JBL Professional VTX A8 takes the stage at Rolling Sets Festival and Let the Good Times Roll Festival

Ryan Hazell from Roll In Production Services, and the events’ Production Manager, Tristan Forbes Technical Services, collaborated with Peter Kubow from MadisonAV to utilise the JBL VTX A8 system at the Jim Beam Stage and Ocean Stage for the two day event at the Entrance. They were assisted by the on-stage production crew of Silhouette Sound.

Ryan Hazell and Peter Kubow discussed the performance of the system and its capabilities to adhere to PA performance spec for the event, leading to Ryan deciding to use the JBL VTX A Series for the first time.

Peter Kubow was the FOH Operator for some of the Bands/Artists, as well as the systems designer for the VTX A system chosen for the Ocean and Jim Beam stages. The system was tuned to ensure even coverage for the listening area required for punters and the system was calibrated to optimise the performance before even arriving at the event. Kubow stated “I was really surprised at how little needed to be changed once the system was put in place. The predictability of the frequency response and performance was impressive.”

Whilst discussing the audio performance, Hazell told us “The clarity and efficiency is what makes this system stand out from the pack. The improved clarity means you don't need to run the system as loud to translate the impact to the audience. Pete was explaining the new driver technology and the super quick recovery time that translates into drastically improved transient response, more like a studio monitor. That is how I would describe the sound of the PA, the transient detail was something new to what I have experienced in a deployment of this size, you can hear the space between that is normally lost in a live setting."

“There were zero complaints received from any touring engineers with the system - this is rare! As we all know, us engineers love a good winge. The industry in Australia is dominated by a very few major brands and I feel engineers and production managers use this as a comfort blanket to specify on their riders. I feel after enough people use the VTX A here it will break into the holy grail of touring riders.

"The overwhelming positive feedback actually came from the festival promoters and the audience, noticing a drastic improvement on the stage from the previous year.” 

Production Manager, Tristan Forbes, provided his feedback on the performance of the system at the event said “I know that a production supplier for this festival has enquired about having it on their next festival. They are happy to leave their PA in the warehouse and go with VTX now. I personally had bands approach me to say thanks for the awesome sound on this stage, to which I had to redirect the appreciation back to the VTX. Having bands walk away feeling as though their mixes were actually heard correctly note for note has made our job so much easier. The international acts walked away knowing they were definitely looked after out the front. Thats huge for us.” 

“With the festival season really kicking off we’re having some great conversations about the JBL VTX A-Series, especially since we’ve had the systems featured in in three separate venues at BIGSOUND, at the Entech Roadshow and our launch event at The Star” said Peter Kubow, Category & Market Specialist for Performance Audio Solutions at MadisonAV.

“The VTX series is also kicking huge goals in other markets. It was featured on stages at CROSSD Festival and Coachella, and at major events like the MTV Music Video Awards, Billboard Award Latin Music Awards and Half time Show at the NFL. We’re now seeing an appreciation of the advancements in JBL’s technologies and the realisation that their VTX flagship line array offering really suits Australian industry tastes. MadisonAV has invested in a significant demo system of A12, A8 and A6 series line arrays and their subs, and we’re willing to work on event projects with production companies so we can get them heard.”