Wireless networking to see FOH & Amps Racks at the same time

M

Matt Vivlamore

Senior
Jan 11, 2011
911
4
18
41
Southern MD, USA
www.meerkatsound.com
I am dumb at this networking stuff and I need something to improve my current set-up. Because 3 years ago I bought a “$30 Special” wireless router to monitor my Itech amps with my ThinkPad. Now, I have added the LS9 and iPad2 to my wireless network. I can get my ThinkPad to control the LS9, but not the iPad2 (haven’t configured it). My wireless router lives in the Amp Rack.


My Goals, I want to…
- watch/control the LS9 & Itechs at the same time
- eliminate the Cat5 cable run between the LS9 & Amp Rack
- much better network with less drop-outs
- expandability; I am looking at adding another Itech and maybe the Yamaha MY8-Lake card


What exactly do I need?
Item Numbers are good, but a picture is a winner.
 
Re: Wireless networking to see FOH & Amps Racks at the same time

Oh yea... I'm also upgrading my wireless soon to 4 units of Shure ULX-D system and they will live in my IEM/wireless rack; which usually rides ontop of my Itech amp rack.

Spot 1: LS9-32 (future: MY8-Lake card)
Spot 2: 2 Itechs (future: 1x Itech)
Spot 3: (future: 4 ULX-D & 4 ew300 G3s)

Laptop and iPad will connect to my network as well.
 
Re: Wireless networking to see FOH & Amps Racks at the same time

What you need is a wireless bridge. There are 2 main types of this, one is an independant box (i have a netgear WGPS606 which connects to my home CCTV in my shed) that connects to your wifi like a normal computer and you can connect devices to it that can then access the wireless network.
The other type work as a pair creating a bridge between the 2 networks. I have 2 chepo tenda units that I use for connecting to my computers up stairs and to the printers located downstairs.

If however you want complete independance between the two racks than something like described in the first example would probably be best. (Iv'e had my WGPS606 for years now and still works perfectly, it's only wireless G but do you really need more than that?)
 
Last edited:
Re: Wireless networking to see FOH & Amps Racks at the same time

Remember that you can gain the functionality you're looking for in a cable, if you're contemplating at some point getting a digital snake system anyway. Both Yamahas new Dante system and Riedel Rocknet will let run regular IP-traffic along the audio in the same cable. I'm doing it with Rocknet and it works great. I have my wireless router in my amp rack, hooked up to the amps and to the Rocknet unit which provides my amps with signal on AES/EBU. The whole Rocknet system then works as one big switch, and the Ethernet ports in the MY-cards in the console can be used to connect to the console and a PC f.inst.
 
Re: Wireless networking to see FOH & Amps Racks at the same time

Frederik Rosenkjær said:
Remember that you can gain the functionality you're looking for in a cable, if you're contemplating at some point getting a digital snake system anyway. Both Yamahas new Dante system and Riedel Rocknet will let run regular IP-traffic along the audio in the same cable. I'm doing it with Rocknet and it works great. I have my wireless router in my amp rack, hooked up to the amps and to the Rocknet unit which provides my amps with signal on AES/EBU. The whole Rocknet system then works as one big switch, and the Ethernet ports in the MY-cards in the console can be used to connect to the console and a PC f.inst.
Click to expand...

Frederik, I would love to add a digital snake, but there are other priorities in the system that need ot be upgraded/replaced before I do that. Lately most of my mixing is side of stage.
 
Re: Wireless networking to see FOH & Amps Racks at the same time

Matt Vivlamore said:
Frederik, I would love to add a digital snake, but there are other priorities in the system that need ot be upgraded/replaced before I do that. Lately most of my mixing is side of stage.
Click to expand...

What Frederik is getting at: There is no shame in wire, and it is the backbone of digital signal transport. In the case of Dante and RockNet, your TCP/IP based data can travel with the digital audio. You may see RF as important, many of us see it as a weak link.

Tim "give me copper" Mc
 
Re: Wireless networking to see FOH & Amps Racks at the same time

The truth is its going to be hard to find a decent wireless solution that will be as reliable as you want for under $1500 or so, cable is the best way to go. But, if your less worried about the wireless aspect of it from say the amp racks, this is what I would do.
Access point for rack at FOH:Newegg.com - Cisco Small Business WAP121-A-K9-NA Wireless-N Access Point w/ PoE
hook up to a gigabit switch with poe to power it, then connect to laptop, ls9, anything else
exact same setup in amp racks, except set the access point up to connect to the other
The one in the foh rack could provide dhcp if needed, if not everything could be static
Thats the wireless pretty good way, ~$375 plus the time to set it up. Versus a 10 dollar cable, and only one access point

Matt Vivlamore said:
I know cable is the clear winner; but I don't want to be tied down.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Wireless networking to see FOH & Amps Racks at the same time

I thought I would update this thread since this past weekend my $30 special Router crapped out on me mid gig. So I went out an bought some items for my "sound network".

So I went out and bought 1 Netgear N300 Wireless Router (pn: WNR2000) and 1 Netgear WiFi Ranger Extender (pn: WN2000RPT). I put the Wireless Router in the LS9 doghouse and the Ranger Extender lives in the Amp Rack to monitor the Itechs.

With the laptop and/or iPad I can connect to either WiFi box to view what the LS9 and Itechs are doing. I now can connect to my LS9 with the iPad (I could never get the connection before).
 
Re: Wireless networking to see FOH & Amps Racks at the same time

Matt Vivlamore said:
I thought I would update this thread since this past weekend my $30 special Router crapped out on me mid gig. So I went out an bought some items for my "sound network".

So I went out and bought 1 Netgear N300 Wireless Router (pn: WNR2000) and 1 Netgear WiFi Ranger Extender (pn: WN2000RPT). I put the Wireless Router in the LS9 doghouse and the Ranger Extender lives in the Amp Rack to monitor the Itechs.

With the laptop and/or iPad I can connect to either WiFi box to view what the LS9 and Itechs are doing. I now can connect to my LS9 with the iPad (I could never get the connection before).
Click to expand...

Good work. I just purchased a WNDR3700 to upgrade my WNR2000 at home, the 2000 is going to be getting racked up to go out with my X32, we should touch base on reliability after some time has passed.
 
Top Bottom