Case / Equipment Labeling

[Zach Hilton]

Just wondering what people have found to be useful / successful for marking their gear and cases? We are gearing up to do this, but not sure where to start. Thoughts? Feelings?

 

[david farland]

Maverick labels are good: http://www.mavericklabel.com/products.html

Used these for most of my stuff: http://www.mavericklabel.com/asset-tags/

still like to get a good cable label.
D

 

[Zach Hilton]

Oh, great! That looks like what I've seen on other equipment. Have you noticed much wear and tear on your labels? Thanks for the lead.

 

[david farland]

no...they're great....they stay on well /no real wear.
D

 

[Stephen Lovett]

On labels

On labels

Thanks for this David.

I ordered some custom labels and wasn't happy with them.

Do these stick to ABS like storm cases, pelican cases etc.?

On cables, I've come up with something that works pretty well for me.

All my cables have a ring of self-fusing silicone tape that I found out about from my airplane mechanic years ago. It's often sold as "rescue tape." It sticks to itself, but not the cable, so if you want to remove it, it take some work, but it leaves no residue at all behind.

I use white as it's not obnoxious, and yet it makes my cables easy to spot.

Second I use color coded velcro wraps that I personalize with a sharpie.

All my cable crates/boxes have a laminated color key attached.

So now the noob doesn't have to figure out an E-sata cable from a firewire 800 cable, I just tell him/her get me a red one out of the data cable box, and a brown one from the BNC crate. If it's somebody else that doesn't know the colors, the crates are clearly labeled making finding what their after quick and easy.

I use the same for lengths of XLR and BNC w/ different colors.

The laminated labels on the crates specify Red for 50', Green for 25'etc.

I work with volunteers and students a lot and because my cables are identifiable by a difficult to remove non destructive wrap, and the Velcro has my company name on it, the "High friction coefficient" of student hands on my cables problem has almost completely disappeared, and inventory is easy to do at the end of a shoot. Five red, check, seven green, check, and it's easy to spot one of my cables in a pile of others because of the white wrap.

Picture included for clarity.

It's not glamorous, but it works,

Steve