The Aviom personal monitor mixer system puts an end to the phrase “can you turn me up a little in the monitor?” Imagine never hearing those words again. Personal monitor mixing systems take the control away from the sound operator and pass it to the user.
Simply stated, personal monitor mixer systems are digital systems where all sound board mixer channels are routed into a digital cable. This cable then feeds individual mixers where each mixer controls the volume of the same channels for the output hooked into that specific personal mixer.
The monitor system is comprised of three pieces; an input component for routing all signals into a digital format and into a digital cable, small personal mixers which are feed the digital lines, and some form of speaker attached to the lineout of the mixer. The speaker takes the form of a monitor or headphones. The headphones are usually IEM’s (in-ear monitors) that sit in your ear canal, thereby not allowing outside sounds to be heard.
Personal monitor mixers allow each user (singer, musician, soloist, etc) to control the various sounds they hear. For example, a guitarist wants to hear the drums for establishing the beat and a bit of the singer to match the mood (laid back, intense, etc). Singers standing close together might not be able to hear themselves, so a personal mixer would be great for hearing their own voice with a little bit of volume of the other singers so they can harmonize.
Personal mixers, like the Aviom, are ideal for providing sound that is needed and eliminating the sound that is not.
Personal mixers are ideal for a variety of users. Worship teams with musicians and singers benefit from hearing only the sounds they need. Soloists benefit from CLEARLY hearing the accompanist or accompaniment track.
The mixers can be placed anywhere. Singers like them on a stand. The keyboardist might like a small stand or sitting right on the piano. They are only limited by the length of digital cable available. The cables can be plugged into a floor jack or straight into the rack unit. In the case of the optional Aviom distributor unit, the unit connects via a single cat5 cable to the rack input module in the sound booth. Otherwise, each mixer cable would have to come from the sound booth.
Aviom or Hearback?
In a recent upgrade at my church, we looked at the Hearback and Aviom monitoring systems. The Hearback system was a very good system that was significantly cheaper than Aviom. Also, the folks at Hear Technologies were very helpful in answering our questions. The Aviom system was a good chunk of money and based on that alone, we initially ruled it out.
Comparing the two systems, they both had their pro’s and con’s. However, the more we researched Hearback, the more limitations we found in developing a middle-to-large scale mixer system. Primarily, Hearback mixers allowed control for six audio channels – [note: they have recently increased this to ten]. We have a worship team that takes ten channels and we were expecting to add a couple more. Aviom mixers allow control for sixteen channels. By the time we’d configured a Hearback system to match our needs, the price was just under Aviom but still with the six channel limitation.
We’ve been using the Aviom personal monitor mixing system for a few months now and love it. Congregation members are saying our worship teams sound better. Those of use using the system are finding we are playing more confidently and blending better. Singers are saying “I can finally hear myself!”
The biggest benefit of the Aviom system is ease of use. During practice, we adjust our mixer levels and for good measure save the settings as a preset. Then, when it’s time to walk on stage, we just plug in our headphones and we’re good to go.
Additionally, you can have a worship team practice without a sound booth operator. As long as you can turn on a few components, all sound is going through the Aviom system which each person control.
One disadvantage of the system is it doesn’t include mixer mounts. If you want to mount your mixers on a mic stand, you must purchase the $25 mixer mounts. That’s $25 each.
Components
Here is the base package you need for setting up the Aviom system.
Aviom AN016/i 16 channel input module
“The AN-16/i converts sixteen line-level analog audio channels into uncompressed, full bandwidth 24-bit digital data transmitted via Aviom’s proprietary A-Net protocol. A dedicated audio Thru is available for each input channel, allowing the AN-16/i Input Module to be inserted into an existing audio signal path.” from Aviom.com
Aviom A16ii Personal mixers (you need one for each person that will be using one)
“The A-16II Personal Mixer allows each performer to control his/her own mix including: volume, mute, solo, and pan for up to sixteen audio channels. Sixteen custom mix snapshots can be saved as Presets for instant recall. ” from Aviom.com
You’ll also need plenty of cat5 cable and headphones (IEM’s) for each user. Shure makes the E2 and E3 IEM’s ideal for this situation.
We opted to add the Aviom A-16-D Pro Net Distributor. It eliminates the need to daisy-chain personal mixers and simplifies stage setup. Additionally, if our sanctuary is ever enlarged, we only swamp in one longer digital cable instead of one for each mixer.
There are a variety of resellers of the Aviom equipment so shop around for the best prices. If you have a local audio company that performs sound system installations, consider contacting them as well for more information. They might let you demo the system for a week or two.
Since we purchased the Aviom system, Hearback appears to have beefed up their systems so they are more inline with Aviom but in my opinion, still a few steps short for medium-to-large set-ups. Study both systems and then determine which product would be best for your need.
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I'm Chris Huff and I've been working behind a mixer for over twenty years. Since 2008, I've been helping other sound techs learn all about the art of church audio through behindthemixer.com.
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Forgive me but I’m a neophyte to this. I am looking at trying to eliminate stage monitors and the Aviom Monitoring looks pretty sweet. Trying to find out how (or if) this system will (or can) be connected to our mixer. Allan & Heath ZED 436
It should work. That being said, you should check with http://www.aviom.com just in case.
