Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Brian Jojade]

Almost regardless of build quality, it's very rare (although not impossible) to find a Category-type cable that has good handling characteristics. If you're looming it together with other cables (especially something heavy like power) then that particular negative can be diminished somewhat, but on its own it's typically not fun stuff to be dealing with, so its usefulness for sub-snakes is probably a bit limited (unless you're always running power with it, anyway).

The cat 5 rugged I have is very similar to a nice flexible mic cable. If you didn't look at the end, you may not be able to tell the difference while wrapping. The cat 6 of the same brand was definitely stiffer, but not horrible.

[Martin Morris]

The only application I've heard of where someone is using Category cable for sub-snakes is a Broadway designer who uses them in the orchestra pit
-Russ

Steve Lampen of Belden mentioned that at Obama's 1st inauguration in 2009 - they used hundreds of the ETS Intasnake units for all of the audio.

45 minutes into this presentation - Audio Over Ethernet Cable Workshop Pt 1
Dan Mortensen arranged this event?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKp6AaIf42o

Cheers
Martin

[Dave Bednarski]

+1 on Rat CAT products.  The pink/blue cable has held up wonderfully over the years and taken a lot of abuse.

I've found it hard to realize any time savings with them on most work.

So far I've used cat boxes in rack setups (IEM rack or RF rack back to the rack w/ the patch) - but its overly proprietary.  They've been handy with powered speakers for the PA setups - link two cat boxes, down stage left/right, with 4 outputs, its a clean left/right, and 2 subs (or mono subs).

If you're working the same project a lot and happen to have a big keyboard setup, the cat boxes can be a time saver to brick together with DIs and 1ft XLR jumpers.  Plop it on a guitar pedal board... label things... You can make quick work setting up and striking what can quickly add up to a lot of cables.

Whirlwind now (recently?) has a "MultiCat" that allows you to reuse or mix and match existing W1 connectors and patches with CAT drops.

http://whirlwindusa.com/catalog/snakes-splitters-and-multiwiring-systems/snakes/multicat

http://whirlwindusa.com/catalog/snakes-splitters-and-multiwiring-systems/snakes/catdusa

The fact that it can tie into my existing W1 analog patch makes it appealing.

I have to think it through more but there are situations where I wouldn't mind splitting a 12 channel stage box three ways.  There are weekend festival stage situations where I feel like we put out more than we need (typical festival patch) because one band has X stage left and the next stage right, the third nothing at all, fourth is nothing like the first three.  Being able to drop that MultiCat near the drum riser feels more flexible throughout the day.  But... not sure.

[Dan Richardson]

I also purchased the Lyx Pro version from Amazon to check them out and I'm happy so far. They're a lot cheaper too.

I had to replace the ethercon connectors on mine. They sent me a replacement, and its jacks were also bad.

[Martin Morris]

I had to replace the ethercon connectors on mine. They sent me a replacement, and its jacks were also bad.

Thanks Dan, I've got a few of the Ratsnake units for the mission critical stuff and haven't put the Lyn in service yet. I might open them up and have a look inside. The XLR's on mine look solid and did wonder about the Ethercon connectors.

Cheers
Martin

[Tim McCulloch]

NOTE the insertion/removal cycle design limit of RJ45 connectors.  My fuzzy memory is most are <2000.

[Mark Scrivener]

Thanks everyone! Lots of good info and it seems while not quite as robust as regular snake cable, these solutions are up to the task if handled properly.

[Tim McCulloch]

Thanks everyone! Lots of good info and it seems while not quite as robust as regular snake cable, these solutions are up to the task if handled properly.

IMHO these are not a long term solution, but great tools to simplify life when you need another 4 channels.

[Dan Mortensen]

Steve Lampen of Belden mentioned that at Obama's 1st inauguration in 2009 - they used hundreds of the ETS Intasnake units for all of the audio.

45 minutes into this presentation - Audio Over Ethernet Cable Workshop Pt 1
Dan Mortensen arranged this event?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKp6AaIf42o

Cheers
Martin

Yes, Martin, I put that together after having some CAT cable issues with my X32's and not knowing why. I figured my chances were better to learn something by putting the event together and inviting an audience to go along for the ride, which is how many of our AES Section meetings and workshops are put together.

Glad you enjoyed the video, and am impressed that you so clearly learned relevant information from it. As I think is noted in the Youtube description, we've learned a lot since then.

On topic: I have some of the Rat boxes and use them periodically with good success. Also got some others from Amazon and have maybe used them once. That format is handy to have as a backup.

[Mike Caldwell]

IMHO these are not a long term solution, but great tools to simplify life when you need another 4 channels.

I agree, for on stage sub snake usage I still like a real snake cable and if needed
locking multipin connectors on the box.

My D Snake cable to the stage box is ran out of the way of on stage foot and equipment
traffic.

[ProSoundWeb Community]