Behringer has finally entered the Personal Monitor Mixing arena. Their new PowerPlay P16 Digital Personal Monitoring System is yet another in the recently growing personal monitoring realm. It joins Roland, HearBack, and Aviom. Wait, what’s that? It’s JUST LIKE THE AVIOM SYSTEM? Let’s explore…
The PowerPlay system has four components;
- 16-channel personal mixers
- Mounting brackets for the mixers
- Input module for the rack
- Optional distributor for a stage-centric hook-up for the monitor mixer cabling.
Here’s is the information straight from Behringer…
Tech-Free Zone
The P16-M’s simple user interface makes it easy for even non-techies to dial-in the perfect monitor mix. For example, let’s say the electric guitar is too loud in the lead vocalist’s mix; they simply press the appropriate channel button (the one labeled E. GTR) and turn the Volume control to lower the guitar level in their mix. They can also adjust Pan (left to right mix), EQ (Bass, Mid with sweepable Freq control and Treble), and much more. All of these adjustments can be made without affecting anyone else’s personal mix.
Easy Installation
A basic installation consists of one P16-I Input Module, which connects to the main mixing console, and up to six P16-M Personal Mixers, creating a system big enough to equip a typical recording studio, a small to medium-sized band, or a worship team. You’ll also need a few standard audio and CAT5 cables. The optional P16- MB mounting bracket allows the P16-M Digital Personal Mixer to be attached to any standard microphone, music or drum stand. The system can easily be expanded via the P16-D Digital ULTRANET Distributor, six of which can be combined to drive up to forty-eight P16-M Personal Mixers.
Extraordinary Value
The POWERPLAY P16 puts total control of the monitor system where it belongs—in the hands of the performers, freeing up the engineer to sculpt the perfect front-of-house mix. The POWERPLAY P16 system is the easy, affordable way to tame runaway stage volume and give your musicians and vocalists what they really want—“more me!”
Similarities between PowerPlay and Aviom
At first glance, the Behringer and Aviom components are very similar in functionality. The set-up is the same, the components are similar. The glaring difference I see between the two is their personal monitor mixers. I think Behringer missed the mark here in two areas; the channel buttons seem noticeable smaller and thus can be prone to the user hitting the wrong buttons AND the bloody mixer mount. Here’s my gripe on the monitor mount; it’s required! Aviom sells the mounts as separate components so after you pay the $500 or so dollars for one mixer, you have to shell out more just for the mounting stand. I had hoped that Behringer learned from Aviom and would have included it with the mixer but alas, they did not.
Differences between PowerPlay and Aviom
Price is the biggest factor I see that this point. It’s too early to tell how well the PowerPlay will hold up under usage and what users think of the sound quality.
PowerPlay P16 is new to the market and I could only find one English web site that sold the components, so here is what you’d expect to spend on a setup;
P16-I 16-Channel Input Module
MSRP: $500
Sale Price:$250
16-Channel Digital Personal Mixer
MSRP: $399.99
Sale Price:$199.99
P16-I 16-Channel Digital ULTRANET Distributor
MSRP: $300
Sale Price:$150
Mounting Bracket for P16-M
MSRP: $60
Sale Price:$29.00
Therefore, for six musicians, that’s;
MSRP: $3560
Sale Price: $1780
Compare that to Aviom’s $5800 and we’re talking a healthy $2000 difference at the least. There is a difference of $120 between each personal mixer so consider that if you need more than six!
Here is where I hesitate to make a judgment call as to which personal monitoring system is the better product. I’ve used the Avioms and I really like them. I have only used a couple of Behringer products over the years with nothing good or bad to say about them. However, when looking at customer opinions of Behringer products, you can easily find as many people as hate them as love them.
Considering this is a new product from a company with mixed reviews, before you jump on the “I’ll-buy-it-just-because-it’s-cheaper” bandwagon, demo it from a dealer. I’m not sure how quickly you can expect your dealers to have these available. However, before you try to demo, check out this article on demo’ing from churchtecharts.org.
*Let’s not forget that just because your church goes with any personal monitoring system that you are completely off the hook from responsibility. There is a learning curve and you also want to ensure the musicians are pulling in the right sounds for playing in time and in key.
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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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We are replacing out current A&H GL3300 with a GLD-80. It has Aviom compatible outputs on the stage boxes. Is the Behrigner ULTRANET compatible with the Avion A-NET?
No. The Aviom uses proprietary software for digital encoding.
