The Czech Republic’s first JBL VTX V20 loudspeaker system was acquired by Brno-based Kletch for the Pohoda Festival at Trenčín Slovensko, and the system has been seen regularly at outdoor festivals throughout the summer.
The most recent of its outings was the Bohemia JazzFest 2015, when local distributor AudioMaster CZ fielded its own system to give it further exposure: ‘We bought the system this summer in order to show it off to Czech sound engineers and investors at festivals,’ says Business Marketing Specialist, Jiri Tomášek.
Established in 2006 by jazz guitarist Rudy Linka, who wanted to present and promote world-class jazz in the Czech Republic, Bohemia JazzFest takes place around eight squares throughout the country – including Prague, which was AudioMaster CZ’s VTX demo site. Around 4,000 people attended the festival each day, where AudioMaster CZ had partnered with one of its best clients, AV Media.
Reviewing the attributes of the V20, a smaller format version of JBL’s V25, AudioMaster CZ technician, Marek Barabas, states: ‘This system is great for setting and tuning. I really like the step-by-step workflow in JBL HiQnet Performance Manager – it enables me to make the design offline at home, then bring my laptop to the venue and add real values into LAC [Line Array Calculator]. I can then make small changes in the setting before finally going to the true measurement, for EQ and delays.
‘Performance Manager is very intuitive – you can understand it very quickly, and all changes you make, you can hear immediately.’
Walking the venue with a tablet to tune the system, Barabas adds: ‘The most superb function is the Live mode, as this provides a real time overview about what’s going on with the system. I can see both RMS/Peak levels on all circuits and I can see gain reduction if the system reaches limiter thresholds. These limiters really work in the way they protect transducers, yet they are inaudible while in operation.’
In Prague’s Old Square the installation team – with Vilem Komarek production managing for AV Media – flew nine V20 tops per side, with six G28 subs in a center broadside array, and two hangs of four S25 column subs. In addition, they had a V20 per side as front fill and VTX F15 as out fill. The system was powered by four Crown VRack 4x3500HD systems with a custom rack (comprising Crown I-Tech 5000HD and I-Tech 4x3500HD). Tomášek reports that it came through its test with flying colors. ‘It survived the rain and everything else thrown at it from an eclectic programme of international musicians,’ he says. These included Bill Frisell and EWF Experience featuring Al McKay (from the US) as well as an assembly of Europe’s finest.
FOH mixing was performed on Soundcraft’s new Vi3000 digital console, with a Vi1 at the stage.
Other festivals covered by Kletch this summer include Trinity Festival at Ostrava Trojhalí (where AudioMaster CZ provided JBL’s G28 subs), Vut Fit Monster at Brno Velodrom and the massive, PRIGL Electronic Open Air Festival at Brno Přehrada.
More: www.jblpro.com
More: www.soundcraft.com
