Portable DIY IEM solutions for bands doing gigs

[JamHubSteve]

Hey gang, we (JamHub) are getting a lot of musicians using our product as an IEM mixer, for both a wired and wireless solution. We are looking for help from bands who do IEM setups for the road so that we can compare and contrast using our gear with what else is out there.

If you, or someone you know, is has a portable or movable IEM setup, could you post it here. We want to know what gear is being used. We think we can figure out how it all goes together, but if you want to add that detail it would be great help. For example, this is how we would describe a JamHub based setup that a customer sent us:


IEM - Westone, Senneheiser and UE
Case - SKB 19 rack case
Splitter - ART S8
Wireless unit(s) - Sennheiser EW 300
Mixer -- JamHub GreenRoom with 3 remotes
XLR cables - 6 total
Furman power conditioner

You get the idea. We, of course, are really curious to learn what people are using as their mixer for a portable IEM solution.

Thanks to all who can throw us a bit of advice and examples on this. We are eager to learn what bands are doing in the DIY space.

Thanks again,
Steve

[Supernova9]

We're using the Behringer Powerplay P16 system, have a 2U Rack case which fits in the central controller, then it's just Cat 5 cable between there and the individual mixer boxes (P-16M), phantom power via ethernet to the boxes, so it's plug and go.

[JamHubSteve]

Thanks Supernova9,

That system looks interesting. If I understand it correctly, the system is a central input A2D, for $299, plus the mixers which are $249 per musician. So about $1,300 for a 4 piece band which is cheap for this type of all digital system.

How many musicians do you use it with? Is it a portable setup, like for a touring band, or do you have it installed? It looks very flexible ... which is a nice aspect of the digital domain. Our devices are all analog which has it benefits and limitations.

Thanks for the feedback,
Steve

[stevemaude2]

I am really interested in this thread as I also looked into the PowerPlay system and others. The PowerPlay as described above does not include hooking up to my analog board. What I would like to see is a system where 16 splitters are included as part of the package. I want to roll in my unit where I plug in my inputs for vocals, guitars, drums, etc (everything) and then I can hook up multiple mixer modules (1 per musician) and still have the isolated splitter inputs go to the mixing board. (The mixing board might be my own or belong to the house.)

For now, I use Y cables and split 8 of the inputs before the mixing board. For the iem side, these 8 go into a nady preamp, then to 4 ART splitmix4 units that I have wired as 2 2->1 mixers. I also take 2 dedicated sub groups from my board (vocal and instruments) and split each of those 4 ways into the 4 splitmix4's. The 2 outs from each splitmix go to a shure iem transmitter. This lets me mix my vocal vs my instrument for 1 channel of my iem mix and all vocals vs all instruments on the 2nd channel of my iem mix.

All this works for now, but so far, the only feasible solution I see to do it right in the future is to scrap it all and use a digital board with tablet/smartphone iem mixers on stage.