Interesting, the one question I have is do the Aviom and Behringer work together. Having an Aviom system already in place and room for 4 more PM’s it would be tempting to add one Behringer unit and see how it performs for half the price of the Aviom
Aviom sends a propriety digital signal through the cat5.
After having several pieces of Behringer gear fail during services (a mixer, crossover, and several direct boxes), I’d never trust it.
I’ve used a variety of Behringer products with varying results over the years. Our church has access to an Aviom system right now (another congregation rents our facility on Sunday nights and owns it), and it is definitely going to hurt when we lose it in a couple of months. Aviom is out of our reach, financially, but I think I could pull this off. I definitely won’t but it until I get to put my hands on one and read some reviews, but if it seems solid, I would definitely consider this.
Have you looked into Hearback? http://www.heartechnologies.com/hb/hearbackintro.htm I’ve not run them myself, but know of a couple of churches who have and speak highly of the product. Only 8 channels opposed to the Aviom’s 16, but another option worth a look.
Steve/Eric: I've got a guy who swears by their products and I've seen those that run the other direction. It seems to me that Behringer needs to look at their products and find out / fix the problem. They could transform their image and capture a good bit of the market.
I bought the Behringer XM8500 mics back in December, and I’ve had no issues with them yet. They sound great, very bright and sensitive to me. Thats all the Behringer I have so far.
I’m kind of thinking about getting a amp to try out how they deal since they are quite cheap (which of course the Church Board would be more inclined to say yes).
Its really too bad that Behringer has a reputation of being a “hit and miss” company. They have a new digital mixer out now as well…gotta look into it a bit more…but I’m still hoping for the iLive :)
Behringer does make one product that I have come to rely on, the CT100 cable tester. It always seems to work.
That being said, for US and Canadian users, the Avioms are available. Behringer’s website for the Powerplay shows (at the very bottom) – “This product is currently not available for sale in the United States and Canada pending verification of compliance with applicable technical standards and regulations.”
It will be interesting to see, when they get that worked out, how these will stand up, or if they will force other companies to change.
Thanks for the note on the CT100. $20 or the EbTech for $99…here's the thing, the two look so much alike that with some Behringer products, I wonder if they buy the rights to manufacture a "generic version." Much like brand-name food at the grocery store and the store's brand.
According to the lawsuits that have been filed over the years, Behringer definitely isn’t buying the rights to anything. One of the ways they keep their costs low is by doing almost no R&D of their own – they just take a design from Mackie, Boss, etc. and then find a way to manufacture it cheaper.
Eric, You beat me to it. I was just searching for info the lawsuits :)
Ah, the difference between Yamaha and Behringer. Yamaha buys the rights to product great stuff whereas Behringer…well…that's too bad.
I am done with Behringer products. I have a pmp 3000 that has been down for months and an A500 amp that has a power fall off when I try to push past 70% load. My American Audio VLP-600 that I power monitors with has better sound on the high end. I have called tech support and several repair shops that are authorized dealers. I get the same line— parts? HA HA what parts!! my pmp sits in the corner un fixed and I went out and bought a Mac
fuzzy
Is the submix designed to go through the house speakers? Right now, I have the choir monitor on AUX 1; pulpit monitors on AUX 2; and band monitors on aux 3. and the house speakers are on Main outs(is this correct?))…If I connect the moniors into submix channels, it feeds the house speakers
We’ve got a few bits of Behringer PA kit… a few EQs and some DIs. The stuff is absolutely fine for what it is, which is reasonable kit for those on a budget who aren’t going to smash it round.
We use it for church services (we rent a place so have to tear up and down each week) and it’s been fine for 3 years so far. Other kit is better, but you pay multiple times as much.
I’m interested to see how it pans out, because sorting out our musicians with monitor mixes they’re happy with is a bit of a nightmare in the time we have, and only those techs who are quick enough to set up get to do it. In the UK, it’s looking like £200 for the input module and £140 for each of the units… I can cope with that if it’ll work for a few years!
We have a HearBack system at our church and I like it a lot. It is limited to eight channels from front-of-house, but there are ways around it. I send the stereo “record mix” plus two guitars, bass, drum mix from an aux, percussion and piano. The stereo mix provides all the vocals and room ambiance. We also have a keyboard player that I take a split from their DI into the local aux input (each mixer has one). Some of our players are older and by sending a good mix, they all seem to find the system more usable. The main things that I like are the sound quality and the limiter on each mixer. With Aviom, you have to add limiters on ($$$) or go without.