Deptford-based ARC Sound has extended its long relationship with JBL loudspeakers by adding 12 x VerTec VT 4887A enclosures to the company’s rental fleet.
Established by James Dougill back in 2000, initially as a rehearsal facility, ARC Sound has constantly sought to keep its equipment at the cutting edge.
But as his company started to service larger-scale corporate events and awards ceremonies, the touring sound engineer recognised that the company’s existing JBL Venue and VRX stock, while perfect for the midrange shows, couldn’t be expected to satisfactorily provide adequate coverage and SPL for audiences of 2,000-plus.
“We’ve always got on really well with both our point source Venue units and the fixed curvature VRX line array, which for its size and weight performs tremendously,” he said. “But as a company, we were being asked to tender on bigger events, which clearly required a more appropriate solution,” he reasoned.
His search ended at last September’s PLASA Show where he discovered that JBL’s flagship line array met all his criteria.
“We considered several other options, but as most of our existing fleet is JBL, it made very practical sense to choose a product which we could easily integrate with our older stock. We’re really comfortable with the product, It’s very pleasant to use, has superb fidelity and is additionally very rider friendly.”
Dougill also liked the specification of JBL’s Compact Three-way High Directivity Line Array. “We were looking for a solution based as much on technical specification as sound quality. The 4887A ticked all the right boxes regarding weight, size, SPL (1W/1m), rigging and dispersion.
“Other products we evaluated, whilst being excellent in their own right, either didn’t offer us the level of dispersion we required, or were impractically heavy for our particular business model.”
ARC Sound’s MD was not keen on a tri-amped system and neither did he want to invest in new chain motors. “Although the VerTec 4887A is a three-way box it can be driven bi-amped, using a passive mid high network.
“We can comfortably support the product with our existing rigging and chain motor stock. Much of our work is corporate based, and for the most part, there’s almost never a flying grid to suspend loads from. But in many of the larger hotels with conference facilities, it’s fairly common to find rigging points in the ceiling rated at 250kg. That’s sufficient for us to safely suspend up to six VerTec 4887A elements.
With its wide dynamic range, the JBL VerTecis perfectly placed to handle one of their key accounts, the Christopher Howard Events transformational seminars … “which range from a whisper to nightclub levels of volume.”
When the layout for one of those seminars, at Alexandra Palace’s Exhibition Hall, changed axis at the last minute recently, requiring width rather than depth of coverage, ARC Sound were able to re-rig instantly, adding their VRX stock to provide the necessary out-fill coverage.
In fact the system is a breeze to rig and derig, concludes James Dougill. “And as for the room predictions, we simply plumb the venue geometry into the Excel based VerTec Line Array Calculator, and let it do all the number crunching.”
