Cable management thru/around AV workstation?

[Neil Orman]

Thank you so much Mark for this great and detailed advice! Hugely appreciated! You’ve helped transform a painful chore into a much less painful one 🙂 Once it’s done I’ll close this thread and send a pic. Thanks again to you, Thomas and Alan.
Neil

[Bill Davis]

This does not speak to the original problem except peripherally.

Having spent 15 years in an “against the wall” equipment setup with 75+ devices, lights and wall-warts plugged into outlet boxes and probably 200 signal lines connecting everything behind the desks – I pledged myself two things when I moved.

A) I’ll NEVER again put a desk against a wall. I know this stuff is supposed to get installed once and done, but the reality is that gear and peripherals revise and appear so often these days, that there was seldom a quarter where I didn’t spend a couple of days on my back under my desk doing something. Today, my desk is set as a peninsula off one wall – and I couldn’t be happier about it. The wall/desktop orientation is selected, whenever possible, based on where the windows are for monitor/reflection mitigation.

B) I’ll second the concept for tagging both ends of every line. I also bundle in no more than 5 lines at a time. Those can be zip tied to other bundles, but it’s much easier to replace a coax run with an HDMI run if you don’t have to unbundle and de- braid everything in a 20 line package.

C) There used to be never enough Edison outlets. Today, there are never enough wall wart friendly outlets.

just sayin’ YMMV.

Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery.

[Neil Orman]

Just one last question on this, to which I’d be grateful for any quick feedback. There was another cable management product I’d received before I even started this thread, from my employer’s interior designer contractor (see pic below) that didn’t seem like a good solution for this problem. We received two of these that are about 3 feet long each. Honestly he took a very quick look at of the cable mess you saw in the photos I attached to this thread, and said he had a solution, and sent us those products, for which we’re apparently being charged $144. Can I get people’s take on whether you think these are a good solution to the mess you saw in my earlier photos? The main reason I’m asking is, the way my company works, I’m likely to get flak for not using these things. Again one of the big goals here is not undoing these huge coils of cables, which among other things these seem to be a bad solution for.

And thanks very much for your thoughts, Bill. I definitely see what you mean about getting the furniture away from the wall.

[Mark Suszko]

They’re trays. The cutouts let power cords go down to the floor, you just screw this tot he bottom of the desk and lay your cables into it. If you already had these, might as well use ’em.

[Neil Orman]

Hi guys, I just wanted to share a pic of the final solution we used for this. It’s just a four-foot piece of wire shelving from Home Depot. Worked very well. Thanks so much again for your helpful responses and feedback on this!
Very much appreciated,
Neil

[Mark Suszko]

What happened to the expensive original shelf/tray the boss was insisting you use?

[Neil Orman]

They weren’t right for that really dense mess of cables, but they’re other sections of the desk where we’re still planning to use them. Just so you know it wasn’t my boss, who didn’t care either way about those original shelves/trays and actually helped me install the wire shelf, but the operations lady in our office, who wasn’t insisting I use those pieces but isn’t a fan obviously of expenses that accomplish little to nothing. Those shelves/trays were $144, the shelf I ended up using was $15. Just for the record, this came about because our contract interior designer guy happened to swing my my office one day, looked at the cable mess for all of two seconds, and said he had a perfect solution, which would cost like $100. I had planned to handle it myself, as I know the organization wasn’t interested in more expenses etc after redoing the office. But since he offered I certainly said yes. Weeks later he mailed two two shelves/trays, one of which was bent. In every case that’s been the kind of hands-off, poorly thought out ‘help’ he’s offered. I’m sure these shelves/trays are perfect for a standard office with a computer, printer etc., but I personally think he should have seen they weren’t right for something like this.

Probably too much information, but just so you know! Thanks so much again Mark, Alan, Thomas and Bill.

Neil