On Thu, 30 Mar 2017 19:56:37 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

We lost Macy's California Point of Sale terminals to IBM because your sales
guy was smarter. Our sales guy tole Macy's that the data lines had to go
via conduit because of the fluorescent lights. IBM guy said their did not
need conduit. He knew the fire department required conduit. Smarter.

That must be a California thing. If you use plenum rated cable,
properly supported, I know of no fire reg that requires conduit for
low voltage ... and we never had a problem with fluorescent lights, in
spite of the urban legend that would not die. All of our signal cables
were balanced pairs, pretty much immune to the switcher in an
electronic ballast. Sixty hz was never a problem (magnet ballast). I
had 100' of UTP Cat 5 coiled above my desk right on a fluorescent and
I could patch it into any LAN, 3270, S-loop or whatever at the panel
to prove it to the non believers.
You could also watch the data going by on a scope if you wanted.
There were lots of urban legends that got dispelled in the late 80s
when IBM got serious about selling data cabling, LAN management and
communication contracts. Some of us went to school on it. They had a
very cool lab in Dallas where we could learn about just about anything
that goes down a wire. That part was mostly how to do the phone
company's job (breaking the finger pointing tie). That was followed up
by BICSI training for the guys like me who were actually trained for
writing wiring contracts.