Nov 6 2004
RePorter Port Replicator
Do you ever suffer from bending down and reaching far behind your computer to exchange devices? In a production studio environment, this has to be the most aggravating problem, and you will experience it at least twice a day. Back in the days of yore (long ago), we used to bring extension cables up to the front of our towers. Enter the Marathon Computer RePorter Port Replicator. It’s a fascinating little device which brings most of your G5 tower’s ports (which are either behind the tower, or worse yet, under you desk) within a short distance from you, and plans to make your life a lot easier.
The RePorter will split one of your rear USB ports into two and bring them straight to you along with one FireWire 400 and 800 port, and an audio in and out port. I must say, it’s nice to have everything right next to me. Portable hard drives are easy to plug in, as are portable USB devices, recording microphones, and the occasional set of headphones. The RePorter was specially designed for the G5 tower, but thanks to the length of cable given to each individual connection, the RePorter can be used on other tower computers as well.
Unfortunately missing from this device are the optical audio in and out ports that would make this the perfect solution for any G5-based production studio. Also lacking, surprisingly enough, is a mechanism that will seat the device at a normal position. The spherical design makes it rather time consuming to find a way to position the stiff main cable so that the device will not lay at an awkward angle.
Despite a few (very few) short comings, the RePorter is a great solution for all tower users from students to studios.
Pros: Finally, most of my connections are within a comfortable arms reach. The small and spherical design fits in nicely with other mac-like accessories.
Cons: There are no optical audio in and out ports. Installing the Reporter takes a while to place it in a normal position do to its spherical design design.