Galaxy Audio AS-1800 Any Spot Wireless Personal Monitor. Image by Galaxy Audio.
One of the biggest complaints I hear from church pastors has to do with overwhelming volume bleeding from the stage. Drums, electric guitars and floor monitors are the culprits. They can leave the poor sound guy as frustrated as the pastor.
One solution involves personal monitor mixers, which can help the stationary guys, like the keyboard player. But being tethered to a mixer when you're a worship leader or vocalist is just no fun and that's how mixers get broken...I know.
Adding wireless in-ear monitors (IEMs) to the system allows users (musicians, singers, presenters etc) to roam the room. However, if your church is anything like mine --- when it was built someone forgot to plant the tree that blooms with 100 dollar bills each Spring. Dropping $30,000 on a rack of big name wireless in-ears just isn't going to happen. So are you out of luck? Absolutely not.
"The unit has 640 selectable frequencies in 32 selectable channels, reducing the potential for overcrowding and interference."
Shaun Miller
Reviewer.
Galaxy Audio recently introduced the AS-1800 Any Spot Wireless Personal Monitor (List Price: $1,077.98). Operating in the UHF range, the system I received worked between 554 MHz and 570 MHz, which is a bonus due to all the impending doom associated with the FCC and the 600 MHz band. The unit has 640 selectable frequencies in 32 selectable channels - reducing the potential for overcrowding and interference.
The transmitter is a single-space rackable unit. Rack ears are included in the box. Nice touch. With a rear-mounted single antenna, the transmitter can operate in two power settings depending on your needs. The default setting is 30 milliwatts. But if you need more power, a simple flip of the toggle switch and the transmitter broadcasts at 100 milliwatts. On the back, audio connections are pretty straight-forward with the combo jacks allowing for either ¼-inch inputs or XLR depending on what device you're feeding it from. There is also a pair of ¼-inch thru jacks that one might find useful if you need that signal elsewhere. The front panel has an LCD display and front headphone jack – something I wound up using more often than I thought I would. Being able to plug in headphones at the transmitter is nice when helping a vocalist or band member dial in their mix or just troubleshooting signal flow.
The AS-1800 body pack receiver is metal and feels quite durable. No doubt it will be dropped numerous times during its operating life, so the metal box should extend the life of the internal electronics and keep connectors from getting dislodged or crushed. The AS-1800 receiver is a dual-antenna receiver designed to provide for a longer transmission distance. Galaxy's lower priced AS-900 (List: $259.00) and AS-1000 (List Price: $559.99) are single-antenna versions. The manual claims 300 feet for the AS-1800. While I couldn't verify that claim, I was able to walk our entire 80 x 40-foot stage with no dropouts of interference.
The front display on the AS-1800 receiver shows the frequency and battery level. I used the two included AA batteries and as I write this I am on hour number five with them. Still going strong. Their website claims seven hours of battery life. Overall, the receiver's operation is very straightforward operation - a volume knob and a pan knob. However, the pan knob is setup in an unorthodox way (in my opinion) – at first it caused me to think the unit I was demo'ing was labeled incorrectly. If the user wants to pan left, you turn the knob the opposite way which turns down the right. That is different from what I am used to but it's not a deal breaker.
The AS-1800 system also has an interesting Mix Mono option which allows for two mono signals to be fed into the transmitter, and using the pan knob the user can mix the two together in their ears. For example, say the band mix was sent to the left input and the vocalist's mic was sent to the right side then the user blended them with the pan knob. The other option is for using two receivers paired with one transmitter. The first can receive the left and the second can have its own independent mix by panning it to the right. On paper, I think this is a great idea, but the AS-1800 doesn't pull it off seamlessly. I noticed enough bleed to throw me off. For certain band members or similar style singers it wouldn't be an issue, especially once the volume level of live worship is happening.
Bottom line, if you're on a tight budget and want to get into wireless IEMs - the Galaxy Audio AS-1800 Any Spot Wireless Personal Monitor offers an affordable way to get started. It's certainly not high-end, but doesn't come with high-end price tag either. For the money, you're getting a credible set of features and a durable piece of equipment.
