Firehouse Productions (Red Hook, NY) chose Harman’s JBL Professional VTX loudspeakers and Crown Audio I-Tech HD amplifiers for sound reinforcement at the 2014 Global Citizen Festival held on the Great Lawn in Central Park, which featured performances by Jay Z, The Roots and DJ Tiesto.
For this outdoor venue of 55 acres, the system design included two hangs of 18 VTX V25 line arrays per side, 38 VTX G28 and 16 VT4880A subwoofers for the main PA, complemented by four hangs of 12 VT4889 loudspeakers for delays.
The main loudspeakers were powered by 60 Crown I-Tech 12000HD amplifiers, while the subwoofers were driven by 24 I-Tech 12000HD amplifiers for the subwoofers. The system was monitored and controlled with JBL HiQnet Performance Manager.
“Both our engineers and the audience liked the sound very much,” says Mark Dittmar, VP of design and engineering for Firehouse Productions. “The VTX boxes performed consistently, with powerful bass and clear highs. Though it’s an outdoor venue, we’ve set up enough delay towers to reach every corner of the venue. As always, there were no challenges that we couldn’t overcome with these line arrays.
“The biggest thing for us is to have a single amplifier that can power every JBL loudspeaker we use, so we can use just one amp rack design for everything,” he adds. “The flexibility is really incredible.”
