For the 58th Annual GRAMMY Awards, Harman‘s JBL VTX Series line arrays were once again used by ATK Audiotek for the PA system in the STAPLES Center.
Music’s Biggest Night, as it’s often called, is the telecast event where the GRAMMY Awards are presented by The Recording Academy to honor outstanding achievements in the production and performance of recorded music. The GRAMMY Awards were broadcast live in HD and 5.1 surround sound on the CBS television network and had more than 23.5 million viewers.
Hosted by LL Cool J, this year’s awards featured performances by some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Adele, Justin Bieber, Carrie Underwood, Bonnie Raitt, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, Ellie Goulding, and Taylor Swift and others, as well as honoring MusiCares Person of the Year, Lionel Richie, by Luke Bryan, John Legend, Demi Lovato and Meghan Trainor and a special tribute performance to David Bowie by Lady Gaga.
“The PA system needs to provide clear and intelligible audio of the highest quality. Music is dynamic, but spoken voice requires even more clarity and precision. The details can easily become muddled with low quality reproduction. That’s why we choose the JBL VTX Series,” said Mikael Stewart, VP of Special Events, ATK Audiotek. “When you use a high-quality audio system, you can be confident that both the live audience and viewers watching at home around the world can easily hear and understand every word.”
This year’s system featured two hangs of 12-box JBL VTX V25 loudspeakers on either side of the stage for the main PA in addition to two 16-box VTX V20 loudspeaker side clusters, two 9-box S25 subwoofer clusters and three 8-box VT20 delay clusters, ensuring that every seat in the audience could hear what was being said at the appropriate time, regardless of distance from the stage. The loudspeaker clusters were powered by Crown I-Tech 4x3500HD HD amplifiers and Crown MA 12000i power amplifiers powered the subwoofer clusters.
“It’s always a compliment when your products are included in a project of this caliber, but when it’s the music industry’s elite—and on Music’s Biggest Night—that’s quite an honor,” said Andy Flint, director of marketing strategy and solutions, tour & cinema, Harman Professional Solutions. “We’re happy to be a part of such an electrifying night.”
