Cat5/6/7 Ethercon Stage Boxes

[Chienmortbb]

Has anyone used these in anger? Of course it is not as good as using audio cable but I suspect it would suffice in many applications.

Thomann Cat Snake

Edited December 20, 2024 by Chienmortbb

[BigRedX]

Unless it's for a permanent installation, make sure you can find a suitably robust cable to use with this.

 

I have yet to find an ethernet cable that will withstand the rigours of being coiled and uncoiled even once a week at gigs for more than a year.

[Chienmortbb]

18 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Unless it's for a permanent installation, make sure you can find a suitably robust cable to use with this.

 

I have yet to find an ethernet cable that will withstand the rigours of being coiled and uncoiled even once a week at gigs for more than a year.

That was one of my worries. 

[cbd]

Thomann's ethercon cables look pretty good - although I don't know how long you can get them: https://www.thomann.co.uk/pro_snake_cat5e_cable_2m.htm

 

I've got a pair of these boxes for my home music room to run cables from the drum kit to the interface on the other side of the room, but it never moves so I just have a cheap shielded ethernet cable (flat in fact so it looks unobtrusive) that I definitely wouldn't want to take out the house.

 

The boxes themselves are really solid though.

[cbd]

OK yep their cat6 ones look like the right thing, and come in more lengths than 1m and 2m unlike the one I linked before.

https://www.thomann.co.uk/pro_snake_cat6e_cable_10m.htm

 

The reviews also say they're shielded and have connectivity all the way through which is what you need for those snake boxes to work (1 twisted pair per channel + shared ground).

[rwillett]

On 22/12/2024 at 11:56, BigRedX said:

Unless it's for a permanent installation, make sure you can find a suitably robust cable to use with this.

 

I have yet to find an ethernet cable that will withstand the rigours of being coiled and uncoiled even once a week at gigs for more than a year.

Most Ethernet cable is sold core so is not designed to be constantly reconnected, coiled, uncooled etc.

 

As previous posters have said, I'd be amazed it lasts a year. It will also go wrong at just the wrong time. Cabling has this inherent property of knowing the worst possible time to fail to cause the maximum chaos.

Rob

 

[PinkMohawk]

Nowt wrong with Ethercon, been used for a long time in pro touring applications. As long as you're buying proper Ethercon cables, not just regular cat5 you'll be fine. If you'd like an example, basically every major tour, festival, show, what-have-you, will be running Ethercon cables from the stage to FOH. Basically no-one is using analogue snakes for those long runs anymore. 

[BigRedX]

I think I'd want to buy an Ethercon cable on a drum because that will definitely help protect it when coiling and un-coiling over and over again. I'd probably also want an identical spare.

 

 

Edited January 5 by BigRedX

[sprocketflup]

No one else had favourable experience using Van Damme Tourcat? 

 

[Chienmortbb]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

I think I'd want to buy an Ethercon cable on a drum because that will definitely help protect it when coiling and un-coiling over and over again. I'd probably also want an identical spare.

 

 

Like any other cable, they should be coiled using the under/over method, even safer than coiling on a drum which puts its own stresses on a cable.

[BigRedX]

18 hours ago, Chienmortbb said:

Like any other cable, they should be coiled using the under/over method, even safer than coiling on a drum which puts its own stresses on a cable.

 

Have you tried coiling 30+ metres of cable using the under/over method?

[Chienmortbb]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

Have you tried coiling 30+ metres of cable using the under/over method?

Actually I have. I once had a 100m reel of Sommer 2.5mm Meridien speaker cable delivered. It had been dropped and the cable reel had broken. I had to untangle and unravel it then cut it into roughly 50m lengths. It was hard but by choosing much bigger loops than for shorter cables, it can be done. One of the issues with reeled cable is that it remembers how it was coiled on the reel and that makes it more difficult with new cable.

 

However it was not a pleasant experience and I would not like to try it again.

[mike257]

On 05/01/2025 at 13:16, sprocketflup said:

No one else had favourable experience using Van Damme Tourcat? 

 

 

Absolutely, yes. It's in heavy use on pro stages everywhere. 

 

As @PinkMohawk said, a huge amount of infrastructure in touring shows is running on tactical/flexible network cable and Ethercon connectors - digital multicores, lighting control, MIDI, and sometimes analogue audio too.

 

I used it for analogue lines on a tour with a rap artist to pick up the main and booth feeds (four channels of audio) from a DJ mixer at centre stage as it was lighter than running a 12 way stagebox out like we'd normally use for stage drops. Used it across two month-long tours, in and out every day being coiled by heavy-handed stage crew, didn't skip a beat. Had a rack panel in monitor world, and a breakout to XLR tails for the stage end. 

 

The Tourcat cable (and similar stuff available from other pro brands) is made to be flexible, lie flat on stage, and be coiled easily. You'll be absolutely fine with it. 

 

Wasn't on a drum, it coils fine just like any other other stage cable would and didn't need any special treatment. Was just tossed in a cable trunk with all the XLR and other audio bits. 

[Suburban Man]

As stated earlier, whatever you do don't use standard, solid core cat 5/6 cable - whichis meant to be fixed in place and not move.

What you need is stranded core cable with a strong outer like this stuff - BELDEN 1303EPU CAT 6A DATA CABLE Stranded conductor - Deployable

Neutrik also do a nice range of XLR-like plugs and sockets for cat5/6 cables, so you can run the van over them and still do the gig.