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[Steve Ferreira]

Hi all,

I have a Soundcraft Expression Si3 that I run a cat6 STP cable with and I bought a "backup" cable that's still wrapped up. I also have to provide lighting so I run a separate DMX line for that. I have been thinking of getting a 4 channel cat snake so I can just run 1 line and be done with it. Even though I would only need 2 cat lines I would have 2 backups lines or future expansion.

Who makes 4 channel Cat snakes? I see TMB makes some but haven't seen much more in my searches.
I have also thought of just get something like the Rat Sound cat boxes but I wouldn't have a true back up line if something goes wrong.

[Mac Kerr]

Hi all,

I have a Soundcraft Expression Si3 that I run a cat6 STP cable with and I bought a "backup" cable that's still wrapped up. I also have to provide lighting so I run a separate DMX line for that. I have been thinking of getting a 4 channel cat snake so I can just run 1 line and be done with it. Even though I would only need 2 cat lines I would have 2 backups lines or future expansion.

Who makes 4 channel Cat snakes? I see TMB makes some but haven't seen much more in my searches.
I have also thought of just get something like the Rat Sound cat boxes but I wouldn't have a true back up line if something goes wrong.

What are you running down these cables? The 4ch CAT5 snakes are 4 twisted pairs, or 4 audio channels, they and pass analor or digital signals that only require 2 wires. If you are talking about snakes with 4 CAT5 cables in them that is a whole different animal, although they are avaIable.

Mac

[Steve Ferreira]

What are you running down these cables? The 4ch CAT5 snakes are 4 twisted pairs, or 4 audio channels, they and pass analor or digital signals that only require 2 wires. If you are talking about snakes with 4 CAT5 cables in them that is a whole different animal, although they are avaIable.

Mac

Hi Mac,

The Cat5 cable is straight from the console to the stagebox. I'm looking for a solution like this https://tmb.com/proplex-ethernet-snake/

[Joris Jans2]

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[Mac Kerr]

The Cat5 cable is straight from the console to the stagebox. I'm looking for a solution like this https://tmb.com/proplex-ethernet-snake/

That one is a true 4 CAT5 snake, the Rat Sound Cat boxes are 4ch of audio down 1 CAT5 cable and will not work for your use. I don't know how big and stiff the TMB version is, but the ones I have seen are about as big and stiff as a 20pr analog snake. I would just bundle a couple of heavy duty CAT cable with etape every few feet. It will be much cheaper and lighter and easier to fix when one gets damaged.

Mac

[Taylor Hall]

Why not use configurable switches on either end and VLAN your traffic so you can use a single gigabit run (and a failover if you've got the cable) to handle everything? For the $1000 or so you'd probably pay for a 4-cable ethernet snake of any appreciable length you could get several Cisco/HP/Dell switches and have the added ability to run fiber via the SFP slots if you so desire in addition to segmenting traffic. Also like Mac said, replacing even heavy-duty cat6 is way cheaper than getting a snake repaired or replaced because it got nicked by a PSAV goon on a scissor lift or an event services drape cart.

We send Dante, Radius management, 4 channels of video, and two ArtNET DMX nodes all down one cat6 cable from FOH to the stage with no saturation issues whatsoever. Our main run consists of power, two cat6 cables taped together, and AES50 ethercon. The cat6 and ethercon are both on spools so they take a matter of minutes to set and strike by one person.

[Brian Bolly]

It depends on whether or not you need shielded.

Link/Eurocable makes a 4x or 6x CAT6 STP and Gepco makes a 2x or 4x CAT5e UTP

Other than the TMB, those are the only two I'm aware of. 

I own one of the Link/Eurocable snakes that's 275' long.  It coils neatly into a 1/4 pack trunk, but I wouldn't try to put it on a reel - it does have a fair amount of stiffness to it, and as Mac mentioned these types of cables have a decent diameter to them.  But, it's been rock solid and I have no real complaints about performance at all.

[Douglas Stringfellow]

Hi all,

I have a Soundcraft Expression Si3 that I run a cat6 STP cable with and I bought a "backup" cable that's still wrapped up. I also have to provide lighting so I run a separate DMX line for that. I have been thinking of getting a 4 channel cat snake so I can just run 1 line and be done with it. Even though I would only need 2 cat lines I would have 2 backups lines or future expansion.




http://whirlwindusa.com/custom-shop/cat-5e-snake



Who makes 4 channel Cat snakes? I see TMB makes some but haven't seen much more in my searches.
I have also thought of just get something like the Rat Sound cat boxes but I wouldn't have a true back up line if something goes wrong.

[Douglas Stringfellow]

http://whirlwindusa.com/custom-shop/cat-5e-snake


Sorry

[boburtz]

Hi all,

I have a Soundcraft Expression Si3 that I run a cat6 STP cable with and I bought a "backup" cable that's still wrapped up. I also have to provide lighting so I run a separate DMX line for that. I have been thinking of getting a 4 channel cat snake so I can just run 1 line and be done with it. Even though I would only need 2 cat lines I would have 2 backups lines or future expansion.

Who makes 4 channel Cat snakes? I see TMB makes some but haven't seen much more in my searches.
I have also thought of just get something like the Rat Sound cat boxes but I wouldn't have a true back up line if something goes wrong.

We looked into the 4 channel cat snake a while back and got samples from a few of the usual suspects. We were replacing the infamous whirlwind blue 56 pair snake and decided that the four channel cats were not more flexible. It's a lot lighter, but very stiff. We ended up going a different route and have been quite pleased with our decision. I would consider running multiple instances of single cats. It's easier to replace one if you damage one, and you can separate the ends to run to different positions at foh or the stage. The cat5e breakouts to xlr work well for analog lines to/from foh as well. They even work for our comm.

[ProSoundWeb Community]