  A scalable 16-ch thermal neutron detection system has been developed in the
framework of the upgrade of a neutron diffractometer. The detector is based on
ZnS:${}^6$LiF scintillator with embedded WLS fibers which are read out with
SiPMs. In this paper, we present the 16-ch module, the dedicated readout
electronics, a direct comparison between the performance of the diffractometer
obtained with the current ${}^3$He detector and with the 16-ch detection
module, and the channel-to-channel uniformity.
