I like a clean stage, don’t you? Stupid question. Like you’re going to write back to me and say, “No, I prefer wires everywhere, the more, the merrier.” However, this thought is fresh in my mind as I just finished prepping our stage at church for the weekend service. So much goes into making a weekend happen from audio inputs, personal mixers, power drops for instruments, and all the various mic and guitar stands. If your stage is like mine, where we opted not to use floor boxes and instead use drop snakes and cable looms to reach everything, then stage cleanliness becomes a more significant battle, But you can take heart, because there are infinite possibilities for stage setup.
Our current setup includes a Dante backbone with I/O on both sides of the stage and bulky 100-foot, 24-channel snakes from the stage left and right. Overkill? Yes. I have wanted to replace them with something more manageable for some time, but like with most things, that which isn’t broken doesn’t get your utmost attention. However, I came across these new boxes from Radial Engineering in their Catapult line. The new Catapult Mini, which is shipping now, is a straightforward pair of passive boxes that provide four XLR channels of analog audio over a CAT5. That’s it, no additional power supply or Dante controller.
The new Catapult Mini, which is shipping now, is a straightforward pair of passive boxes that provide four XLR channels of analog audio over a CAT5. That’s it, no additional power supply or Dante controller.
Some observations
This is just an initial impression ... I haven’t heard their quality yet (even though I ordered two pairs already) but it's from Radial who I already have all over my stage with their DIs and SGI extenders, so I trust them. What caught my eye with these are the various uses I could dream up. Our portable system at church is a small analog rig. I could offload much weight by ditching the current snake and deploying a few of these. I am also thinking on my stage, with the ability to put one on each riser, then when I need to move things, unplug the CAT5 leaving the instruments plugged in. From the pictures, it looks like Radial's standard design, so I know they will hold up to being tossed around.
Looking through their manual, it was a little confusing at first, because they tout that it works over existing building CAT5 infrastructure (which is cool because so many things today with audio over ethernet require CAT6) but part way through the manual it randomly mentions shielded CAT5. “Simply connect a shielded Cat 5 cable between any two Catapult modules and they will use the cable’s analogue conductors to deliver four balanced audio lines to any destination. As many buildings are already pre-wired for Cat 5…” That raised a red flag, however further in, they clarify that to use Phantom Power over the Catapult Mini’s you would need to use a shielded cable. Line level signal does not require a shield but could benefit the audio transmission.
Since this is strictly an analog device, they have to be connected directly together, meaning it can’t go through a switch (we have Dante for that). However, these mini’s can work in tandem with Radials more extensive line of Catapult products. Their website shows a picture of a Catapult Mini with two male and two female XLRs, which could be useful if creating some tie lines between two rooms. However, there doesn’t seem to be a product number for that so it may have just been a photo for illustrative purposes.
Like I said earlier, I bought a couple, I know where one is going already, and it just saved me from having to pull and terminate four audio cables to our lobby audio headend.
In a world where Dante is king, it’s nice to see analog still has some uses. Like I said earlier, I bought a couple, I know where one is going already, and it just saved me from having to pull and terminate four audio cables to our lobby audio headend. They list for $89.99 each, so I am paying a bit of a convenience fee over pulling home runs, but we’re a busy church, and by the time I pull four wires and term eight XLRs, these are more than worth it.
