In Ear Monitors - help needed...

[EBS_freak]

28 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Seems he has a really old system:

 

crumbs - you aren't wrong. I can't remember the last time I saw VHF wireless. Mind you, if it works....?  It's still legal at least! (173.7-175.1MHz)

Edited July 26, 2018 by EBS_freak

[EBS_freak]

27 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Which guitar wireless would you use? My smoothound has seen lots of action so isn't irreplaceable.

Like everything... "it depends"...

Budget being the main one.

First up - whats my beef with Smooth Hound? It's latency comes in at circa 8ms. Top end latency that the average people can cope with is 10ms. I can feel latency in my ears at about 7ms. So if you have anything digital in your chain, like a modeller, a digital desk, digital pedals, the combined latency all adds up and becomes more noticeable. So that's why budget comes into play... historically, you'd pay a premium for low latency - but tech seems to have caught up... with pretty much all line6 stuff at 2 or 3ms for example.

So pretty much shop bought digital wireless is going to be 2.4 Ghz (like the Smooth Hound... but thing typically Line 6, Shure GLXD,  Sennheiser D1, new Boss wireless). The downside of this is that it's open to interference from routers, phones, baby monitors, garage door remotes etc etc. How this impacts you in reality depends upon the gigs that you are going. If you are playing venues near offices, or hotels with a lot of wifi etc, you can have issues. Also, if you are playing gigs with a lot of people all with phones searching for wifi, that can impact stability. I remember playing in a TV studio with a Sony DWZ system- absolutely no chance of getting anything working given the amount of rogue RF. My ULXD however was solid - but that's digital over channel 38. But it also comes with a considerable price tag and lots of cool features that for me, never get used.

So that's your risk with 2.4Ghz. If you Smooth Hound has proven to solid enough in your gigs, then a 2.4Ghz system is probably good enough for you. Some manufactures allow you to drop the power on a transmitter, which helps keep RF interference between other devices less likely. Anyway, I digress slightly. 

Your other option in the Wifi band is Stageclix - if you can find one (I think Thomann still have the) - at 5 Ghz. So less chance of wifi interference (assuming transmission power stays fixed - which by Ofcom laws should be 10mW/30mW depending upon application)... but the tradeoff by going further up the spectrum is less range and less propagation (e.g. the ability for the radio waves to penetrate through walls, not be disturbed by fixed structures etc etc).

Ideally, for bass, you want a digital system so you don't have to deal with companders (you get them in IEM systems as they are largely still analogue for latency reasons - I think Lectrosonic and their Dual is the only notable exception - I know Stageclix do an IEM system but it's a bit of a swizz as it's just their mono guitar system in reverse). Companders squish your signal - e.g. the bass and treble extremities - transmit it - and then try to reassemble on the other side. It works for guitar... but for bass, not so much... and of course, the quality of the compander varies widely between manufacturers and models. That's why until digital came along, bass players were most dissatisfied with wireless. Of course, with the Shure PSM300+ and Sennheiser EW300 - well, both of those have great companders in... and hence why you are paying the price and getting a higher quality transmission.

So for casual users, there's digital over channel 38 - not aware of anything out there for channel 70. So for channel 38, off the top of my head, there's the ULXD, which I have - and also the QLXD, which is essentially a cut down ULXD without the extended options etc. I bought my ULXD before the release of QLXD - I would probably go for the QLXD now as I don't ever use the extended feature set of the ULX. Sennheiser I think have the 1.8Ghz covered - but it's analogue gear that area of the spectrum comes under the shared mic license. (historically they Ofcom released that band for the development of digital gear - but it would seem nobody bit!)

So for 2.4, I'd probably go Line6, GLXD, Sennheiser D1, for 5, Stageclix, for channel 38, Shure ULXD, QLXD - and for 1.8, Sennheiser (but I wouldn't cos it's analogue).

