The 2012 iHeartRadio Music Festival didn't just repeat itself, it got bigger. For the second year in a row, New York-based Firehouse Productions deployed HARMAN's JBL line arrays for the festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Hosted by Ryan Seacrest with performances from top artists including Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Swedish House Mafia, Aerosmith, Mary J. Blige, Bon Jovi, Green Day, Pink!, Usher, Taylor Swift and more, the show closed with Pitbull, joined by Ne-Yo, singing “Give Me Everything.”
This year, the main PA system included left-right columns of of 18 JBL VTX V25 fullsize line array elements each, with a total of 32 JBL VERTEC VT4880A fullsize arrayable subwoofers (16 per side), eight VERTEC VT4886 subcompact line array elements used for front fill and two arrays of 12 VERTEC VT4888 midsize line array elements each for offstage fill. Crown I-Tech HD 12000 amplifiers powered the entire system.
“The difference in the sonic quality of the VTX is amazing,” stated Mark Dittmar, Lead Design and Integration Engineer at Firehouse Productions. “The system is really powerful and gives us a great clean, undistorted sound. It's also a major benefit that it's lighter considering the power that we get from it.”
As with any large festival, accommodating the large number of different acts playing on the same stage was one of the biggest challenges of the event. However, with Firehouse's VTX system, the festival went smoothly. “The entire system is extremely easy to set up and configure,” he said. “We have been using VTX for over six months now on tours and other major events and we have been really satisfied with its performance thus far.”
“With the Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers we take advantage of all the presets being pre-loaded,” Dittmar added. “It's a great feature for tour sound companies as it's a ton of power in a really compact form-factor. We know we will get the most out of the system by using them along with VTX.”
For more information on Firehouse Productions, please visit:http://www.firehouseproductions.com
