snake conduit size question

[Lee Brenkman]

Here's one for all of my learned colleagues out there.

I'm again involved in the specifying of sound for a new venue in an OLD building.

This time I'm trying to get the appropriate, yet flexible, infrastructure into the construction so that they can have what they need INSIDE the walls and under the floor so that their system can grow without looking like the all to frequent Rube Goldberg looking set of add ons.

So I'm advising them to run some conduit for a snake and another for return and com etc. lines under the floor before they pour concrete.

I know that some of us feel the days of the copper mic snake are numbered but initially that's what they're going to have and the electrical contractor is clear on the concept of pull ropes so that the original snake can be removed and a larger replacement or touring group snake can be installed later.

SO, the question is WHAT SIZE should I specify. I'm thinking it needs to be big enough to pull 1) an AMP multipin connector 2) the largest MASS connector or 3) 48 nicely bagged XLRs if they start off with an install with an existing snake with a hardwire fanout.

And I think it would be good to have the second "return" conduit the same size "just in case".

Your thoughts and advice?

 

[Jason Lavoie]

Re: snake conduit size question

6"
and when they fall off the chair at the price, you'll have to go lower and find a happy medium
seriously though, unless you have a nice straight run, 48 XLRs won't make it through any conduit easily.. if you really think you'll be pulling prefabbed snakes then you're better off with troughs and/or straight runs with a break at each corner like a storage room or something where each pull is straight and you can do one section at a time..
at the end of the day, having your snake made or rebuilt with a multipin will certainly be cheaper than the oversized conduit..

Jason

 

[Art Welter]

Re: snake conduit size question

6"
and when they fall off the chair at the price, you'll have to go lower and find a happy medium
seriously though, unless you have a nice straight run, 48 XLRs won't make it through any conduit easily.. if you really think you'll be pulling prefabbed snakes then you're better off with troughs and/or straight runs with a break at each corner like a storage room or something where each pull is straight and you can do one section at a time..
at the end of the day, having your snake made or rebuilt with a multipin will certainly be cheaper than the oversized conduit..

Jason

Six inches seems like it would be a tight fit with a Ramlatch /Amp Quick Latch and a big twist-lock AC connection.

An outdoor venue installed a 4" conduit without consulting anyone involved with sound.
The conduit was barely large enough for my relatively small Elco snake connectors (which fit in Sennheiser 441 mic box which I had to remove) to fit in. Once the connectors hit the bend about 3 foot down, they wedged tight, took about a half hour to wiggle it back out.
As usual for the two week event, the snake had to be buried again..

 

[gordon mcgregor]

Re: snake conduit size question

I agree 6" pipe should be the smallest size if you have to run a conduit, a trough is definately better and quicker to use. One thing to watch is it dosen't breech any fire partitions, there are 2 venues here in Glasgow where the multi runs are horrendous due to lack of foresight and also fire/building regs.G