 

[intime-nick]

I have reverted back to my Line 6 XD-V75 rack mounted wireless system having bought a Smoothhound system and found the latency to be quite noticeable in my setup.  For a direct to amp, no IEMs type setup, it's perfectly fine but I was running it into a Helix LT through an XR18 mixer and then into my EW300G3 IEM transmitter (no amp on stage, straight to PA) and i honestly thought it was my Helix and the mixer causing the latency until i swapped the wireless guitar systems over.  I also sing so the latency was compounded by the vocals and bass seemingly being slightly out of sync with each other in my IEMs.

The XD-V75 also has a great channel scan facility as well as the usual transmitting power options etc.  I did try the other settings on the Smoothound which reduce the latency but the signal integrity was very compromised.  I would also add we run the mixer wireless router only on 5GHz as we were experiencing all sorts of interference issues with the 2.4Ghz kit irrespective of brand.

[EBS_freak]

3 hours ago, intime-nick said:

I have reverted back to my Line 6 XD-V75 rack mounted wireless system having bought a Smoothhound system and found the latency to be quite noticeable in my setup.  For a direct to amp, no IEMs type setup, it's perfectly fine but I was running it into a Helix LT through an XR18 mixer and then into my EW300G3 IEM transmitter (no amp on stage, straight to PA) and i honestly thought it was my Helix and the mixer causing the latency until i swapped the wireless guitar systems over.  I also sing so the latency was compounded by the vocals and bass seemingly being slightly out of sync with each other in my IEMs.

The XD-V75 also has a great channel scan facility as well as the usual transmitting power options etc.  I did try the other settings on the Smoothound which reduce the latency but the signal integrity was very compromised.  I would also add we run the mixer wireless router only on 5GHz as we were experiencing all sorts of interference issues with the 2.4Ghz kit irrespective of brand.

I'm glad somebody else has experience of the Smooth Hound latency! As you say, I'm sure for straight in the amp types, the latency is not noticeable... but inears? Forget it. Yet numerous people have argued with me otherwise. Makes me facepalm when you see all these "no latency" comments... especially from so called pros.

I think as an all rounder, the line 6 stuff is hard to beat. The Sony DWZ was really good - but sadly discontinued, presumably because they couldn't gain a big enough market share. It surprises me as Sony's knowledge with wireless audio, particularly in the broadcast world, is world class.

Be wary of scan functionality on ch38 and ch70 kit - they will usually dump you into illegal frequencies. Also, doing a scan with a large number of wireless generally never works out. It's ok for say, two or three bits of wireless kit (and that's if it dumps you out frequencies that are legal)

Edited July 26, 2018 by EBS_freak

[intime-nick]

As you mentioned, some people are more susceptible to latency so maybe I'm one of those but anything approaching 10ms total is pretty much unusable with IEMs.  As with all these things, ask 100 musicians, get 100 different answers.  In defence of the Smoothound system, i had zero dropouts whilst playing in many varied and RF heavy environments and I like the size of the receiver.  I don't like the non-detachable Rx antenna which are a bit cheap feeling and the battery door on the Tx could be a little less flimsy.  The non-detachable antenna meant it wouldn't sit properly in a 1U space (on a rack shelf) but i appreciate that it's not really designed for that (i do like to rack most of my gear though)

anyway - back to IEMs - just heard from Robert @ LUGS that he's almost finished my new custom quads - should only be a few days now 😃😃😃😃

Edited July 26, 2018 by intime-nick

[EBS_freak]

1 minute ago, intime-nick said:

As you mentioned, some people are more susceptible to latency so maybe I'm one of those.  As with all these things, ask 100 musicians, get 100 different answers.  In defence of the Smoothound system, i had zero dropouts whilst playing in many varied and RF heavy environments and I like the size of the receiver.  I don't like the non-detachable Rx antenna which are a bit cheap feeling and the battery door on the Tx could be a little less flimsy.  The non-detachable antenna meant it wouldn't sit properly in a 1U space (on a rack shelf) but i appreciate that it's not really designed for that (i do like to rack most of my gear though)

anyway - back to IEMs - just heard from Robert @ LUGS that he's almost finished my new custom quads - should only be a few days now 😃😃😃😃

Yeah, I guess we must remember to take into account the price and form factor of the Smooth Hound before we get too harsh! But for anybody looking I get into IEMs, it would not be a prudent purchase.

