Hello All.



[SNIP]
 RW> For those who might not have seen the thread there, my
 RW> position is basically that folks who've worked with
 RW> ensembles that use primarily amplified instruments the art
 RW> of blending with other elements is often lost.  IT's easier
 RW> to engage in the volume arms race and just "turn me up"
 RW> instead of work with others to get a good balance.
 RW> The few folks lurking here in music education might have
 RW> some relevant comments here.

I can add a few comments here, Richard, as I work for Quantum
Technologies, Inc. (parent company of Hear Technologies) as the
technician/service manager.

Hear Technologies makes the Hear Back personal monitoring
system.  The basic system consists of a Hub and from one to 8
Hear Back Mixers.

The Hub accepts any of 3 input modes; analog via an 8 pair TRS
or XLR terminated input cable, ADAT (digital) via an optical
input or Hear Bus which enables cross linking more than one Hub,
enabling a multitude of Mixer outputs. The mixers connect up to
the Hub via standard Cat 5 cable, up to approximately 200 feet
in length.  The hub has no controls other than an input selector
switch and a power switch.  The ADAT optical input is apparently
compatible with a good number of digital mixers.

Each mixer (in its standard configuration from the factory) has
6 individual and 1 stereo pair sets of controls plus a limiter
control.  It has 2 independent headphone outputs and 2 line
level outputs (left - right) as well as a line level input.

There is an optional modification offered where the mixer loses
the Limiter and becomes a full 8 channels.  The stereo 1-2 input
becomes channel 1 and the limiter becomes channel 2; the rest of
the channels remain unaffected.

In the service department I see lots of them (there are many
tens of thousands out in the field.) The come from lots of
churches, recording studios, educational institutions and
individuals.

Multimedia churches and recording studios comprise a large chunk
of the client base, as do live performance sound reinforcement
companies.  They all seem to love the flexibility of letting
individuals control what they hear in their own monitor mix,
without having to have an additional person sitting FOH to try
and "administer" the monitor mix.  The compact in-ear headsets
(ear buds) seem to be the favorite.

The fact that all this is done over one cat 5 cable from the main
mixer is a big plus.

I'm going to defer to my colleague Charles Snoddy for further
comment from the recording studio/performance standpoint... once
he gets a few minutes in his crowded schedule to write his
views. 

Hopefully this will give you a little more understanding of the
hardware end of at least the Hear Back version of the personal
monitoring system.

Best regards,
Marc

--- timEd/2 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS-Huntsville,AL-bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)