In Ear Monitoring

In-Ear-Systems

This problem should be known to every musician: How can I listen to the other musicians on stage and hear myself at the same time? Eevryone knows the difficulties with floor monitors: In the moment when you can hear yourself loud and clearly, an acoustic feedback crops up. In order to control the monitor sound better a new monitor technique was developed known as the wireless "in-ear-system" which nearly every top act makes use of today.

The history of these wireless "ear-phones" isn´t that old. The English company Garwood was the pioneer of this wireles technology. Their idea came at a Stevie Wonder concert in London. After the blind super-star fell over his monitor during rehearsal, the audio engineer give him a set of head-phones. Unfortunately the cable was an even bigger problem, so it was decided to tinker a set of wireless ear-phones - and so be done! The concert proceeded without any further incidents...apart from the fact that the non-accredited reciever was so loud that the concert - or let´s say the "monitormix" - was broadcasted in London and the surrounding area unintendedly.

Unfortunately the initially successful in-ear-systems from Garwood which was largely along the lines of the audiotechnical performance of a flushgenerator gained copyists like e.g. Shure or Sennheiser who to this day share the market between themselves.