Anyway.....

Ooh. Snap. Apparently I'm at the sameness stage with mine. Race! I've got a slight addition to my order to... will post when that arrives also!

[EBS_freak]

4 minutes ago, intime-nick said:

As you mentioned, some people are more susceptible to latency so maybe I'm one of those but anything approaching 10ms total is pretty much unusable with IEMs.  As with all these things, ask 100 musicians, get 100 different answers.  In defence of the Smoothound system, i had zero dropouts whilst playing in many varied and RF heavy environments and I like the size of the receiver.  I don't like the non-detachable Rx antenna which are a bit cheap feeling and the battery door on the Tx could be a little less flimsy.  The non-detachable antenna meant it wouldn't sit properly in a 1U space (on a rack shelf) but i appreciate that it's not really designed for that (i do like to rack most of my gear though)

anyway - back to IEMs - just heard from Robert @ LUGS that he's almost finished my new custom quads - should only be a few days now 😃😃😃😃

As an aside, 10ms seems to be the maximum for most people on IEMs. I know people that can't tolerate 5! (Or so they say - guitarists)

 

[intime-nick]

25 minutes ago, EBS_freak said:

Yeah, I guess we must remember to take into account the price and form factor of the Smooth Hound before we get too harsh! But for anybody looking I get into IEMs, it would not be a prudent purchase.

Anyway.....

Ooh. Snap. Apparently I'm at the sameness stage with mine. Race! I've got a slight addition to my order to... will post when that arrives also!

Absolutely, it does what it does well enough for non IEM use and the price is great for what you get - I think a MK2 which incorporated a few more features and a belt-pack style Tx would be very cool even if the price went up. 

Race indeed ! He’s just sent me this pic before he starts linishing, polishing and laser etching 😀

Edited July 26, 2018 by intime-nick

[intime-nick]

to this - almost done, just the tips to clean up - happy days !

[EBS_freak]

Looking great!

[mrtcat]

6 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

Like everything... "it depends"...

Budget being the main one.

First up - whats my beef with Smooth Hound? It's latency comes in at circa 8ms. Top end latency that the average people can cope with is 10ms. I can feel latency in my ears at about 7ms. So if you have anything digital in your chain, like a modeller, a digital desk, digital pedals, the combined latency all adds up and becomes more noticeable. So that's why budget comes into play... historically, you'd pay a premium for low latency - but tech seems to have caught up... with pretty much all line6 stuff at 2 or 3ms for example.

So pretty much shop bought digital wireless is going to be 2.4 Ghz (like the Smooth Hound... but thing typically Line 6, Shure GLXD,  Sennheiser D1, new Boss wireless). The downside of this is that it's open to interference from routers, phones, baby monitors, garage door remotes etc etc. How this impacts you in reality depends upon the gigs that you are going. If you are playing venues near offices, or hotels with a lot of wifi etc, you can have issues. Also, if you are playing gigs with a lot of people all with phones searching for wifi, that can impact stability. I remember playing in a TV studio with a Sony DWZ system- absolutely no chance of getting anything working given the amount of rogue RF. My ULXD however was solid - but that's digital over channel 38. But it also comes with a considerable price tag and lots of cool features that for me, never get used.

So that's your risk with 2.4Ghz. If you Smooth Hound has proven to solid enough in your gigs, then a 2.4Ghz system is probably good enough for you. Some manufactures allow you to drop the power on a transmitter, which helps keep RF interference between other devices less likely. Anyway, I digress slightly. 

Your other option in the Wifi band is Stageclix - if you can find one (I think Thomann still have the) - at 5 Ghz. So less chance of wifi interference (assuming transmission power stays fixed - which by Ofcom laws should be 10mW/30mW depending upon application)... but the tradeoff by going further up the spectrum is less range and less propagation (e.g. the ability for the radio waves to penetrate through walls, not be disturbed by fixed structures etc etc).

