How are you networking........

S

Steve Ferreira

Sophomore
Jan 12, 2011
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16
Toronto, Canada
How are you networking to your amp racks? I'm lookng for a solution to get my Itechs and Xtis on a wireless network so I can monitor from foh. I have 2 ITs and 2 Xtis in a rack. Is there a product that will do usb and cat5 out of one unit? Will I need to get a usd hub also in the rack?

Thanks
 
Re: How are you networking........

Steve Ferreira said:
How are you networking to your amp racks? I'm lookng for a solution to get my Itechs and Xtis on a wireless network so I can monitor from foh. I have 2 ITs and 2 Xtis in a rack. Is there a product that will do usb and cat5 out of one unit? Will I need to get a usd hub also in the rack?

Thanks
Click to expand...

We are using Belkin Network USB Hubs (Model #F5L009) for our Xtis and simply ran this into a wireless router. That worked really well when we just had Xtis, now that we've added ITs we haven't had great success getting them all to work as well on the network. We have had to plug everything into a separate switch and are suspecting that the switch may be the culprit, but we haven't had a chance to work on it. We are considering going with a wired network for our amps which we planned to try during our slow time this winter, but we haven't had much of a slow time.

The Xtis on the wireless network worked, but didn't always stay connected to the network and we would have to completely reboot the whole thing. It wasn't much of a problem for concerts, but for long corporate days and festivals it would sometimes lose connectivity. I know this is only partially helpful, but at least it is a start.
 
Re: How are you networking........

The I-Techs are the easy part; just plug them into a wireless router and you're set. They do push a LOT of packets, so the network will get a workout, and less quality network gear might not work so well, especially wireless units.

As far as getting XTis to work over Ethernet, good luck. There are many solutions to make it happen, but they're not designed for the data load of amps that have continuously-updating meters, so they rarely stay working for long, especially with many amps on one unit. Network USB hubs were designed for scanners, printers, and other simple, non-data-intensive devices.

If you're buying XTis, it would probably be a better option to simply put a laptop on top of the rack and put the laptop on the network for remote access than to mess with the USB.

I do like monitoring as much as I can at a show, but in reality, if everything is set up properly to begin with, monitoring and adjusting won't be needed.
 
Re: How are you networking........

Silas Pradetto said:
I do like monitoring as much as I can at a show, but in reality, if everything is set up properly to begin with, monitoring and adjusting won't be needed.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I don't bother with it on most shows, after we're set up and running. Our XTi amps are in the "B" monitor rig, and the USB cable that comes from the Tripp-Lite 7 port hub in each rack is long enough to reach a laptop.

I fail to understand the attraction of wireless "everything" when copper is much more reliable & hack/interference free. Manipulation of consoles is another matter, of course, but wireless networks for amplifiers is silly when you can tape a CAT5e cable to the snake.
 
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