Ok, I've been looking at this thing:

I'm with you on:

1. Less cartage
2. Less Setup
3. Less too loud syndrome.

Given typical 4 piece (2 gtr, bass, drums) rock and blues band that plays in small bars and such, currently uses the following:

2x guitar amps, about 20 watts each (tube - vintage Fender Deluxe Reverbs, using natural distortion as needed) few effects.

Bass amp - 350 watts, 2x10 - 1x15 speaker.

Un-mic'd drum set.

Small 300 watt sound system with 3 mics for vocals, two house speakers and 3 small monitor wedges.

We play and host open mic nights with this system. Sometimes outdoors, usualy inside smaller places, on the order of 50-150 seats, max.

I'm trying to understand:

1. Each player in band needs his own Bose system?

2. How does one "hear" the vocals from who-ever is singing without a monitor mix?

3. Vocalist would use cardiod mic in usual manner? How does the system avoid feedback?

4. Guitar players now required to use some kind of direct-box, instead of the natural sound of a small tube amp? (the kind where you control the distortion by touch or level at the guitar/strings)

5. Bass player likewise goes direct into Bose and plays without usual bass rig?

I'm just trying to figure out how much equipment is needed and how this benefits me, versus the relatively inexpensive sound system we use now?

Certainly, I like ease of setup (nearing geezer age) and better tone is a great thing. I'm not happy with our current setup, but it could be remedied for maybe another $500 or so. (Figure the whole sound system is worth about $2500 including mics, not counting instrument amps)

So what would we need for the Bose setup to work for us?

From what I understand, you'd be able to mic the guitar amps; for best results you'd probably want to face them in to wash the stage, or even backwards so they're not detrimental to the FOH sound. The bassist would probably want to go direct. As for the vocals, you'd hear them because they're being "radiated" out of the singer's L1 pole over the entire stage. I don't know how they'd sound, since your ears naturally point forward and these speakers would be behind you... but I've never used the system.

That brings about an interesting point... if the band wanted to have a bit more volume than they were subjecting their listeners to, I wonder if it'd be possible to have two poles up in the front, facing in towards the stage? As long as there were no phase cancellation issues, this could work to provide a little more sound on the stage -- maybe provide the players with a different mix than the ones behind them are providing (for example, more vocals aiming at them if there's a lot of harmony, etc).

Some quick answers:
1. Each player in band needs his own Bose system?
That’s the optimum scenario but players can certainly share systems, especially on small stages where you can’t get any significant spatial separation anyway.

2. How does one "hear" the vocals from who-ever is singing without a monitor mix?
This exactly is the main benefit of using a Cylindrical Radiator™ loudspeaker. Everybody hears the pretty much same thing at the same level no matter where you are. A single system provides sound to you, your fellow musicians and the audience.

3. Vocalist would use cardiod mic in usual manner? How does the system avoid feedback?
A cardiod microphone is fine. There are a couple of mechanisms that help with feedback (or the avoidance thereof).
a) The Cylindrical Radiator™ loudspeaker allows having a sound level on stage that’s similar to that in the audience. In other words, it doesn’t have to be blasting loud on stage to get sufficient level in the audience and that reduces the potential for feedback
b) The radiation pattern is very smooth and there are no spikes in the directivity that normally determine the direction and frequency where feedback happens first
c) Since typically there are only one or two microphones attached to a single system, the number of feedback paths (combinations of speaker and microphone) is fairly small. In a conventional system, every microphone usually connects somehow to all monitors and the front of the house, so the number of microphone/speaker combinations is much higher. And it’s always the worst case, which determines the overall gain before feedback hits.

4. Guitar players now required to use some kind of direct-box, instead of the natural sound of a small tube amp? (the kind where you control the distortion by touch or level at the guitar/strings)
There are many different ways of getting guitar sound into the system including small tube amps. Check out our “Guitars and other Strings” section of the message board and repost your questions there if you can’t find what you are looking for.

5. Bass player likewise goes direct into Bose and plays without usual bass rig?
That’s what I do (I happen to be a bass player). I plug in my bass directly and choose preset 52 or sometimes no preset (preset 00), and that works for me just fine. The system has a high impedance input (which works well either active or passive guitar/bass) so you don’t need a DI box. Other alternatives include using a pre-amp, an amp modeler or the line out of your existing amp head. There is also a Bass Guitar forum, where we could go into more detail.

Hope that helps

Hilmar