IEM's and Church

[StradivariusBone]

My church is moving towards purchasing an IEM system and is dangerously close to spending money without thinking through the decisions first.

I originally spec-d either Behringer P16m's or the Avioms for the instrumentalists and then later when more money came in we could upgrade the vocalists with Sennheiser ew300's. My Worship Leader has decided he doesn't like Behringer for whatever reason and is leaning towards the Avioms (which is fine) but now wants to get Shure PSM300's for the vocalists.

I don't know anything about those units, but they look very similar to Shure's BLX line which is OK, but I think a bit underwhelming for bi-weekly use and abuse.

We run an Allen and Heath GL2800, so anything IEM is going to have to be patched in via analog. I was planning on taking the direct outs for each channel and sending them to the brain for either the Behringer or the Aviom and then using Aux 1-4 to create mixes for the 3-4 w/l IEM's.

The only question I had about that was that we currently take the direct out's to a PreSonus FireStudio box for recording. I haven't looked yet, but I'm hoping there's a way to take direct out's from there to give to the IEM's. If not, what would you recommend?

The other question I had was regarding the Behringer P16 vs. the Aviom AN16i. As I understand it you need the distributor on the other end of the ethernet cable to power the units (in our case I was looking at the D400). The Behringer P16's have an in and thru for the Ultranet, does that mean I can go straight from the interface and daisy chain? Or do I still need a distributor between my interface and IEM's?

Thanks!

 

[Footer]

After the P-16's get power you can daisy chain all day long.

As far as the direct out thing, just build some Y cables. You can passively split that signal and nothing will care. With that though... any desire to upgrade consoles in the future? If so, what desk are you thinking? If you are looking at an X32 or Pro2, go P16, if you are looking at anything else go Aviom.

 

[StradivariusBone]

After the P-16's get power you can daisy chain all day long.

As far as the direct out thing, just build some Y cables. You can passively split that signal and nothing will care. With that though... any desire to upgrade consoles in the future? If so, what desk are you thinking? If you are looking at an X32 or Pro2, go P16, if you are looking at anything else go Aviom.

We've got a A&H GL2800 at the moment and while my worship leader seems bent on getting rid of it, there is no reason to upgrade it now. We've got a bunch of lighting issues that need to be addressed before we throw more money at hardware that isn't broken.

I like the GLD, but they might be leaning toward X32 which is the tradeoff. I've heard p16's play really nice with that board.

 

[themuzicman]

We run an Allen and Heath GL2800, so anything IEM is going to have to be patched in via analog. I was planning on taking the direct outs for each channel and sending them to the brain for either the Behringer or the Aviom and then using Aux 1-4 to create mixes for the 3-4 w/l IEM's.

The only question I had about that was that we currently take the direct out's to a PreSonus FireStudio box for recording. I haven't looked yet, but I'm hoping there's a way to take direct out's from there to give to the IEM's. If not, what would you recommend?

The other question I had was regarding the Behringer P16 vs. the Aviom AN16i. As I understand it you need the distributor on the other end of the ethernet cable to power the units (in our case I was looking at the D400). The Behringer P16's have an in and thru for the Ultranet, does that mean I can go straight from the interface and daisy chain? Or do I still need a distributor between my interface and IEM's?

Thanks!

If you go Aviom, get an AN-16i input module, throw your direct outs in there. You can use the Thru on the module to go into your FireStudio. If you want to get really fancy, you can give your folks on IEM an Aviom, and loop the output from theirs into the IEM so they can still control their monitor mix without FOH input.

With the Aviom you can daisy chain as long as you use the PSU's on each Aviom. The A-16D distributor gives A-Net and Power over the Cat-5 so if you don't care about losing that feature, you can daisy chain to your hearts content.

 

[Douglas Plander]

I have used the Aviom systems since they were first brought to market. From an ease of use I like them. As a side note, some digital consoles now offer Aviom cards so that you can route signal direction the A-net disto's (Yamaha has them as an example). Just something to think about in the future for when they decise to throw away functioning equipment.

 

[TimmyP1955]

If you go Aviom, once you upgrade to an X32 or M32, the Aviom will have to be replaced with P16s. Not good stewardship IMHO.

 

[AudJ]

I love the aviom, it would be my first choice, but that being said, I have been using the musician's side of an x32 iPhone x32q app (on my iPad) at church. From the user end, I have been impressed. Dedicated wireless router for worship team members to use on their personal devices. IEM is direct from the x32, iThing controls that send. No extra wires running to the performers. Realizing that this would not be ideal for a lot of situations, the worship band at our church has benefitted greatly from this setup.

I still prefer the aviom setup for reliability, but when compared for price against an x32, wireless router, and an extra iPad or 2, budget still isn't in the same ballpark. Depends if your specific needs warrant the money.

 

[themuzicman]

If you go Aviom, once you upgrade to an X32 or M32, the Aviom will have to be replaced with P16s. Not good stewardship IMHO.

Not completely true, you could get a Dante card for the X32 and use the Aviom D800-Dante or D400-Dante A Net distributors.