mike257 Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 The interface and features of the Soundcraft Ui series are great but the on-board WiFi has issues. Pair it with a decent external router and you'll be fine. Within the stagebox WiFi mixer world, I probably prefer the feature set of the Behringer XR series, but Soundcraft have the edge on price and also by not having a dedicated app - it's actually a web page hosted within the unit and you can access it from any device with a web browser. Means you'll never wake up to find your iPad has updated overnight and none of your apps work any more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 How do the iem work? Can you just use Bluetooth headsets? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowlandtrees Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 Not playing in a band at prez but I remember the days of lugging WEM 4x10 columns and Marshall stacks and PA slaves and 2x15s and mixing desks up 3 flights of stairs. Think it has taken a few years off my bones. The new lightweight stuff is a dream. The whole bands gear in a suitcase. Apart from the damned drummer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratman Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 [quote name='TimR' timestamp='1455870215' post='2983046'] How do the iem work? Can you just use Bluetooth headsets? [/quote] If you use IEMs they would plug in to an auxillary output, so you'd either be cabled or you'd use a standard transmitter/reciever system. I don't know of any system that would work with bluetooth headsets. Maybe somebody else knows more than I do about this though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LiamPodmore Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 A friend of mine uses an X32. If memory serves me correctly, their FOH engineer just uses the ipad from the booth and takes a stereo out from their X32 which is in their tour rack into the house PA and just fettles that as required. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vsmith1 Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 [quote name='ratman' timestamp='1455874659' post='2983090'] If you use IEMs they would plug in to an auxillary output, so you'd either be cabled or you'd use a standard transmitter/reciever system. I don't know of any system that would work with bluetooth headsets. Maybe somebody else knows more than I do about this though. [/quote] There are different wireless technologies: the wireless tablet/smartphone to desk is using WiFi. The Bluetooth headset is a different wireless. Most wireless IEM use another set of wireless technologies. None of the desks mentioned have Bluetooth, so on that basis I'd say no you could not just use a Bluetooth headset. I also recall that the latency for Bluetooth is greater than what is usually used for wireless IEMs. And latency, i.e. that time delay between sound creation and hearing will be a big issue for IEMs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 [quote name='vsmith1' timestamp='1455878362' post='2983163'] There are different wireless technologies: the wireless tablet/smartphone to desk is using WiFi. The Bluetooth headset is a different wireless. Most wireless IEM use another set of wireless technologies. None of the desks mentioned have Bluetooth, so on that basis I'd say no you could not just use a Bluetooth headset. I also recall that the latency for Bluetooth is greater than what is usually used for wireless IEMs. And latency, i.e. that time delay between sound creation and hearing will be a big issue for IEMs. [/quote] Thanks. I just googled Bluetooth IEM and the latency is 26-40ms! So are there wifi IEMs- more googling... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 Ah. Doh! It's only the controller that's WiFi. All the processing and mixing is done in the mixer. Hard wired. If the wifi crashes it's no biggie, the hardware must just stay at its last known settings. Obvious really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrtcat Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 [quote name='TimR' timestamp='1455879094' post='2983179'] Ah. Doh! It's only the controller that's WiFi. All the processing and mixing is done in the mixer. Hard wired. If the wifi crashes it's no biggie, the hardware must just stay at its last known settings. Obvious really. [/quote] Yep that's it exactly. If your controlling device fails the mixer just keeps doing what it was last told to do. If you have everything set up from a previous gig it's just a case of tweaking at the next gig to suit venue. When you connect your iPad / laptop etc at the start of a new session you get asked if you want to sync the settings from the mixer (the last settings before you shut it down last time) to the iPad / laptop so it doesn't even matter if you use a different control device at each gig. You can also sync from ipad to mixer so if the settings are saved on your ipad / laptop but you're using a different mixer then its no problem. It's really clever stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gapiro Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 [quote name='LiamPodmore' timestamp='1455875361' post='2983097'] A friend of mine uses an X32. If memory serves me correctly, their FOH engineer just uses the ipad from the booth and takes a stereo out from their X32 which is in their tour rack into the house PA and just fettles that as required. [/quote] Same idea, althoguh you have to connect an X32 to a wifi router. There are now dedicated, (and a hell of al ot cheaper) wifi only routers - eg the XAIR12/16/18 which just sit on the stage and have zero controls Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 (edited) [quote name='TimR' timestamp='1455878713' post='2983173'] Thanks. I just googled Bluetooth IEM and the latency is 26-40ms! So are there wifi IEMs- more googling... [/quote] Was going to say - latency is the biggest drawback of digital and IEMs. In fact, digital does bring a lot of drawbacks in terms of latency to a lot more than just IEMs. Take your typical digital instrument wireless - that's on average between 3-8ms latency. Into a desk that introduces between 2-10ms (depending upon on the desk) of processing (assuming you are only using onboard processing - external processing adds it's own latency on top)... before you even get that to your ears, worse case, you are looking towards on18ms latency. If you are running a digital snake between the stage and the console... there's more latency. Now replace your worse case 8ms wireless guitar transmitter for a microphone. Now trying singing against a signal which is near enough 20ms behind what you are singing. It's not a flier. A delay direct into the ear becomes unbearable at 10ms - for other people it's less than that. That's why digital IEM systems are not common place yet... as by the time it hits the transmitter system, you can't afford to add any more latency! This is why there is no mainstream digital IEM. (Lectrosonics (translates to "expensive" are the only guys I know of who make one - and I seem to recall the latency figure being crazy low - circa 1ms). The thing is, the IEM system would get the blame for all the acquired latency up to that point... so it would be a marketing nightmare to try and make even a low latency system work appealing to end users. Edited February 19, 2016 by EBS_freak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunburstjazz1967 Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 Our drummer is always latency! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTractor Posted February 19, 2016 Share Posted February 19, 2016 [quote name='sunburstjazz1967' timestamp='1455895009' post='2983412'] Our drummer is always latency! [/quote] Best sig I've read in a long time, right up there with the "derogatory first" one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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