Worship Musician Magazine September 2020 | Page 156

GEAR REVIEW
PROCO W.I.E.M.S WIRELESS IN-EAR MONITORING SYSTEM | Mitch Bohannon
KEY FEATURES
• Rechargeable receiver and transmitter
• Aluminum housing
• Crystal clear transmission
• Super-small design
• Protective gig bag
I absolutely love seeing affordable, wireless inear
monitors. Probably because I know just how
frustrating it is to have a top-notch personal
mixer system at my church (like Aviom) and
then not being able to afford a wireless system,
leaving me permanently tethered to my mixer
on stage. Then, the inevitable times that I would
finish a worship set, put down my guitar, and
walk away… only to pull my personal mixer with
me! Who’s been there? I see those hands.
Back in those days, it seemed that the most
affordable wireless in-ear monitor was about
$1,000.00 and my church budget just could not
handle that expense. With these ProCo units,
at current pricing, you could almost purchase
three systems for that $1,000.00 investment.
Four systems can operate at the same time
with four user-selectable channels.
Out of the box, I was impressed with the oval
case with foam fitted sections for each piece.
The transmitter has an aluminum body and
an XLR female connector so that it can plug
directly into an XLR monitor output from your
sound board (or if you have a ¼” or 1/8” output,
ProCo makes a connector for that). The only
buttons on the transmitter are a power button
and a pair/channel select button. There is a
micro-USB port for charging and on the end
are green and blue LED lights to indicate power
and sync respectively.
The belt-pack receiver is also an aluminum
body and is about half the size of other wireless
receivers that I have used. On the top is the
headphone jack, a power button and volume
knob. There are the same green and blue LED
lights on the top to indicate power and sync just
like the transmitter. On the bottom of the unit,
there is a micro-USB for charging as well as a
sync button. A belt clip on the back finishes off
this tiny little receiver.
Included with the system is a charger with USB
to dual micro-USB cable so you can charge
both the transmitter and receiver at the same
time. The batteries are stated to last 6-8 hours
per charge. The system is digital and operates
at 5.8GHz so that it stays out of the way of WiFi
interference. It has a range of 20 to 30 meters
within line-of-sight. If your monitor output is
behind a wall, it would be easy to extend it with
an XLR cable and place the transmitter in a
good location for signal.
First impression… I am really blown away. At
home, I used the headphone (1/8”) jack on my
Presonus AudioBox to connect. I actually went
156 September 2020
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