Behringer S16 Digital Stage Box

The Behringer S16 is the stage-end half of a digital snake — it sits in a stage rack, collects analog sources from the stage floor, and ships everything to a Behringer or Klark Teknik X32-family console over a single shielded Cat5e cable terminated in EtherCon. Sixteen XLR inputs with Midas-designed preamps handle your full input list, and eight XLR outputs bring console-routed signals back to the stage for wedges, side-fills, or anything else that needs a local analog feed. For IEM rigs specifically, it replaces what would otherwise be a heavy, expensive multi-pair analog snake run across a long stage-to-rack distance.

At load-in, the math is simple: one Cat5e run replaces up to 16 channels of analog snake, and the second AES50 port gives you a real option — either a redundant path back to the console or a daisy-chain to a second S16 for 32 inputs total without touching a second console AES50 port. Power draw sits at 22 watts nominal and tops at 30, so it's easy on your rack's power budget. The 184mm depth and 4.8kg weight are honest stage-rack numbers — not ultralight, but it won't punish a shallow utility rack either. Preamp gain is set remotely from the console, which means no one is tweaking knobs on the box mid-show.

If you're running an X32, X32 Rack, or X32 Compact as your console core, the S16 is the obvious, lowest-friction stage box choice — the AES50 integration is native and setup is minimal. It is not an open-protocol Dante or AVB device, so if your console ecosystem lives outside the X32 family, look elsewhere. The eight outputs are enough for most IEM monitor rigs sending mixes to side-fills or local wedges, but if you need more analog returns at the stage — say, a dense festival monitor world — you'll want to daisy-chain a second unit or reconsider your architecture before committing to this box.