LA’s Regent Theater Is Reborn With JBL VTX And Crown I-Tech HD

Originally built in the 1920s, the Regent Theater in downtown Los Angeles has been renovated with an eclectic combination of preserved historic architectural details and modern amenities, including a new audio system with Harman Professional’s JBL VTX Series line arrays and Crown Audio I-Tech HD Series amplifiers.

Owner Mitchell Frank took an unusually hands-on approach in the sound system upgrade for the 1,100-capacity venue. The system install was done in-house without the services of an outside contractor.

Frank relied on the help of JBL’s Paul Bauman for support, but already had a clear vision of what he wanted for the Regent, having worked for many years as, among other things, a concert and event producer and currently owner of Spaceland Productions.

“I’ve always been a fan of the VerTec line arrays,” Frank states. “When I first learned about the top-of-the-line JBL VTX Series, I knew we wanted to be first in line to have the rig installed here,” Frank states.

The theater’s VTX complement includes six V20 line array elements and four STX 828S dual-18-inch subwoofers on each side of the stage, augmented by four JBL AC26 2-way compact loudspeakers for front fill, two PRX735 3-way full-range loudspeakers used as side fills, and a dozen VRX915M 2-way 15-inch stage monitors.

Six Crown I-Tech 4x3500HD amplifiers power the main left/right line arrays, three Crown I-Tech 12000HD amps drive the subwoofers and four 4x3500HD amps handle the stage monitors.

The Regent has a main floor that slopes to the stage and a newly built second-floor mezzanine level and Frank finds the VTX arrays deliver wide, even, controlled coverage to both levels. “The VTX line arrays are relatively compact, but really powerful and clean and it’s amazing how much space they can cover, and do it so well. We did not have to install separate speakers for the mezzanine,” he says.

He adds that the Regent hosts an eclectic variety of music, and the loudspeakers, subs and amps can go from pounding yet completely undistorted deep bass on the venue’s dance music nights a to delicate, nuanced and sonically layered ‘high-fidelity’ presentation for acoustic-based acts.

The Crown amplifiers also helped to simplify the system design. “The I-Tech 4x3500HD is incredible,” Frank says. “The amplifier’s built-in processing and ability to be matched to the VTX arrays and the stage monitors saved us space because the loudspeaker management technology is all in the amps. We didn’t have to add outboard hardware for this functionality and JBL HiQnet Performance Manager software provides a great control and monitoring interface.”

Frank is doing some final fine-tuning of the venue with acoustic treatment: “We’re dampening up the room just a bit and just kind of tightening it up, but it’s been pretty much ready to go. We’ve had 10 shows already and everything sounds great.”

Bauman notes, “The advantages of the Harman JBL VTX and I-Tech HD system really shine in applications like the Regent Theater. Until the advent of these products it would have been impossible to implement a sound system in this kind of venue that was this streamlined in configuration, yet could be so precisely fine tuned. The performance of the VTX/I-Tech HD system has immediately taken the Regent to being one of the premier music venues in LA.”

JBL Professional
Crown Audio
Harman Professional

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