Radial introduces Catapult 4 Channel Audio Snake and BT-Pro Bluetooth Direct Box
Radial is like Taco Bell. The restaurant franchise cranks out new variations of meat, beans, rice, and vegetables in surprising ways and Radial is no different. How many ways can you transform audio signals? Two more, according to the latest press releases.
BT-Pro

Radial BT-Pro
The first offering is the BT-Pro Bluetooth direct box. Yep, Bluetooth. Let’s say a digital device needs to send audio to the console. It’s great to have a hard-wired connection but that’s not always available or the best method, especially when the audio is provided by the person on stage.
Radial allows for a secure safe connection by using a pairing process. Here’s the skinny on the setup:
- BT-Pro is powered by an external supply, either with a USB power adapter or a USB port from a laptop.
- Two top-mounted LEDs flash back and forth to signal it’s awaiting pairing. Turn on your device’s Bluetooth option and connect to the “RADIAL” connection sent out by the BT-Pro.
- Once the two are paired with the secure pass code, the BT-Pro’s red LED lights up and then fades in and out to signal an established connection.
The BT-Pro converts the data to a stereo analog signal, producing up to +4dB at the output. The signal level is controlled by a potentiometer shared with the built-in headphone amp. This uses a standard 3.5mm mini TRS.
A stereo-to-mono switch enables the input for dual-mono operation to reduce input requirements on the mixer or split the signal to the PA and monitors. Should noise be encountered, two side-mounted isolation transformers may be inserted into the signal path. This is augmented with a ground lift switch for the XLRs to further help eliminate ground loops.
Catapult 4 Channel Audio Snake

Radial Catapult
I’ll be honest, I had to re-read the press release because it seemed too brilliant and too simple. In short, turn any standard cat-5 shielded twisted pair cable into a four-channel digital snake. Signals can be sent via analog or AES digital audio signals. Just get an Input and Output box for each end.
Each INPUT module features 4 XLR inputs and two Neutrik Ethercon outputs and 4 additional XLR outputs. Output modules feature Ethercon input, throughput and two sets of XLR outputs. These may be ordered without transformers for sub snakes or to transmit AES audio signals; with mic isolation transformers for signal splitting between front of house, monitors or the recording system; or with line level isolation transformers to eliminate system noise. A ground lift switch is available at each end for the Ethernet cable connection to help eliminate hum and buzz caused by ground loops.
You’ll notice there are no links to these products. It’s because they are so new. Radial doesn’t even have anything on their web site. Bugs me when companies do that, but so it goes.
Radial BT-pro
Chris, the BT-Pro is another great tool from Radial. I have a bit of a problem; all of our direct boxes, computer interfaces at our church are Radial. When we moved to Radial a few years ago on our V-Drums, and JDI on guitar we really eliminated some noise and issues with previous direct boxes. So I am a huge Radial fan given the budget for the purchase.
The BT-Pro and the device pass some tones when pairing; my car doesn’t but the BT-Pro does and if it is patched and channels are on you here that through your system. I have a reoccurring nightmare of it generating the pairing tone during a quiet moment in a worship service.
Hi Chris..
Thanks for keeping in touch
Best regards,
Elmer
Curious about BT latency with these devices. In the past BT has simply been far to slow for live sound.
I wouldn’t use it to play a guitar though iPad amp software but I’d use it for streaming media.
The BT-Pro is a great concept. This would be fantastic for everything from presenters using iPads to running a click track from a phone if needed. The only question I have is why in the world would they make it USB powered? If I have close-proximity access to a computer from which to provide USB power, why would I not just play the audio from the computer via the headphone jack and a PCDI? If I use a USB wall-wart, then I introduce another potential source of noise or a connection to easily come loose and cause failure. Why in the world wouldn’t you make it able to be phantom-powered like every other XLR-connected interface device on my stage?
Tom, that struck me as odd as well. BT-Pro 2.0?
One thought is that you can use a battery device designed to power iPhones or iPads like a Mophie. This reduces the likelihood of switching regulator oscillators impacting the I/F clocks. Radial then doesn’t have to deal with the regulatory impact of batteries.
Rat Sound’s soundtools made something similar to this, but it just does a straight in to out for 4 channels.
Rat has some good stuff here: http://www.soundtools.com/