several video codecs in a headend rack, and they connect to different rooms, then the numbering scheme should be ‘VCC-0101’, ‘VCC-0201’, ‘VCC-0301’, etc.)
  4. The last 2 numbers of the SYS-ID are the unique identifier for the piece of equipment. Numbering should start at ‘xx01’ and increment for each additional piece of equipment that has the same alpha prefix (eg. FPD-01, FPD-02…FPD-14 for 'AV Systems' or FPD-0101, FPD-0102, FPD-1014 for 'Multiple AV Systems').

CABLE LABEL NAMING CONVENTIONS

GENERAL RULES

  1. All labels shall have a 1-letter to 3-letter alpha prefix identifying the type of cable, and a 3-number (for AV Systems) or 5-number (for Multiple AV Systems) suffix identifying it as a unique cable.
    1. For example: A01001 (or A001) refers to a cable typically used for line level audio. It is the first of A type cable. The next A type cable would be A01002, and so on.
    2. APPROVED EXCEPTION FOR USER-FACING CABLES
      1. Cables that the user will interact with (eg. HDMI and USB cables at a conference table, mic cables that connect to a wall plate of floorbox, etc.) do not need to follow the labeling conventions.
      2. Instead, user-facing cables should be labeled with something user-friendly. Some examples to consider:
        • LAPTOP-0x
        • USB-0x or BYOD-0x (for a USB cable that will allow for BYOD conferencing)
        • TOUCH-0x (if you have a USB connection to an interactive whiteboard)
        • MIC-0x
        • You may want to omit the '-0x' portion of the label if there will only be one instance of a given cable type.
      3. Apply the naming conventions outlined below to all cabling after the user cable in the signal chain.
        1. If LAPTOP-01 connects to a 2x1 HDMI switch below the conference table, with an AirMedia connected to the other switch input (as HD01002 or HD002), then the output of the HDMI switch would be HD01101 (or HD101)
        2. If LAPTOP-01 connects to an HDMI transmitter below the conference table, then the output of the transmitter would be STP01001 (or STP001).

ALPHA PREFIX RULES

  1. All cable alpha prefixes shall follow the pre-defined one to three letter standard.
    1. Exceptions to this rule must be approved by the Drafting SME or Engineering Dept. Mgr.
    2. Refer to the Drafting - Cable Label Reference Guide for a list of the approved alpha prefixes.

NUMERIC SUFFIX RULES

  1. All cable numeric suffixes shall follow the 3-number or 5-number number standard. Exceptions to this rule must be approved by the Drafting SME or Engineering Dept. Mgr.
  2. The 1st two numbers of the 5-number numeric suffix (left-most numbers) are the room/area indicator.
    1. For typical ‘AV systems’ the 1st two numbers are not required and can be omitted (eg. A001, HD001, USB001, etc.)
    2. For ‘Multiple AV systems’, the 1st two numbers will be used to indicate the room/area (eg. A01001, HD01001, USB01001, etc.)
    3. For cabling that originates in a head-end rack of a 'Multiple AV System', the 1st two numbers should be '00' (eg. N00001, N00002...N00048)


      Example 1 – There is a project with several different room types that includes a 2-way Divide/Combine room. For the Divide/Combine rooms, the 1st two numbers of the cable label suffix would be set to ‘01’ for Room A and ‘02’ for Room B (eg. HD01001, HD02001, etc.). Other standard ‘AV systems’ in the project would omit the 1st two numbers of the suffix, unless they were also part of a ‘Multiple AV system’ (eg. HD001, A001, etc.)