Ideally, for bass, you want a digital system so you don't have to deal with companders (you get them in IEM systems as they are largely still analogue for latency reasons - I think Lectrosonic and their Dual is the only notable exception - I know Stageclix do an IEM system but it's a bit of a swizz as it's just their mono guitar system in reverse). Companders squish your signal - e.g. the bass and treble extremities - transmit it - and then try to reassemble on the other side. It works for guitar... but for bass, not so much... and of course, the quality of the compander varies widely between manufacturers and models. That's why until digital came along, bass players were most dissatisfied with wireless. Of course, with the Shure PSM300+ and Sennheiser EW300 - well, both of those have great companders in... and hence why you are paying the price and getting a higher quality transmission.

So for casual users, there's digital over channel 38 - not aware of anything out there for channel 70. So for channel 38, off the top of my head, there's the ULXD, which I have - and also the QLXD, which is essentially a cut down ULXD without the extended options etc. I bought my ULXD before the release of QLXD - I would probably go for the QLXD now as I don't ever use the extended feature set of the ULX. Sennheiser I think have the 1.8Ghz covered - but it's analogue gear that area of the spectrum comes under the shared mic license. (historically they Ofcom released that band for the development of digital gear - but it would seem nobody bit!)

So for 2.4, I'd probably go Line6, GLXD, Sennheiser D1, for 5, Stageclix, for channel 38, Shure ULXD, QLXD - and for 1.8, Sennheiser (but I wouldn't cos it's analogue).

 

Wow, there's so much to think about. We run an XR-18 mixer via an external router (dual band 2.4GHz - 5GHz) with all members controlling iem mixes on tablets so maybe I should stay away from a 2.4GHz wireless. This could get pricey lol.

[EBS_freak]

30 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Wow, there's so much to think about. We run an XR-18 mixer via an external router (dual band 2.4GHz - 5GHz) with all members controlling iem mixes on tablets so maybe I should stay away from a 2.4GHz wireless. This could get pricey lol.

Yeah - I guess  the investment all depends upon your experience. If 2.4Ghz is a problem at venues that you play, it's not going to get any better any time soon. There's always the option of going wired in that case.

I guess the reason I have invested the way that I have is that I currently (I chop and change!) run 6 channels of IEMs and 6 channels of mics. So getting stability gig after gig is down to Ch38. If you are only running a few channels, you can get away with a lot more. Of course, I've always got the wired back up.

[intime-nick]

New LUGS quad driver customs have arrived. First impressions are good - fit, isolation & sound are great. I need to spend a few hours with them playing some varied music and then at least one rehearsal / gig to get the full picture but so far, so good. 

I really bought them for the isolation and it's amazing how much better they perform on that front vs universals with the best isolating tips - I guess that's no surprise to anyone who's got some custom moulds but i didn't expect there to be that much difference. 

[mrtcat]

3 hours ago, intime-nick said:

New LUGS quad driver customs have arrived. First impressions are good - fit, isolation & sound are great. I need to spend a few hours with them playing some varied music and then at least one rehearsal / gig to get the full picture but so far, so good. 

I really bought them for the isolation and it's amazing how much better they perform on that front vs universals with the best isolating tips - I guess that's no surprise to anyone who's got some custom moulds but i didn't expect there to be that much difference. 

They look great. I'll be very interested to know how you get on as I'm going to look to replace my re-shelled UE900s soon as the fit isn't great and they seem a bit light on bottom end as a result.

[foxyFuze]

Off to the USA soon; thinking I should make the most of the price difference for a wireless kit (already got in-ears).  For $250-300 or so it seems to be the Sennheiser range that come up as winners.  I'm not a pro but just want something half decent to mix the PA and my own signal. Advice / previous relevant post URLs I may have missed  are welcome.

[EBS_freak]

4 hours ago, foxyFuze said:

Off to the USA soon; thinking I should make the most of the price difference for a wireless kit (already got in-ears).  For $250-300 or so it seems to be the Sennheiser range that come up as winners.  I'm not a pro but just want something half decent to mix the PA and my own signal. Advice / previous relevant post URLs I may have missed  are welcome.

