Zoning The Stage
By Peter Janis

New directions in stage signal management


Convertible snake system.

For the past 10 years or so, there has been a gradual shift in snake system designs and layouts with the advent of stage zoning. Most concert snakes currently in use offer a snake “head” with anywhere from 40 to 60 channels as well as monitor and front of house (FOH) trunks.

Runs are typically 50 feet to the monitor desk and 200 to 300 feet to FOH. Cable trunks are for the most part connected to the stage head using a quick-disconnect multi-pin, with the same at the XLR fan-out.

But snake systems have evolved, with stages divided into a series of zones that are connected to the snake head via sub-snakes and multi-pin connectors. For instance, one zone may be for keyboards, one may be at the drum kit, one for the back-line ‘stage left’ and the other back-line ‘stage right’.


Radial family of sub-snakes.

An interesting example of this was the recent Celine Dion world tour: Montreal sound company Solotech took zoning a huge step further by providing individual snakes and multipin connectors to each musician’s rack.This included a sub-snake for each guitarist, bass player, keyboards; in fact, dozens of sub-snakes routed throughout the stage.

Sound extreme? It may be impractical for regional touring, where specific systems cannot be configured for a particular band, but the advantages of zoning the stage are many. Intricate stage set-ups can be done in half the time.


The use of zones simplifies stage set-up.

Because of the nature of multi-pin connectors, it is virtually impossible for channels to be misconnected. Therefore, stages are cleaner, noise is reduced and tear down time is also significantly reduced. This allows touring companies to keep their technical crew requirements to a minimum while limiting local crews for grunt work. The result is reduced travel costs without compromising performance.

Sub-snake configurations typically vary between six and 20 channels, with the most popular number being 12 channels.

This is mostly due to the fact that 37-pin multi-connectors are widely available (XLR 3 pins x 12 = 36, plus one spare), as is 12-channel snake cable (also used in 8 by 4 snakes). Because most snakes tend to be 48 to 52 channels, 12 channels makes dividing the stage into four zones relatively easy.


Peter Janis is president and managing director of CableTek Electronics, the parent company of Radial Engineering, Primacoustic and C-Tec. He is also chairman of the Vancouver AES Society.

 

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