Labeling system to mark gear/cables?

[BradG]

What systems do you use to mark your cables and/or gear to prevent theft?

Links helpful. Thanks.

[blungo2]

color coding, it helps me keep routing organized as well.
Most of my cables are color coded for those that aren't, i wrap colored vinyl tape around the connectors.

[jhharvest]

We use one of these and then put clear heat shrink sleeving around it. The label says the company and the length of the cable. We sticker all moveable objects like DI boxes, mics etc.

We still lose some stuff but I don't think it's due to theft. I think they just get misplaced in the corner of some hall somewhere. I know we had a box of assorted cables people had left us. Some of them had labels too...

[vxboogie]

We use one of these and then put clear heat shrink sleeving around it. The label says the company and the length of the cable. We sticker all moveable objects like DI boxes, mics etc.

Are you using the clear heat shrink over pre-made cables? I've been curious if there is clear heatshrink with a high enough shrink ratio that will go over an XLR and still shrink to the cable size.

[jhharvest]

No, we make all our own cables. Theoretically you could get it though.

[wren]

One live sound company I used to work for had all its cables colored a deep, navy blue. They also had a relatively esoteric mic selection, so it wasn't like there was a pile of 57s and 58s that could get mixed up with other people's stuff. That worked pretty well.

A company I work for now uses a certain color of electrical tape and puts it on everything: mics, stands, cables, DI boxes, adapters...you name it. If it's got a tiny bit of orange electrical tape on it somewhere, it's ours. We also write the company's initials in the inside middle bit of every roll of tape we have - that actually comes in handy more often (*walks by someone from a different company, takes tape out of their hands* "Hey, that's my tape!" "No it's not, look." "Oh...sorry, I must've picked it up out of the wrong bin." Sure...). Those 2 things pretty much take care of it - whenever we lose something it's because we left it, not because it got stolen.

All told, though: I also work for a venue that doesn't really mark its stuff in any special way at all, and I never have a problem gathering it all up at the end of a show. When I'm traveling, yeah, I'd like the gear to be marked or unique in some way, but if I know the space and I know exactly what got used and pay attention during strike, I've never had a problem with losing things and I've never had a problem with people taking stuff that wouldn't have happened if it were marked. All the heat shrink in the world isn't going to help you if you don't pay attention, IMO/IME.