Problem with inears systems is that different radio frequencies and illegal in different countries (and states!)... and all that.

Edited July 27, 2018 by EBS_freak

[foxyFuze]

Hmm, yes, good point. Will research...

[mrtcat]

21 hours ago, EBS_freak said:

Yeah - I guess  the investment all depends upon your experience. If 2.4Ghz is a problem at venues that you play, it's not going to get any better any time soon. There's always the option of going wired in that case.

I guess the reason I have invested the way that I have is that I currently (I chop and change!) run 6 channels of IEMs and 6 channels of mics. So getting stability gig after gig is down to Ch38. If you are only running a few channels, you can get away with a lot more. Of course, I've always got the wired back up.

So i've pulled the trigger on wireless. I really had to consider budget as much as anything. We've never had signal drop out issues with 2.4ghz but have sorted our wifi so it can run solely at 5ghz (it's always on stage so not having to battle through walls, over long distances or round corners). I've retired the smoothound in favour of a Line 6 relay g50 which did eat into my budget considerably but have found (and this was where I had to compromise) a Shure PSM 300 with the premium pack on CH70 for £615. I'll always have a cable as a backup so although it may not be 100% guaranteed interference free at every venue, it should at least be good at the majority. Would have spent more but have recently had to buy a couple of new kitesurfing kites to replace my old kit that's getting a bit past it and they are silly money these days. Massive thanks to EBS_freak for all the valuable advice tho. Excited to see how it all goes.

[EBS_freak]

20 hours ago, mrtcat said:

So i've pulled the trigger on wireless. I really had to consider budget as much as anything. We've never had signal drop out issues with 2.4ghz but have sorted our wifi so it can run solely at 5ghz (it's always on stage so not having to battle through walls, over long distances or round corners). I've retired the smoothound in favour of a Line 6 relay g50 which did eat into my budget considerably but have found (and this was where I had to compromise) a Shure PSM 300 with the premium pack on CH70 for £615. I'll always have a cable as a backup so although it may not be 100% guaranteed interference free at every venue, it should at least be good at the majority. Would have spent more but have recently had to buy a couple of new kitesurfing kites to replace my old kit that's getting a bit past it and they are silly money these days. Massive thanks to EBS_freak for all the valuable advice tho. Excited to see how it all goes.

The PSM300 is great so no worries there... but would suggest if everybody is hopping on board with wireless IEMs, stick with PSM300s. That way you can use their present frequencies without worry of intermodulation issues - this is more common and problematic when you start mixing brands and systems. You should be able to get 3 or 4 in the channel 70 space.

Edited July 28, 2018 by EBS_freak

[EBS_freak]

15 hours ago, intime-nick said:

New LUGS quad driver customs have arrived. First impressions are good - fit, isolation & sound are great. I need to spend a few hours with them playing some varied music and then at least one rehearsal / gig to get the full picture but so far, so good. 

I really bought them for the isolation and it's amazing how much better they perform on that front vs universals with the best isolating tips - I guess that's no surprise to anyone who's got some custom moulds but i didn't expect there to be that much difference. 

I reckon the isolated fit alone improves things from 10%-35% in terms of sound quality.  Custom fit is boss!

[EBS_freak]

And now the cable has gone on my ACS. Wow. Surprise - not. Utter stinky poo design.

Roll on postman. I need some decent ears delivering quick smart!

[tonyf]

On 28/07/2018 at 23:38, EBS_freak said:

And now the cable has gone on my ACS. Wow. Surprise - not. Utter stinky poo design.

Roll on postman. I need some decent ears delivering quick smart!

Crikey, you're really not having a lot of luck recently with the old ear candy are you? Hope you get sorted ASAP. 

[EBS_freak]

20 minutes ago, tonyf said:

Crikey, you're really not having a lot of luck recently with the old ear candy are you? Hope you get sorted ASAP. 

