Firehouse Productions deployed JBL by Harman Professional Solutions VT4886 line arrays at the 70th annual Tony Awards, which was broadcast live from the historic Beacon Theatre in New York City.
“The JBL VT4886 offers an incredible amount of power and control in a very small package, and I’ve had excellent results with it on numerous live shows,” said Mark Dittmar, lead design and integration engineer at Firehouse Productions. “At the Beacon Theatre, which is an extremely small venue, size and taking up less space are very important. JBL VT4886 is a spectacular-sounding speaker in a very small package, which is a great combination for a show like the Tony Awards.”
The 2016 Tony Awards ceremony featured energetic performances with up to 30 lavalier mics on the stage simultaneously. Critical issues included making sure the live sound stayed out of the on-air mix, dialogue intelligibility, and having the arrays take up minimal space and be hidden from the camera sightlines during the broadcast.
“On a television show, we have to keep the PA hidden, but we also need great intelligibility,” said Dittmar. “The VT4886 arrays worked really well and allowed us to place the PA in a space that other arrays wouldn’t fit.”
The subcompact JBL VT4886 features a true 3-way system that features a low-frequency diffraction absorber that eliminates cavity resonance and cabinet edge diffraction effects, which provided Firehouse with extra control over feedback.
The VT4886 is designed for reinforcement of music and speech in a wide variety of applications, including concert audio and corporate AV presentations of all types.
