Well apart form the stated audio visual feeds what other forms of data would be a sensor feed. Touch, pressure pads on the floor of the building. Is there 8 feeds per person the total number of feeds or the number of feeds each?

Any kind of data from sensors the characters or their drones can carry (motion sensors and olfactive sensors for example).

Cool but my seconed question is unanswered but I'm assuming 8 feeds per person not each.

8 feeds per person would be required for the max tac net bounse on a lvl 4 tac net, That also includes range finders, radar on drones or gear, Mil radar cyber ware ect. depending on the lvl of the tac net software will dictate the required number of feeds per person, if one member of the net drops below the required number of feeds, say becouse of a silence spell killing there sound inputs, they are no longer part of the network till they regain those feeds,

I would define "a feed" as any locked-on data source that is currently connected to the network. That said, a silenced fellow on your team would still be a feed as long as he stayed logged on to the network because network resources are still being allocated to receiving and processing his transmissions.

Not so really, If the silenced team member is using ultra sound or has hearing mods those mods are now no longer feeding data to the network per the silence spell, no sound. same as if the members vison mods are on a scope of a weapon or his glasses and are skinlinked, or wired and the item is droped, it is no longer adding to the network. once you drop below your min required feeds you are droped from the network,

It is transmitting to the network. It just isn't hearing anything and is transmitting that it is hearing silence.

Now, if you used a jammer and jammed their connection to the network, then they aren't actually transmitting anything, and as such, would get dropped.

Just because there is no sound doesn't mean that the system isn't sending out that it is receiving no sound. You can even do that on your computer, unplug your mic, and tell it to record. It'll record a whole lot of nothing, but it still records it.

Would building sensors work for this as well such as pads in the floors and sensors on the doors.

Yes, the building sensors would work if you tired it into the network, And to tarantula, You are correct sir but from a rule point of view they would still loose the bouse that they would of gotten for the input, But I should of been more clear on what I was trying to explain, I so suck at that hehe,

The reason for the "open line" is simple. If the links were based upon who's transmitting at the moment, imagine if you will a sniper position that has just located the bomb inside the building just as the assault elements are about to kick in the door but they can't get through because Chuck is ordering Dominoes in line #8 at the time. Worse comes to worse, you can route the net through a bigger setup in a vehicle or command center with a bigger tacnet setup.

I would treat the Rating 4 as being the max for a relatively small portable unit rather than the absolute maximum available via security, police, or military contacts.

Why should they use it? The dropping of background noise by 30-60DB to 0 allows you to

A) Immediately identify the precense of a mage

B) Combined with some movement to asscertain the edge of the fields, it becomes possible to assertain all possible positions of the mage.

Vital infomation for a tacnet.

ah to the last post about the back round noise its not really relivent to the question,

Just to point out for the OP, Tactical networks rely on data supplied in real-time by sensor
systems to maintain a working model of the tactical situation. it says in order to get the bonuses from the network each member must contribute a number of sensor channels equal to the tacsoft rating x2

it says the sensor channels are defined as any type of sensory input that can be transmitted to teh tac net and that contributes in some way to analyzing the tactical situation,
that is what is in unwired page 125

Ya know I wrote an example but the one on page 125 is so much better then I am at explaining it.,

Brimstone’s team is running a Rating 3 tactical
network. To count as a contributing team member (and
thus to receive bonuses from the network), Brimstone must
contribute at least 6 sensor channels. Luckily, Brimstone is
a cybersamurai with her share of senseware. Her cybereyes
(channel 1) are enhanced with low-light vision (channel
2), smartlink (channel 3), and vision magnification
(channel 4). She also has an orientation system (channel
5) and has strapped on an ultrasound sensor (channel 6).
All of these sensor systems are linked to her commlink,
where she is running her tacsoft, which shares their input
data with the rest of the team via tacnet. If for some reason
one of her sensor systems was knocked out ( for example, she
dropped her ultrasound sensor), she would lose a sensor
channel and would no longer count as a member of the
tacnet team.

That should awnser the OP's question I hope.

The tacnet rules are remarkably FUBAR. The canon rules do nothing but create arguments about what is a feed and what isn't, and why do feed sensors have to be worn or carried by team members? Why can't you slap them up on the walls? Then there's a dumb little equation about how the bonuses work out.

Why not say, buy a tacnet module, 1,000 nuyen x rating, max rating 3. Slap it on your character somewhere, and as long as you've got AR, you get a bonus equal to the rating to this, that, and the other thing? Cap the bonus at the number of active team members.

The canon on tactnet is a rare example of baroque over-engineering in SR.

By RAW things like Silence spells and Jammers (to counter wideband radar) can knock out sensors. Thats a good model for a Tacnet although not easy to handle at the table.

I'm playing it as the sensors do not need to be on the person, merely routed through their commlink. I came to this conclusin regarding if a drone counts as sensors toward a tacnet. I decided that if the drone is going to benifit from the tacnet, then it needs to run a copy of it and it's sensor rating counts for feed. If the drone is NOT going to benifi from the tacnet, then it doesn't need a copy of the tacnet, and it's sensors count as feed for the person who's commlink is controlling them.

Which is just a stupid idea. If anything, your bonus should be based on what sensors other people have. You already get the bonus from your gear; what you need is sensor data you don't already have. The only limit you should have on receiving a bonus is a lack of data receptors or processing power.

E.g. Sensor Steve, Sam-Urai, Retro Ralph and Artillery Al are on a tacnet. Steve's got every sensory mod known to man. Sam has the normal cybereye and ear augmentations you'd expect. Ralph has cybereyes from 2042 that barely have 20/20 vision and uses the mike on his cyberdeck (I said he was retro) as his audio pickup. Al is a sniper that is six blocks away with a building his massive rifle treats as "concealment" rather than "cover."

When Steve shoots at someone hiding behind a jammer and a thin sheet of lead, he's using the datafeed from Sam and/or Ralph. If it's Sam there's a pretty good image and possibly some data from a rangefinder. If it's Ralph he's stuck with grainy video and limited ranging data.

When Sam shoot at someone using Steve's feed things are pretty good since Steve provides tons of data and Sam has plenty of inputs to take the data signal.

Ralph doesn't get much of a bonus since he doesn't have the gear to process all of Sam's data feed, let alone the deluge that Steve can provide.

Al contributes nothing to the tacnet but his ramped up comm and gee-whiz rifle is more than capable of processing data from everyone and synthesizing it into a cogent whole to provide a significant bonus to blind fire.

This is how modern forward observers work for artillery & naval bombardments.