Probably bin the ACS off after this and look at getting something else as my backup pair. What use is a backup pair if they are so prone to failing? This weekend has been full of left side only, distorted mess that has ended up with me getting more frustrated and flustered. Without fail, everybody I know with ACS has had issue with the cables. From the historical moulded in place, non removable cable to the stupid hookup system with the Live series, all of them give up the ghost. I can count on one hand the number of cable failures I've heard of from other manufacturers. Even the common Shure cable failures at least give you some warning before it's going to happen.

It just seems so wrong that such an unreliable and average at best performing product has such a market share in the UK. Utter utter shyte. I wish I knew back then what I know now... and yet, if you ask anybody what they'd recommend, they always say ACS. And then when the inevitable cables fail, "yeah, they do that".

It's utter shyte. For the money you are paying for ACS, get something decent from JH, 64 or UE. They will have more headroom, sound better and the cables are less likely to fail.

Edited July 30, 2018 by EBS_freak

[Me And My Bass]

Looking for some BC advice guys! Had a good 30 min read through this thread & although it is an amazing resource I didn’t quite find what I am after.

My band are pretty busy these days, original material folk/rock outfit. We play lots of festivals all over Europe throughout the year. The stage sound is pretty hit and miss from festival to festival & after the weekends gig there we have desided we want to try and go for IEM when touring about. 

I suppose the question I have is what’s the best suited system we can rack mount up in a flight case and take with us (flights, vans) on the road, which will be easy to basically hook into whatever system the festival is using and run out monitoring through Inears. 

Line up wise we are - Drums, Bass, vocals/guitar, harmonica, mandolin/fiddle & whistle/flute. So looking at 6 systems to be running at the same time. 

You can see from the line up it’s not industry standard instruments, not that it should matter, but some of the issues we have had with big badass stage monitors feeding back with particular instruments etc has been pretty crap. We also don’t bring our own engineer and relay on the in-house sound crew. Hence why I am thinking a seemless enough system would be best which we will obviously have on our tech spec forwarded to festivals in advance.

We have dabbled with our own PA system using IE wired into a multi headphone splitter & it worked fine. Down side was lack of mobility (this would be even more of an issue on larger festival stages & limited Aux channels for independent mixes on our desk. 

So . . . We are willing to invest a bit in this system, looking something reliable (industry standard maybe?) & portable to take with us on the road. 

* 5x wireless systems (maybe 6 systems but I am thinking the drummer will be fine hardwired into the headphone splitter for his mix). Worth mentioning some of the guys already own decent custom IEMs for various our work they do, it’s more the systems we need to sort, if they come with decent IE buds then that’s a bonus for spares.

Sorry for the long winded blurb! Thanks for taking the time to read it! Any advice would be much appreciated. 

 

Cheers! 

Edited July 30, 2018 by Me And My Bass

[EBS_freak]

1 hour ago, Me And My Bass said:

Looking for some BC advice guys! Had a good 30 min read through this thread & although it is an amazing resource I didn’t quite find what I am after.

My band are pretty busy these days, original material folk/rock outfit. We play lots of festivals all over Europe throughout the year. The stage sound is pretty hit and miss from festival to festival & after the weekends gig there we have desided we want to try and go for IEM when touring about. 

I suppose the question I have is what’s the best suited system we can rack mount up in a flight case and take with us (flights, vans) on the road, which will be easy to basically hook into whatever system the festival is using and run out monitoring through Inears. 

Line up wise we are - Drums, Bass, vocals/guitar, harmonica, mandolin/fiddle & whistle/flute. So looking at 6 systems to be running at the same time. 

You can see from the line up it’s not industry standard instruments, not that it should matter, but some of the issues we have had with big badass stage monitors feeding back with particular instruments etc has been pretty crap. We also don’t bring our own engineer and relay on the in-house sound crew. Hence why I am thinking a seemless enough system would be best which we will obviously have on our tech spec forwarded to festivals in advance.

We have dabbled with our own PA system using IE wired into a multi headphone splitter & it worked fine. Down side was lack of mobility (this would be even more of an issue on larger festival stages & limited Aux channels for independent mixes on our desk. 