Aviom’s have always seemed to present a challenge for a clean monitor sound for bass (at least in my experience as a player – I’m not a young gun by any means – been playing more than half my life). It usually sounds like I’m playing through a fuzz box. Any accented attack on the strings results in a rather “hairy” note that decays quickly. I am using excellent gear and quality cables to deliver my sound (Fender P-bass with Seymor-Duncan 1/4 pounder Basslines, Tech 21 SansAmp Para Driver DI, George L’s cables). The tone in the house is an awesome SVT type tone… full, fat, and funky. Yet it’s fuzz box city in the Aviom. What are some hints in communicating with my sound guys to adequately describe the problem and what are some basic things that I can do to facilitate cleaning up the monitored tone? It’s hard to be expressive, dynamic, and creative (as God has designed us to be) when then monitor tone quality is garbage. It inhibits worship rather than propelling it.
It could be they are adding effects that sound great in house but bad via the avoims. I’d see if they can send you a dry feed instead of an aux send with effects added in. I’d recommend working with them one-on-one before or after a practice session to work this out. Start by sending them a dry signal (no effects/pedals). See how that sounds in the avioms with not effects from the sound booth. Keep this up until you find the source of the fuzz.
Also, they could be cleaning up your tone with some effects/eq and it would be beneficial for you to hear a post-eq sound.
Without knowing the room and the sounds, I don’t want to say it’s definitely one thing or another. However, if you work one-on-one and add in pedal / effects as you go, you and your SG will be able to figure out what’s going on.
True, you elimiate the problem of, “Can you turn me up in the monitors?” But introduce the, “What channel am I in?” or “I can barely hear myself, and its turned all the way up on my Aviom” or “I can’t hear myself at all!” to which I reply “Please unmute your channel on the Aviom” to which they reply “I did!” in which I have to walk on stage and then unmute them. LOL!
“The circle of life”
When I label the channels on the aviom units, I use the word "ME" for the channel they are in on their unit. Works great!
The link at the bottom of the article goes to a package that has been discontinued. Here is a link to a company that specializes in church sound design. They carry multiple personal monitor solutions. Our church purchased both an Aviom system from them for our main campus and a Hearback for our smaller remote campus. The Hearback has it’s place for sure but the sweat spot is 4-6 musicians on 4-6 mixers, it is very cost effective in that range. If you need more flexibility and more options, you should consider the Aviom. CCI has systems starting below the Hearback price range if your on an even smaller budget.
http://www.ccisolutions.com/StoreFront/category/in-ear-monitor-mixing-systems?origin=post
Thanks, I’ve removed that link. There is a new personal monitoring system from Roland (RSS M-48) that’s equally impressive as the Aviom. I haven’t used it but from what I’ve seen, it’s a bit more advanced than the Avioms. As a musician myself, I’d rather keep my IEM system simple so I would go the Aviom over the Roland system.
I have the musicians saying they are getting shocked through thier earphones. They say it is a new problem. Has anyone els experienced this?
This can happen in the case of static shock but I'd expect that on a treadmill, not on a stage. Call up the manufacturer of the monitoring system and see what they say. I would say not to use them until you diagnoise the problem.
For the last year I have been through an system at my Church, it is the 16 chanel it has all of the componenets that are supposed to make this work at it opptimum capacity, personally not able to afford ear buds of any quality, I use headphones AKG K100, they are older but still sound great in any other application but Aviom, & I’m not the only one on our worship team that isn’t really happy with the sound, ear buds that are of any quality are at the low end $100.00, & up to I don’t know what, not being able to return ear buds after useing them makes it quite a battel to find out how well they work, & if they are right for me, persoally I would rather use headphones anyway, so getting to the point of my problem, as I said all of the gear used is high end, we have an excelent mixer on the side stage, the Aviom distributer, the 16 chanel mixer, a steff of very knowlegable techs, we have no live monitoring without headphones on all we here is drums & maybe singers, so no live amps on stage at all, when there is one instument playing such as myself on guitar, they sound fine, but when three or more join in it all goes down hill from there, & I mean in a break neck pace, compleat & utter dgital mish mash, to the point of frustration personlly would rather hear a good wedge monitor any day, but that is not possible, so please What can be done about this, this is becoming a huge dissapointment in sound for many on the team, thanks for reading my story, & responding if you will.
If I read this correctly, you use the avioms but you can also use the wedges. And in the case of the wedges, it gets to be a poor mix the more instruments on the stage/in the mix?
With that in mind, it sounds like a case of poor monitor settings. However, without hearing them, knowing your setup, or hearing the sound tech's point of few, I'm not going to try and figure out the source of the blame/problem but instead point you in the direction of good monitor settings…of which I can't find the link right off hand.
I'll simplify…
1. If you have multiple wedges and each monitor can be mixed independently, then try organizing the band so people with the same needs share a monitor mix. For example, the needs of the bassist and the drum verses the needs of the singers and guitarists.
2. Make sure people are only hearing what they need to hear. The common default is "I need everything plus more me." But that's not the way to do it. Singers will want to hear themselves plus whoever they need to harmonize plus rhythm guitar and a little drums (snare and kick to stay on tempo).
3. If you have that monitor mix set but you need to hear more of yourself in the mix, first ask the question "is there anything I could have reduced in the mix?" This will help clarify the mix and keep the stage volume down.
I hope this helps.
sorry for the type “o’s”
No prob, I've had my share as well.
Agreed. We use the Avioms in several of our Worship centers. When the monitor sound goes to “mush” it is usually too many instruments or too much gain. I am old school and prefer to have just vocals, acoustic guitar, sometimes keys, and nothing else in the monitor mix. Maximum clarity and definition with minimum clutter.