      Example 2- There is a large project with dozens of rooms/areas that have cabling connecting to a central headend. Since there will be cabling from each room connecting back to the common headend (ie. IDF/MDF rooms), the 1st two numbers of the suffix will be used to represent which room the equipment belongs to (eg. A01001, A02001, A14001, etc.)
  3. The 3nd number of the numeric suffix (1st number for 'AV Systems') indicates the level of the cable. Levels are used for dividing the signal path into sections, and are defined as follows:
    1. Level 0 is used to represent originating sources (laptops, cameras, mics, PCs, conferencing codecs, media players, etc.). This level indicates that a device is sending an unprocessed signal to a device downstream in the signal chain (eg. HD001, USB001, A001, or HD01001, USB01001, A01001 etc.)
      1. The one exception to this rule is speaker cabling, which will also use ‘0’ as the level from the amp output to the speaker.
    2. Level 1 is used to represent the 2nd cable in the chain. Typically, this will be the output of a matrix switch or DSP, but also can be used when signals are extended (HDMI extenders, USB extenders) (eg. HD101, USB101, A101, or HD01101, USB01101, A01101 etc.).
    3. Level 2 is for the 3rd cable in a signal chain. This typically occurs on outputs from signal extenders or on the outputs of matrix switches and DSPs when an extender or other processing device was used in front of the switcher or DSP (eg. HD201, USB201, A201, or HD01201, USB01201, A01201 etc.).
    4. Levels 3 and up are used to indicate further cables in an overall signal chain. Typically used for complex designs where there are HDMI/USB extenders, USB switches, audio inserter/de-embedders, etc. along the signal chain.
    5. The general rule of thumb is if a signal passes through a device and can somehow be modified by that device (signal switching, video processing, DSP processing, audio embed/de-embed, etc.), then the output cable from a device should have its Level # increased.
      1. There is an exception made for signal extension. If a cable (HDMI, USB, etc.) connects to a signal extender set, the output from the extender’s Tx unit can remain at the same level since the alpha prefix changes. For example, a PC has an HDMI cable (‘HD01001’) that connects to an HDBT transmitter. The cat6 cable exiting the HDBT Tx that connects to the Rx would be labeled ‘STP01001’. The HDMI cable that exits the HDBT Rx device will increment the level to HD01101 to indicate that the HDMI signal has passed through an intermediary device since leaving the laptop.
      2. The exception of allowing a cable label to remain the same on both sides of a pass-thru (disconnect plate, wall plate, floor box plate, etc.) is no longer allowed as of 08/2025. We are reverting back to our prior policy of every cable gets a unique SYS-ID. Here are a couple examples on how this should be managed:

        Example 1 – If you have a HDMI cable from a laptop to a wall plate, and then another cable from the back of the wall plate to the display, then the cable between the laptop and wall plate would be labeled 'HDMI' or 'LAPTOP' while the cable between the back of the wall plate and the display would be labeled 'HD001'.

        Example 2 –If you have a HDBT transmitter in a rack that connects to the rack disconnect plate and then continues on to a wall-mounted display, then the cable from the transmitter to the rack would be labeled something like 'STP01201R' while the cable from the disconnect panel to the receiver behind the display would be labeled 'STP01201F'.
          • 'R' & 'F' are used here to indicate 'Rack cable' vs. 'Field cable' but could also indicate 'Front' vs. 'Rear' for something like a floor plate or wall plate.
  4. The last two numbers of the numeric suffix are for giving each cable a unique number from 01 through 99.
    1. If the cable numbers are expected to exceed 99 (this would be an exceedingly rare occurrence), an additional number can be added, but must be approved by the Drafting SME or Engineering Dept. Mgr.
      1. One situation where you might run into this is when a single 'AV System' has multiple 48-port switches. NSW-0101 would have cable labels from N01001 to N01048, while NSW-0102 would be from N01049 to N01096. NSW-0103 would end up with labeling from N01097 to N01144. While this is a workable solution, it does violate the rules for the 3rd number in the suffix being used for signal level. Another acceptable option here might be to have NSW-0101 numbered from N01001.01 to N01001.48, NSW-0102 numbered from N01002.01 to N01002.48, and NSW-0103 numbered from N01003.01 to N01003.48. This solution violates one of the Special Cases shown below but would also be a workable solution in this instance. Ultimately either solution presents challenges to the labelling standards so best judgement will need to be used by the drafting engineer to determine the best approach. Consult with the project PM or the Drafting SME if you need any assistance with determining the best approach.

SPECIAL CASES

  1. Two additional symbols are used with cable labels for specific uses.
    1. ‘-‘ (dash) is used when a signal passes thru a distribution amp (eg. 1x4 HDMI DA, 1x2 antenna DA, etc.). A cable that connects to the input of a 1x2 DA (eg. ‘HD01001’) would not increment the level of the cable but would instead label the cables on the output as ‘HD01001-1’ & ‘HD01001-2’
    2. ‘.’ (dot) is used to indicate a daisy-chain configuration and applies mostly to 70V speaker wiring. The first output from an amp that connects to the 1st speaker in a zone 1 would be labeled ‘S01001.1’. The cable between speaker 1 & 2 would be labeled ‘S01001.2’. The cable between speaker 2 & 3 would be labeled ‘S01001.3’. And so on until the end of that speaker zone is reached. The second output from an amp to the 1st speaker in zone 2 would be labeled ‘S01002.1’, and then the same rules outlined above would apply.

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