JBL Vertec line arrays and Soundcraft Vi6 console for Belgrade Jazz Festival

Serbia’s Studio Berar recently deployed Harman’s JBL Vertec line arrays and a Soundcraft Vi6 console for the Belgrade Jazz Festival.

Kicking off in the Great Hall of Belgrade’s Sava Centre with a performance by legendary jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, the event saw sound and lighting specialist Studio Berar provide full technical support, specifying JBL Vertec VT4888 midsize line arrays and a Soundcraft Vi6 digital FOH console as its main sound reinforcement components.

Studio Berar, Harman’s distributor for Serbia, was contacted by production company and festival organisers Dom Omladine Beograda, a long-standing business partner, for whom it has provided Harman solutions on a number of previous occasions. With Momcilo Berar and Emil Berar managing for the supply company, the JBL system, complete with ground-stacked VT4880 fullsize arrayable subwoofers and JBL VRX932LA Constant Curvature loudspeakers, was optimised for 3,700 seats. The system was powered by a combination of Crown I-Tech IT4000 and IT8000 amplifiers.

With Studio Berar’s Ivan Paplacko at FOH, the Soundcraft Vi6 with Vistonics II interface was set up with a generic ‘house patch’, which the individual technicians were able to personalise. Lazar Josanov, the company’s marketing manager, explained: “Ivan was able to provide a very simple introduction to visiting sound engineers, although most were already familiar with the platform. The Vi6 was the perfect selection for a multi-act show, largely because of its simplicity of use, combined with the Vistonics interface. This allowed the technicians to have all the data right before their eyes [and at their fingertips], with simple logical shortcuts.”

He concluded by stating that everyone, from the visiting engineers to the production company, had expressed their satisfaction with the knowledge and professionalism demonstrated by the Studio Berar team.