MIDI over CAT5

[CHNL]

Hello,

Set up is for band using MBP with backing tracks in QLab. MBP is normally positioned off stage.

Backing tracks (including click) are triggered using MIDI.

Normally MIDI cables have a maximum length that in some venues is not long enough to be reliable.

Has anyone worked with a solution where MIDI is send over ethernet/cat5?

Would be interested to learn about that......

Thx

CH

[Richard Sillitto]

Yes - we regularly extend MIDI over long distances using either XLR line drivers (CTP) or over Cat5 (Kenton)

Work very reliably. 

Richard. 

E: ric...@yoursoundsolution.co.uk
M: 07931 955149
W: www.rs-sound.co.uk

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[Maik Waschfeld]

Hi CH,

Has anyone worked with a solution where MIDI is send over ethernet/cat5?

Definitely Kenton LNDR <https://kentonuk.com/product/lndr/> for CAT5-cables (non-Ethernet!; personal experiences) or the BomeBox <https://www.bome.com/products/bomebox> (used by another departmernt; strong recommendations from them; non- and actual Ethernet + WiFi)

With kindest regards…
…Maik Waschfeld

(sent from my MBAir11)
also at <mailto:Maik.Wa...@Staatstheater-Stuttgart.de>

[Richard B Ingraham]

Once in a blue moon you’re run into issues with running MIDI over long distances.  But most days you can run MIDI for hundreds of feet with no issues.  Personally before you spend a penny on any of the various extender options I would go out and buy a MIDI cable off the shelf, cut it in half and solder two standard XLR connectors on the bare ends.  Then I just send that cable using standard mic cables.  In some venues I’ve gone through XLR and ¼” bantom type patch bays with the MIDI signal and I think I only ran into an issue one time with length limits.  It’s really about how well the MIDI interface on the gear.  Occasionally you’ll run into gear with a poorly implemented MIDI I/O and it will probably have issues with cable length no matter what.  But most gear just works.

 

On the other hand when I was working on cruise ships those often had MIDI extenders that were meant for running MIDI long distances, I ran into issues with those on several occasions.  Where I a had to power cycle them to get them to work right, etc..  So frankly I find the passive method often works better when dealing with MIDI. 

 

If you really do need to run your MIDI over ethernet, I would look at the Kiss boxes, which is actually an RTP MIDI box.  So it’s fully IP switchable.  Not the cheapest for sure but they are well made and then on your Mac you don’t need any additional hardware.  It just has to be connected to the same network as the KISS box.

https://kiss-box.nl/product-archive/midi2tr-dual-midirtp-midi-transceiver/

 

 

Richard B. Ingraham

RBI Sound

www.rbisound.com