Radial Catapult Rack RX
Radial·Model Catapult Rack RX·radial-catapult-rack-rx
Photos
Manufacturer product photography — the drawn faceplate above stays true to panel layout; these show the hardware itself.
About the Radial Catapult Rack RX
The Radial Catapult Rack RX is a 1UThe standard slice of rack height: 1U = 1.75″. A 3U box takes three slices; half-rack gear pairs two units side by side in one. rack-mount receiver that takes three Cat 5/6 cables (each carrying four analog audio channels) and breaks them out to 12 transformer-isolatedA magnetic coupling that passes audio between two windings with no wire contact — isolates splits and kills ground-loop hum, no power needed. XLRThe standard 3-pin locking connector for mics and balanced line signals — pin 1 is the shield, pins 2 and 3 carry the balanced pair. outputs. It's the receive end of a high-channel-count analog snakeA multicore cable bundling many channels into one stage-to-console run. A sub-snake collects one corner of the stage into a drop box. built on inexpensive shielded Cat cable — ideal for IEMIn-Ear Monitor — earpieces that replace floor wedges, feeding each player their own mix. The reason this whole rack exists. racks, monitor systems, and touring rigs where you need to move a lot of channels from stage to rack without hauling a heavy multicore. Passive, no power required.
The Catapult Rack RX is the receiving end of Radial's Cat-cable analog snakeA multicore cable bundling many channels into one stage-to-console run. A sub-snake collects one corner of the stage into a drop box. system, living in your rack and turning three standard Cat 5/6 runs into twelve transformer-isolatedA magnetic coupling that passes audio between two windings with no wire contact — isolates splits and kills ground-loop hum, no power needed. XLRThe standard 3-pin locking connector for mics and balanced line signals — pin 1 is the shield, pins 2 and 3 carry the balanced pair. outputs. Each Cat cable carries four channels of analog audio, so three runs gets you a full twelve-channel spread — enough to cover a typical IEMIn-Ear Monitor — earpieces that replace floor wedges, feeding each player their own mix. The reason this whole rack exists. mix rig or a monitor worldThe side-stage domain of the monitor engineer — console, IEM racks, and everything feeding the band’s ears instead of the audience. with several mixes plus talkbackThe engineer’s mic into the performers’ ears or monitors — talk to the band without leaving the console. and reference feeds. The transformer isolation on every output is the real story here: it breaks ground loopsHum from gear seeing two ground paths at slightly different voltage — the classic buzz when two racks share audio and power. at the point of entry before noise ever touches your gear downstream.
Passive and drawing zero watts, the RX earns its 1UThe standard slice of rack height: 1U = 1.75″. A 3U box takes three slices; half-rack gear pairs two units side by side in one. without touching your power budget or your power conditionerFilters venue AC, clamps surges, and gives the rack one tidy inlet. Not a voltage regulator and not a battery — just cleaner power.'s outlet count. At 2.7 kg and 200 mm deep it sits comfortably in a shallow rack. On the send side you're running inexpensive, lightweight Cat 5/6 instead of a heavy analog multicore — a meaningful difference when you're self-contained touring and every kilogram matters through an airport or up a venue's back stairs. At load-in, three EtherconAn Ethernet plug inside a rugged XLR-style locking shell — tour-grade network connections that can’t be yanked loose. or Cat cable runs replace what would otherwise be a bulky stage boxThe I/O endpoint on stage: mics plug in there and one digital line (AES50, Dante) carries everything to the console. The snake, digitized. and loomSeveral cables bundled and run as one — keeps rack interconnects tidy and makes load-in one grab instead of eight..
This unit belongs in any rack where you're already using or planning to use Radial's Catapult TX send-side units, or where you want to standardize on Cat-cable infrastructure across multiple rig configurations. It won't help you if your stage-side source is a digital snakeA multicore cable bundling many channels into one stage-to-console run. A sub-snake collects one corner of the stage into a drop box., a DanteThe most common audio-over-network standard: dozens of channels of uncompressed digital audio down one ordinary Ethernet cable between Dante boxes. network, or any other protocol — the Catapult system is purely analog-over-Cat and is not interchangeable with AES67The interop standard that lets different audio-network flavors (Dante, Ravenna, Livewire) exchange streams on the same network., MADIA pro digital format carrying 64 channels on one coax or optical cable. Point-to-point — one sender, one receiver, no network required., or similar. If you need more than twelve channels in a single rack receiver, you'll need to look at additional units or a different architecture entirely.
In the rack
- Label each Cat cable port and its corresponding XLRThe standard 3-pin locking connector for mics and balanced line signals — pin 1 is the shield, pins 2 and 3 carry the balanced pair. output block with the same color tape before the first show — at FOHFront Of House — the main mix the audience hears, and the console position out in the room where it gets mixed. or monitor worldThe side-stage domain of the monitor engineer — console, IEM racks, and everything feeding the band’s ears instead of the audience. in low light, three identical RJ45 sockets look identical when something drops out.
- Patch the XLRThe standard 3-pin locking connector for mics and balanced line signals — pin 1 is the shield, pins 2 and 3 carry the balanced pair. outputs in a consistent, repeatable order that mirrors your console input list; the transformer isolationA magnetic coupling that passes audio between two windings with no wire contact — isolates splits and kills ground-loop hum, no power needed. means you have flexibility about which output feeds which destination, so set a convention and document it on the rack lid.
- Use shielded Cat 6 (S/FTP) for the stage runs rather than unshielded Cat 5e — longer cable runs in electrically noisy environments will thank you, and the transformersA magnetic coupling that passes audio between two windings with no wire contact — isolates splits and kills ground-loop hum, no power needed. work best when the cable itself isn't already picking up interference.
- Because the unit is passive, it can live anywhere in the rack from a signal-flow standpoint — but place it close to your XLRThe standard 3-pin locking connector for mics and balanced line signals — pin 1 is the shield, pins 2 and 3 carry the balanced pair. patch or mix engine inputs to keep those short outboard hops clean and manageable.
12-channel Cat 5/6 rack-mount receive — 3x Cat5Standard network cable grades. In an audio rig one cheap Cat5e run can replace a 48-channel copper snake; AES50 wants it shielded./6 to 12x XLRThe standard 3-pin locking connector for mics and balanced line signals — pin 1 is the shield, pins 2 and 3 carry the balanced pair..
I/O Ports (18)
| Port | Connector | Direction | Signal | Channels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank A In (etherCON) | ETHERCON | input | analog audio | — |
| Bank B In (etherCON) | ETHERCON | input | analog audio | — |
| Bank C In (etherCON) | ETHERCON | input | analog audio | — |
| Bank A Thru (etherCON) | ETHERCON | bidirectional | analog audio | — |
| Bank B Thru (etherCON) | ETHERCON | bidirectional | analog audio | — |
| Bank C Thru (etherCON) | ETHERCON | bidirectional | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 1 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 2 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 3 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 4 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 5 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 6 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 7 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 8 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 9 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 10 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 11 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
| XLR Out 12 | XLR MALE | output | analog audio | — |
Deciding between two?
Rack space, watts, weight and every connector, side by side.
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