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Live Report from AES floor September 23, 2000 (update 9/28/00)
JBL VerTec Line Array
I just returned from the JBL VerTec line array demo at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. I'll get straight to it: I measured a 2dB difference (A weighted) from just below the array, which was trimmed at about twelve feet, and the rear of the room ninety feet away. Behind the array I measured it as about 15 dB down, with an extremely well defined cutoff. My sophisticated test kit consisted of a Radio Shack analog SPL meter.
The array elements weigh 152 pounds each. Harry Witz and I lifted one up to the stage in "demonstration mode", followed by a demo of the integral rigging system. The VerTec system philosophy is "no straps, no gaps", meaning all the hardware required to connect the adjacent boxes is contained within the exterior frame itself. After removing a pin, an extension piece slides out of the frame which mates to bottom element of the array which is lowered into place from above. Four pins secure the next box and up it goes. This system allows the array to be suspended very quickly.
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No "gaps": vertical splay angles are implemented from the rear of the box, rather than the front. By never changing the gap distance between the front of the box the distance between the adjacent HF sections is preserved.
The horizontal coverage is seamless, as one would expect from a column of radiators. From front to back the sound seemed very netural with little change in "coloration". Balcony coverage was outstanding as well.
There are two types of truss modules, a large one and a small one. The large one weighs abut 75 pounds. The rigging points go upstage and downstage, and downward angles are achieved by pulling the upstage side up. Maximum array depth is 18 elements.
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Nominal impedance at the input connector is 16 ohms HF, 8 ohms MF, and (2x) 8 ohms LF with each LF transducer on its own set of wire. The transducers are newly developed for the VerTec system, including (3x) 1.5 inch exit beryllium compression driver with 3 inch voice coils, (4x)8 inch MF transducers and (2x)15 inch LF transducers. The demo system was powered with Crown MA500vz amplifiers for each passband.
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