Cat5 is the primary type of cable used for networking and is used to connect up most pieces of equipment on site such as phones, switches and CCTV cameras. The only downside of cat5 is that the maximum cable length is 100m, however, with special in-line adapters known as PoE extenders this can be increased to 200 or 300m. Cat5 is particularly flexible as it can also carry power for certain types of equipment such as phones which means no additional power is required where the device is located. Generally cat5 cable is cable of speeds up to 1Gbps, although the actual speed experienced may be reduced by switching equipment and the speed of the connection to the internet.
Increasingly optic fibre cable is being used for core links on sites as it can run at higher speeds over much larger distances. Some types of optic fibre cable also offer a much stronger shield which means they can withstand the event environment better than cat5. The downside of optic fibre is it requires special tools to terminate and connect, and it is more difficult to join if it gets cut.