Universal Sound brings JBL to Olivia Newton John and Billy Ocean concerts

Published: May 30, 2012 ASIA

SRI LANKA: Sound rental company Universal Sound pvt Ltd utilised its Harman inventory for recent concerts by Olivia Newton John and Billy Ocean. Held at the Musaeus Auditorium and the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre, respectively, between them the concerts attracted approximately 6,800 fans.

The Billy Ocean concert was organised by ABC Radio Networks, whilst Wizard Entertainment oversaw the Olivia Newton John event. Universal Sound handles sound production for both companies’ international concerts and events.

Malinda Lowe, Universal Sound’s director stated that both band’s production managers were concerned about the coverage, system performance and SPL for the concerts. ‘The challenge was that they wanted a minimum of six JBL VT4888 line arrays each side,’ said Mr Lowe. ‘But the ceiling heights in the venues were very low and did not even have enough height for main hangs. So I used VerTec line array calculator to predict the coverage and SPL results for the large audience area and for the selection of correct locations for main hangs, side PA placements and system configuration,’ he explained.

For the Billy Ocean concert, the team deployed eight VT4888 line array elements configured as two main arrays of four elements per side together with six VT4882 ground stacked subwoofers in an ‘aux fed sub mono’ configuration. System DSP was completed with a dbx DR4800, whilst a number of Crown amplifiers were also utilised. For the side PA system, Mr Lowe time aligned and positioned JBL SRX 725 two-way speakers with SRX 728 subwoofers with dbx 260 processing and Crown XTi amplification. Meanwhile, for front fills, four units of VT4888s were deployed along with DR4800 processing and Crown amplifiers.

‘For the Olivia Newton John (ONJ) concert I had an issue with the main PA since the venue has an installed line array system and I did not have hanging points or enough room for trussing to fly the VerTecs,’ Mr Lowe continued. ‘But the real challenge was in the auditorium, as there was a balcony with a seating capacity of 700 people plus a ground seating area that needed to accommodate 1,100 people.’

The ONJ production team wanted to fly the system to achieve an even coverage in the venue. With this in mind, Mr Lowe and his team used an array calculator to achieve the VerTec rig coverage, which was eventually place in a ground-stacked configuration.

‘The calculator gave me the accurate splay angle option for the maximum performance with six VT4888s ground stacked each side on a VT array frame with two ground stacked VT 4882 subwoofers,’ he explained.

System DSP was completed with a dbx DR4800, whilst Crown Macro tech 5000i, 9000i and 12000i amplifiers were also deployed. Amplifiers for both productions were configured and monitored via a Harman HiQnet system architect system.

‘For front-fills for ONJ I used four JBL SRX 712M speakers with dedicated speaker processing on a dbx DR 260 loudness management system, which were accurately aligned for the mains,’ he furthered. ‘However, when I turned the main rig on for tuning, I soon realised that we did not need the balcony fills as the sound was clear and loud enough already, and the bass was powerful even at the far end of the audience seating area.

‘The JBL VerTec is absolutely the right choice for our inventory and is acceptable in all technical riders I have received so far,’ he enthused. ‘In fact, we decided to expand our inventory by adding 24 VT 4889s and 16 VT 4880As last year. Then I heard the news about the VTX arrival in 2012 and decided to wait for its launch. After hearing some extremely good reviews, we have now decided to invest in 24 VTX V25s and 16 S28s with Crown V-Rack processing and amplification.’

Mr Lowe said that both bands’ management, mixing engineers and musicians were ‘extremely happy with the system performance and with how well the VerTecs covered the venues’.

‘I couldn't have done any of it without an advanced, accurate and top notch system,’ added ONJ’s FOH engineer Jonathan Loeser. ‘That is a very valuable thing to a touring engineer or production manager.’