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Mastering the Monitors with Personal Mix Systems
Personal mixing becomes a core part of many contemporary music presentation
Over the past 15 years or so, the popularity of in-ear monitors (IEMs) in the music industry has soared, and for good reason. By eliminating floor wedges, volume levels on stage are greatly reduced, which in turn allows the main house PA system to be run at lower volume and with greater fidelity.
With the meteoric rise in contemporary music presentation, system designers for churches saw IEMs as a great opportunity to improve the sound while addressing volume complaints. But while a few progressive and well-funded ministries made the move to in-ear systems in the 90s, it wasn’t until the 2002 introduction of the distributed personal mixing system that churches began to really embrace the concept.
The basic idea was to send the monitor as individual channels to an outboard hub system, which then distributes those channels over a digital network to personal mixing stations on stage. The sound engineer decides what to send, often grouping inputs into submixes. On stage, each performer builds a custom mix. Mixes can be saved as presets, so different instrumentation and styles of worship can be easily recalled for fast and accurate set-up.
All personal mixing systems are based around the concept of the digital snake, essentially a digital transport system that moves large amounts of information (and even power) over a single, thin Cat5 or Cat6 Ethernet cable. Audio can move to and from multiple locations as needed, critical when the same input sources are used simultaneously across multiple applications (e.g., PA system, monitoring, recording, broadcast). The idea is to get the audio signal into the digital domain and keep it there throughout the signal chain, when it is finally converted back to analog for listening.
Today’s personal mixing systems offer an array of features that address virtually any technical requirement from ease of use to the number of available channels, with plenty of bells and whistles for those who want them. So what’s out there?
Aviom - Pro16 Personal Mixers
There’s no doubt that Aviom is the market leader in this product category. Its Pro16 system has become the “SM58 of personal mixing,” with its blue personal mixers found in churches around the world. According to Director of Marketing Chandler Collison, “When you think about what musicians ask the monitor engineer for, it’s pretty basic stuff. You want to be able to fix your mix without becoming an engineer. We think the design of the Pro16 system does that brilliantly.”
The system accepts up to 16 channels of audio, typically sent from the main console to the AN-16/I input module, the usual head end of Aviom’s A-Net digital audio system. From there, the signal moves to the distributor (A-16D or A-16D Pro), which acts as a hub, sending the audio to the A-16II personal mixers on stage.
Both mixers provide 16 channels of sound, and up to 16 presets (scenes) for instant recall. Typically, users plug their earphones or headphones directly into the A-16II, although the system can be adapted to power a wireless IEM transmitter or floor wedge monitor speaker. For this application, Aviom’s A-16R rack-mount mixer is integrated with the IEM transmitters, eliminating the onstage mix station (although the A-16CS control surface is available for those who want to have it both ways).
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Jack Kontney heads Kontney Communications Inc., a marketing and content creation consultancy specializing in pro audio and electronics. He can be contacted at www.kontneycomm.com.
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