Harman Professional Solutions’ technologies recently provided powerful sound and uniform coverage for the AdvoCare National Success School 2015 held at the massive AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Approximately 24,000 people attended the training and motivational event hosted in September by AdvoCare, a provider of nutritional, weight-management, skin care, and sports performance products. The Harman Professional Solutions’ components, including JBL VTX line arrays and Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers, were configured and installed by Multi Image Group.
“As corporate events go, it doesn’t get any bigger than this,” says Edward Gonzalez, director of audio services for Multi Image Group. “The setup was elaborate, with a stage that went lengthwise across the entire stadium floor with a raised platform, multiple large video screens and a sound and lighting truss that spanned the entire stage. It even had pyrotechnics that were launched from each side.”
The massive and elaborate stage setup, along with the unusually large size of the stadium itself, demanded an extensive audio system, which Multi Image Group delivered: a total of 96 JBL VTX V20 line array loudspeakers, arranged in four hangs of 24 each, plus two hangs of 10 VTX S25 subwoofers and a row of 12 G28 ground-stacked subwoofers. Two hangs of six JBL VERTEC VT4886 subcompact line array loudspeakers provided side fill and 12 JBL F15 stage monitors delivered sound to the onstage presenters and performers, including contemporary Christian artist Michael W. Smith, The Sisters, the Aaron Loy Band, and a number of key AdvoCare executives.
The venue’s size presented challenges. Home of the Dallas Cowboys, AT&T Stadium is one of the largest in the world, a fact Gonzalez and his crew had to keep in mind throughout the configuration and installation. “The reverb times are massive,” he says. “We had to deliver concert-level SPL without everything turning into a washed-out blur, and the VTX line arrays worked perfectly. They deliver broad, yet focused, precise and stable horizontal coverage over long distances without exciting the reflective surfaces that could create excessive reverb.”
Gonzalez says there are practical advantages to using the VTX line arrays and subs, primarily the ease and speed with which the equipment can be moved, set up and dismantled. Crown I-Tech HD 4x3500HD amplifiers powered the V20 loudspeakers and S25 subwoofers, with I-Tech 12000HD amps driving the G28 subs. The crossover point for the ground-stacked G28 subs was set at 60Hz and the flown S25 subs were running from 120Hz to 60Hz. Gonzalez set up the S25 subs in cardioid configuration, which helped clean up low-frequency issues as well.
“The ability to precisely control the VTX system and the built-in preset tunings and flexible DSP of the Crown amps were huge advantages for this event,” says Gonzalez, who also used JBL HiQnet Performance Manager to configure the system. “The VTX system worked wonderfully in a challenging acoustic environment, and the coverage was really outstanding.”
