Roland Systems Group has announced two new audio snake technologies at the International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition being held in Tokyo.

One of the products, the RSS-0808 digital snake, provides eight inputs and eight outputs, and supports multiple powering options including batteries, power-over-Ethernet and Roland’s own REAC embedded-power system. The new snake features remotely controllable preamps, 96 kHz 24-bit A to D conversion, and connector choices that include XLR, TRS and high-Z.

Another new product being shown is the RSS-4000M Merge Unit. It allows up to four snakes to be combined into a single REAC (Roland Ethernet Audio Communication) stream, which a master device recognizes as a single slave unit. By using it, users can connect any combination of the RSS snake heads and merge all inputs/outputs into a single REAC signal. The RSS-4000M can also provide embedded power to compatible devices, including Roland’s newly released S-0808 8x8 I/O unit.

“We are happy to be able to announce merging capability within the REAC protocol. Consultants, designers and integrators have requested the ability to distribute I/O around their installations and stages so we’re happy to be able to now meet that need,” said John Broadhead, vice president of Technology and Communications at Roland. “The S-4000M represents an evolution that now permits flexible digital audio configurations that were just not possible before.”