JBL VTX Series chosen for ’12-12-12′ concert

JBL VTX Series line arrays and Crown I-Tech HD Series programmable amplifiers were used for ’12-12-12′ The Concert for Sandy Relief last month.

The gig – held at Madison Square Garden on December 12th 2012 – featured some of the biggest stars in music, including Sir Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bon Jovi and many others.

To fill the 18,000-seat venue, sound reinforcement contractor Firehouse Productions of Red Hook, New York deployed a large JBL VTX Series rig consisting of two main left and right PA columns of 18 V25 full-size line array elements, complemented by two outfill arrays of 12 V25s, with four VERTEC VT4886 subcompact line arrays serving as under-hangs. Eighteen S28 and four G28 dual 18-inch cardioid arrayable subwoofers were ground-stacked to complete the VTX installation, while all the speakers were driven by Crown IT12000HD power amplifiers, with system control provided by JBL HiQnet Performance Manager software.

“We had to be completely at the top of our game for this one – although we’ve done many high-profile events, it’s not every day we get to do the sound reinforcement for a concert that’s broadcast around the world to more than a billion people,” said Mark Dittmar, lead design and integration engineer at Firehouse Productions.

“We’d been using JBL VERTEC line arrays for more than a decade and that product has been spectacular in terms of sound quality, relative light weight and versatile rigging options. That said, with JBL VTX the sound quality we can achieve has gone up a whole other level. VTX sets new standards in clarity and impact, and delivers a consistently smooth and natural response.

“We have used Crown amplifiers ever since we started Firehouse. The IT12000HD offers us power and flexibility that we can’t get with other products. With the introduction of the VTX line arrays and the newest V5 DSP presets for VTX, the sound quality is spectacular.”

For Dittmar, deploying JBL HiQnet Performance Manager software worked out to be a major benefit. “The JBL HiQnet Performance Manager software makes setting up and controlling the system a lot easier and more accurate. In fact, the 12-12-12 show was only the second time we had ever used Performance Manager – the first being the Z100 Jingle Ball 2012 at the Garden the week before! I’m happy to say it worked perfectly for us.”

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