The What: SoundTools debuted its newest product, in prototype form; the CAT Snake at the 2014 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival running April 11-13 and 18-20. The units create a quick and cost effective four channel analog snake that can alternatively carry up to four AES/EBU digital feeds utilizing common Cat-5 wire.
The What Else: The application of the CAT Snake at Coachella showcased its functionality for live sound and its potential use in recording, commercial, and home projects. Anywhere there is a C5 infrastructure, the CAT Snake can offer quick and professional access for multiple audio lines.
The Why: “The CAT Snake is a wonderful solution for the analog lines we run to delay clusters at Coachella,” said Dave Rat, president of Rat Sound Systems, the primary audio vendor for the event. “We literally entrench thousands of feet of analog and digital audio cable that invariably gets destroyed during load out. By switching to the Cat Snake for analog backup lines, we can just leave the shielded Cat-5 in the ground and the cost per foot is so affordable, it’s easy to replace.”
The Bottom Line: “Its simplicity at its best,” said Bryant Poole lead engineer on the project. “You can run four lines of audio down a simple shielded Cat-5, Cat-5E, or Cat-6 cable. It’s a passive unit that provides the added versatility of having an EtherCon input or feed through connection on either side.”
