Trantec S5.3 network monitoring

[cedd]

Hi all

This last weekend I had a difficult RF environment to play in, that got me thinking about remote monitoring of my Trantec S5.3's.

 

First off let me say that I think the USB monitoring of the Trantec receivers is really good. Yes it's very simple compared to the Sennheiser products. It's literally a status of RF level, AF and battery. But, once I've got a show set up and working, that's all I want. I need to quickly glance at my screen when I encounter a problem, and easily see what's causing the issue (9 times out of 10 it seems to be a knackered headset at the minute, but that's another project/quest!). One gripe I have is that the ordering of receivers on screen is done by USB port number, rather than by setting an individual address, or configuring the software. That means you've got to be pretty careful with your USB hubs in your racks.

 

The venue for this weekend's show was a city centre receiving house. Directly backing on to the place are several bars and clubs that I know make use of radio mics. This was already of concern for me (especially with my channel 70 stuff - though I could have moved it into channel 69 if needed) but to cap it all off, there was a huge outdoor gig happening in the city square literally outside the theatre. The IEM aerials for this gig were pointing pretty much straight at my venue! It was a big name playing so I guessed they'd maybe not be using the largely unprotected channel 38, but I still wanted to make sure I wasn't going to see any interference. Therefore I decided to change my usual antenna and booster arrangement which sits front of house, for a lower gain antenna system sitting at the side of the stage. The general aim was to de-sensetise my antenna system and make sure the relative levels of my transmitters Vs anybody else's were as large as possible. This seemed to work and I had no RF issues all weekend. This did however mean I couldn't see my receivers as I usually could, so had no visual indication of any faults or RF issues.

 

Last week I started looking at USB over Cat5 solutions. Unfortunately all the cheaper ones (sub £100) seemed to be USB 1.0 only. The Trantec's seem to suggest they need USB 2.0, and I wasn't going to waste money buying one to find out.

It was then that I found a Belkin USB network hub.

http://www.belkin.com/uk/networkusbhub/

 

This looked to tick all the boxes, so I took the plunge and bought one (refurbished on ebay for just over 20 quid).

It comes with a driver cd that installed pretty easily. I found an old wireless router and connected it to one of the ethernet sockets. As soon as I connected my laptop to the network, it found the hub, and then found my receivers that were plugged into it. They appear in Belkin's control panel and from there you can eject devices and also request to connect to them (only one pc can use a device at a time, so if 2 of you are wanting to share, you've got to send requests to each other to "give up" the device).

All these USB devices appear in the hardware list of control panel (I think it's under "system") as proper USB devices.

 

I ran the trantec software and what do you know, it found the receivers and displayed their data!

 

There are still one or two flaws, but I'm hoping I can work around them;

 

The receivers are now not in the right order. I'm not sure why. They're all off of one USB port from the hub, and everything after that is in the correct, normal order. I can't see why the hubs would number their ports differently when connected to this device. They do seem to come up at least in the same order every time, so I'm hoping a quick shuffle of connectors will get them the right way round again.

 

I also only seem to be able to monitor a maximum of 13 devices. This is true whether the racks are connected through each other, to the hub on one usb socket, or if I connect a rack to each of the hub's usb's. Looks like 13 devices is the maximum it can manage (not to be sniffed at though...). This isn't a show stopper. I run 16 receivers, but my principal cast are all on the 12 channel 38 sets. The 4 in channel 70 are very much there for supporting cast and spares. I can live without being able to monitor these.

 

This device may have other uses. If you had a desk with only USB monitoring (The Roland M480 for example) I see no reason why you couldn't use one of these to connect to it wirelessly.

 

I'll carry on playing and see what I can do with the port numbering business, but thought it might be of use to a few people.

 

Chris

[durian]

I also only seem to be able to monitor a maximum of 13 devices.

 

my documentation says 12

 

 

I have an 8 way ready to go but have yet to hook it up to monitoring, there is barely enough room for the two macs and the desk and everything else.

 

I have no where to put the pc and the hub and the snake of usb leads.

 

so far I haven't hooked mine up for monitoring yet.....

 

I did get a nice email from the boss of Toa apologising the fact I couldnt monitor from my control room apple macs......with a veiled promise it would be invesigated :)

[cedd]

my documentation says 12

Is that just receivers by usb, or using the Belkin unit? It's perfectly possible to monitor 16 S5.3's via USB simultaneously - I was doing it last week. The limitation seems to come once I put the Belkin unit in line.

 

If I can get these things to monitor in the right order, I'll make this my regular setup and always monitor by a network connection.

 

Just a note - putting the wireless router on top of the receiver rack causes stray RF on the meters. Not surprising really, but worth mentioning. You'll need to move any wireless hubs you use in my above setup away from the receivers by a small distance.

[benweblight]

Interesting; I know someone that takes another approach to this:

 

A very basic laptop at the stage end connected to the receivers.

And a TFT monitor at FOH connected via CAT5/VGA baluns. Obviously that's a cabled setup.

 

Equally, you could in theory connect the laptop to a router and control it wirelessly with a tablet/laptop running VNC.

[durian]

my documentation says 12

Is that just receivers by usb, or using the Belkin unit?.

 

from the manual, over usb, I have no experience of the monitoring software yet and very happy to see a fellow 5.3 sharing practices and thoughts on them :)

[DavidHart]

I use 2 of the Trust 10 way USB 2.0 hubs connected to a laptop P/S of stage.

I go out of the laptop (VGA) to a Startech VGA/ Cat 5 converter and then plug in a 50m drum of Cat 5 and run to FOH where I then use another Startech Cat 5/ VGA converter to plug in a TFT screen.

So far I have 18 recievers working fine and will try a few more soon.

[smalljoshua]

Just a followup on this, I'm looking for a way to monitor Crown XTi Amps over a network which are also USB only. Are you still using this Cedd or have you moved on to something newer?

 

Thanks,

 

Josh

[cedd]

Hi Josh

 

I’m still remote monitoring and have used a number of different solutions depending on the circumstances. The Belkin network USB hubs are still doing sterling service and aside from the limitations mentioned above (12 receivers maximum and messing with the port numbering slightly) have been great. Equally extending the video over cat5 works just fine too.

[pritch]

I've got nothing as fancy as monitored amps or radio mics to deal with, but at home I do have a monitored fish tank - this involves a little USB doodad that dangles into the tank. You then connect it to either the company's own internet-connected box or a Windows PC. As the box they were offering was £150, I decided to look at alternatives.

 

I ended up going on Amazon and finding a Windows 8 tablet for a mere £50 - this thing actually runs a full version of Windows 8, and can have actual USB devices plugged into it via an included adaptor. You can then remote into it using your choice of remote control software - or, of course, you can just look at the screen on the tablet if you're nearby.

[smalljoshua]

That's good to know. This is for an install so I might stick clear of a full PC.

 

I'm trying to get one on demo from a manufacturer I've found however not looking likely!

 

Josh

[richard_cooper]

I've used VirtualHere running on a RaspberryPI for both XTIs, S5.5, and also 01V96s. Seemed to work reliably.