CZECH REPUBLIC: Since selling the Czech Republic’s first JBL VTX V20 system to Brno-based Kletch, enabling them to service the massive Pohoda Festival at Trenčín Slovensko, Harman Professional’s territorial distributor, AudioMaster CZ, has ensured the rig has been seen regularly at outdoor festivals throughout the summer.
The most recent of these was the Bohemia JazzFest 2015, for which AudioMaster CZ fielded its own system to give it further exposure. The company’s business marketing specialist, Jiri Tomášek, explained: “We bought the system this summer in order to show it off to Czech sound engineers and investors at festivals.”
Started in 2006 by acclaimed jazz guitarist Rudy Linka, who wanted to present and promote world-class jazz in the Czech Republic, Bohemia JazzFest takes place around eight historic squares throughout the country — including the capital, Prague, which became AudioMaster CZ’s VTX demo site.
For this event, AudioMaster CZ partnered with one of its best clients, AV Media. Around 4,000 people attended the festival each day in Prague’s Old Town Square, the historic centre of the Czech capital, while other host cities included Plzen, Domazlice, Tabor, Liberec, Brno, Pisek, and Prachatice.
Reviewing the attributes of the V20, a smaller format version of JBL’s groundbreaking V25, AudioMaster CZ technician, Marek Barabas, stated, “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, delays etc.
“Performance Manager is very intuitive — you can understand it very quickly, and all changes you make, you can hear immediately.”
Walking the venue with his tablet to tune the system, Barabas added, “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 centre 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).
FOH mixing was performed on Soundcraft’s new Vi3000 digital console, with a Vi1 down at the stage.
As for the V20, Jiri Tomášek reports that it came through its test with flying colours. “It survived the rain and everything else thrown at it from an eclectic program of international musicians,” he said. These included American genius Bill Frisell and EWF Experience featuring Al McKay (from the US) as well as an assembly of Europe’s finest.
Meanwhile, festivals covered by Kletch this summer (aside from Pohoda) include Trinity Festival at Ostrava Trojhalí (for which AudioMaster CZ provided JBL’s G28 subs), VUT Fit Monster at Brno Velodrom, and the massive, PRIGL Electronic Open Air Festival at Brno Přehrada.
For more information on Harman, check out its official website.
Header photo credit: Michal Stepanek
