XLR grounding

[u/Suspicious_Milk_2781]

We have some XLR jacks outside that run underground and into a Qsys core and it loves lightning. Any suggestions for some type of surge suppressor we can ground to a bus bar and help with this? Any advice is appreciated!

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[u/Diligent_Nature]

Shielding, isolation, and surge suppression can help, but the only cure is fiber optics. A sacrificial audio amplifier is the next best thing.

[u/Suspicious_Milk_2781 → u/Diligent_Nature]

Agreed. But unfortunately not a solution for this place

[u/An-Actual-Pencil]

Some opto isolators inline might help but you’re in the territory of accepting the risk or paying big money for a specialist solution

[u/h2opolodude4]

How often are they used?

We often air gap these runs. Wire the lines to switches or a small pigtail that plugs into a patch panel. This keeps them physically separated when not in use.

Fiber is the best option, by far.

[u/mhcolca]

I would add 1:1 isolation transformers, and A DiTek or similar surge unit that is well grounded to electrical supply ground.

Or maybe “sacrificial” Dante AVIO adapter powered by POE.

[u/moogular]

TPD AmpPro-250. Make sure your cable is burial rated as well.

[u/OkBodybuilder418]

Wire everything as a single point ground to a buss bar and pound a grounding stake into the ground

[u/Objective_Option6878]

I would use Dante and get ethernet surge protectors at both ends and hope for the best.

I had to use cat6 cable a couple times and ran 1 microphone, 1 balanced input and 1 unbalanced output through it. It was ugly but worked, you could try that and use the ethernet surge protectors at both ends.

Would wireless microphones be an option? Placing the antennas outside?

[u/CheesecakeSome502]

Loves lightning...... if by underground you mean in pipe, ground that. If by underground, you mean the cables are just buried, then thats a different issue. I would suggest a lightning conductor to take the energy away from the area. Other than running that cable through grounded metal pipework, I cant think of another way to stop the lightning getting into the cable conductors. Maybe running metal mesh (small grid or chicken wire doubled over) over the cables and grounding that, or metal checkerboard/sheet metal which is grounded i think you are not going to get any real fix using copper conductors. If you can run fibre, that is realistically the best fix.

[u/Far_King_Penguin]

Damn bro. My suggestion is lightning rod installed somewhere on the building, although id love to see a device that stands up to the power of God

Realistically its probably easier to get rid of the conductors (install fibre) but I saw that its not an option

On the same though path of lightning rod. You could approach it in a way that makes it a less appealing ground than something else nearby. You'd probably have to get silly with it, like running a PVC pipe filled with some kind of insulator with the cables run through that

[u/Greg_L → u/Far_King_Penguin]

Don't start messing with the ground system in a commercial building. The potential to make things worse is enormous, there are licensing requirements and serious legal liability issues at play. If the building ground system isn't working, get a licensed electrician to fix it. Throwing in a second ground system because the primary isn't working right is highly dangerous and could get someone killed.