So . . . We are willing to invest a bit in this system, looking something reliable (industry standard maybe?) & portable to take with us on the road. 

* 5x wireless systems (maybe 6 systems but I am thinking the drummer will be fine hardwired into the headphone splitter for his mix). Worth mentioning some of the guys already own decent custom IEMs for various our work they do, it’s more the systems we need to sort, if they come with decent IE buds then that’s a bonus for spares.

Sorry for the long winded blurb! Thanks for taking the time to read it! Any advice would be much appreciated. 

 

Cheers! 

So, the big questions are

1. if you want to go stereo in your inears

2. whats your budget looking like

 

 

I can have a guess at what I think you are looking for from the spec you have posted and go from there.

Assuming you want to have control of your mix independent to the front of house, you are going to be needing a splitter somewhere along the line. So there's really only one option which you guarantee to work in most situations... and thats the good old analogue split. (Digital Dante splits, whilst being cool - are still not that widely adopted in the smaller scene... and even if you have a FOH Dante card, you'll need somebody to be able to configure it in Dante controller. If Dante is running at a festival, I guarantee nobody will be allowing any changes with Dante Controller). Anyway, I digress.

So analogue split wise, look at the following -

http://orchid-electronics.co.uk/micsplit.htm

http://artproaudio.com/splitters/product/s8/

https://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Behringer-ULTRALINK-MS8000-8-Channel-Microphone-Splitter/1WMI

Any analogue splitter will do you - but I would always get an isolated split - so you can't accidentally send two sets of phantom from two desks. You'll need to buy more than 1 if you want to monitor more than 8 channels. Remember, you don't necessarily need to monitor absolutely everything. (e.g. for drums - do you need all of the drum mics in your monitors?)

One half of the split will go FOH, the other will go to your mixing device.

Mixing device wise, you are probably looking like something like a Behringer XR18 to give you 6 mono mixes from the auxes. This means you can plug in something like a Behringer P2 headphone mixer into each aux for each of the band members. They can then control their mix individually via an phone or tablet that connects via wifi over the XR18.

If you want to go stereo, you have couple of options... You could make use of ultralink P16M from the XR18. That would give you stereo mixes for up to 16 tracks. Or you could use a combination of 3 lots of 2 lots of auxes to achieve 6 stereo mixes at a more affordable cost.

Or... you could get rid of the XR18 and get one of these to use with P16Ms -

http://www.musictribe.com/Categories/Behringer/Signal-Processors/In-Ear-Monitoring/P16-I/p/P0420#

Or... you could get a mixer with more auxes - the Mackie DL32R being the obvious candidate (as it has all the I/O built in without the need of break out boxes). Again, you would use it over Wifi like the XR18 - but you have the additional auxes available to you. Gives you the option to add a Dante card too if you want.

Hows that sounding for starters?

Of course, the biggest complexity is actually getting the festival organisers aware of what you want to do. Plugging in this way means them breaking their FOH chain and inserting your splitter. Of course, the most prepared festival organisers have splitters in place already for such things. Bigger festivals will have a dedicated monitor world. And festival organiser gods will let you take a feed from a Dante switch and have somebody on hand who can patch your device straight in.

If you aren't looking at the above, and you are looking at just wireless systems to be run off FoH auxes or maybe even a dedicated monitor world, then my go to system for the money would be a EW300. However... that brings it's own complexities... co-ordinating wireless frequencies in itself can be challenging. If you turn up to a festival that is running RF already... well, you aren't going to make yourself very popular if you start standing up your own RF broadcasts that could interrupt other systems. Also, you say that you are doing festivals all over Europe - you aren't going to be able to find a wireless system that is legal in every country... the legality of running these things are very much dependent on the country (and even state in some circumstances) and their local radio licensing laws. Not worth getting fined over wireless! Are you running the instruments wirelessly? If not, why don't you run inears wired also? And if you are running wirelessly, what frequencies? As you can see, running reliable RF can be a huge complication that nobody will thank you for at a festival... unless it's all under the organiser's control.