Firehouse Productions deployed a JBL by HARMAN VT4886 system to provide the highest quality live sound at the 2016 Tony Awards.

The 70th annual Tony Awards was broadcasted live from the historic Beacon Theatre in New York City, and Firehouse Productions selected the VT4886 for its ability to deliver exceptional sound quality with an extremely compact footprint.

“The JBL VT4886 offers an incredible amount of power and control in a very small package, and I’ve had excellent results with it on numerous live shows,” said Mark Dittmar, Lead Design and Integration Engineer at Firehouse Productions.

“At the Beacon Theatre, which is an extremely small venue, size and taking up less space are very important. JBL VT4886 is a spectacular-sounding speaker in a very small package, which is a great combination for a show like the Tony Awards.”

The 2016 Tony Awards ceremony featured energetic performances from the hottest shows on Broadway, including “Hamilton,” “School of Rock,” “She Loves Me” and more. With up to 30 lavalier mics on the stage simultaneously, it was important to manage gain before feedback and make sure the live sound stayed out of the on-air mix. It was equally important to deliver excellent dialogue intelligibility.

Finally, it was important for the arrays to take up minimal space and be hidden from the camera sightlines during the broadcast.

“On a television show, we have to keep the PA hidden, but we also need great intelligibility,” said Dittmar.

“The VT4886 arrays worked really well and allowed us to place the PA in a space that other arrays wouldn’t fit.”

The subcompact JBL VT4886 features a true 3-way system that is unique to the subcompact category, offering exceptional sound quality and the highest SPL output in its class.

The VT4886 also features a low-frequency diffraction absorber that eliminates cavity resonance and cabinet edge diffraction effects, which provided Firehouse with extra control over feedback. It is designed to deliver high-quality reinforcement of music and speech in a wide variety of applications, including concert audio and corporate AV presentations of all types.

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