ESS Audio Announces First Sales of HARMAN’s Soundcraft Vi3000 Console in Poland

LOMIANKI, Poland – HARMAN Soundcraft’s Polish distributor ESS Audio has fulfilled the first of its first batch of orders for the new Soundcraft Vi3000.The first two companies to take delivery are W Sound from Szczecin, run by Mariusz Węgiełek, and Modussound of Sieraków Śląski, headed by Artur and Lukasz Kedzia. Both confirm they already have the consoles out on tour.

ESS Audio demonstrated the new features of the much-anticipated console to its customer base, and at the same time staged an open day for the Vi3000, which coincided with the European premiere of JBL Professional’s new VTX V20 loudspeakers and included two days of training. The event was supported by Oskar Tarczynski (from ESS Audio) and Ed Jackson (from HARMAN Professional).

The Soundcraft Vi3000 boasts many new attributes. In addition to the much requested access to Universal Audio’s plug-ins (via the new Soundcraft® Realtime Rack plug-in processing engine – which also integrates with the rest of the Vi Series consoles), the console also provides an analogue infrastructure via the I/Os on the back and has built-in MADI and Dante, as well as an upgraded SpiderCore™ DSP and new ‘3D’ Vistonics graphics.

In addition to the Dante/MADI record feed outputs, the console provides MIDI, USB, Ethernet, DVI out, redundant power supply and other connections.

According to W Sound’s Mariusz Węgiełek, “The Soundcraft Vi3000 is the ideal solution for medium-sized touring companies such as ours. The capability of the board, the price of the controller and additional peripherals like the stage rack or expansion cards, make it impossible to look at any alternatives.”

“The immediate driver for the purchase was to acquire a console that would meet most of the riders from the middle range of touring artists—and after almost a month of use, it has been a big hit,” Węgiełek continued. “The response from our sound engineers could not be more positive, and our Vi3000 is working almost every day, earning us money.”

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 15,200 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.1 billion for the last twelve months ended March 31, 2014.

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ESS Audio Promotes HARMAN’s JBL VTX Line Arrays Through Busy Summer Season

WARSAW, Poland – ESS Audio, HARMAN Professional’s distributor in Poland, is midway through a busy summer festival season with HARMAN’s JBL VTX line arrays, highlighted by the recent Heineken Open’er Festival at Gdynia-Kosakowo Airport on the North Coast. Organized by concert agency Alter Art, Heineken Open’er Festival is one of the biggest festivals in Poland (and the third largest in Europe), with 50,000 attending the 4-day festival daily.

ESS Audio’s customer—rental company, GMB Pro Sound—took responsibility for equipping the main stage, using their new JBL VTX system. They fielded a total of 64 V25 fullsize line array elements, with the main front-facing PA comprising 18 elements per side. This was supported by outfills (in hangs of nine) and downfill enclosures, complemented by 48 G28 subwoofers in a broadside reverse cardioid array. Four VERTEC® VT4889 fullsize line array elements were added for near-field coverage and a further 24 VT4889 were used for delays further down the field.

The entire system was powered by Crown I-Tech 12000 HD and Macro-Tech MA5000 amplifiers, while the company dipped further into its HARMAN Professional inventory for digital control. Four Soundcraft Vi6 digital consoles were deployed for use by the FOH and monitor engineers for internationally-famous acts such as Rihanna, Blur, Steve Reich, Arctic Monkeys, Editors, Skunk Anansie, Nick Cave, Queens of the Stone Age and Kings of Leon.

Earlier in the month, GMB Pro Sound had again fielded its premium JBL VTX system for the main stage at Orange Warsaw Festival, held at the National Stadium, Warsaw, and this year featuring Beyonce, Fatboy Slim, Basement Jaxx, Tinie Tempah Offspring and Cypress Hill. Since the Festival began in 2008 it has grown to become one of the country’s most important events, televised by commercial network TVN.

The same company also supplied a pair of Soundcraft Vi6 digital consoles for the Top Trendy Festival at Opera Leśna in Sopot (close to Gdynia). Organized by television station, Polsat, the event is divided into two sections: ‘Top’ presents the 10 most popular artists in Poland while ‘Trendy’ presents emerging artists, who participate in a talent show. Viewers voting by SMS chose the winner, with the prize a Polsat TV appearance.

For this event sound coverage was provided by 30 V25 line array elements and 18 G28 subwoofers, each driven by a Crown VRack system, supplemented by a further four VERTEC VT4880 arrayable subwoofers (powered by Crown Macro-Tech MA5000), eight VERTEC VT4887 compact line array elements and four VRX932 Constant Curvature loudspeakers on fill duties—all assigned to Crown I-Tech 8000 amplifiers.

Finally, in the south of the country, the National Festival of Polish Song is staged and broadcast annually at the Millennium Amphitheatre (Amfiteatr Tysiąclecia) by TVP, Poland’s national broadcaster. One of the two most important music festivals in Poland, the Opole festival reflects the past year's achievements by Polish song writers and performers, incorporating hits of the previous season with new songs and performance debuts (including a tournament).

For this event, GMB Pro Audio fielded 18 VRack-powered JBL V25’s, along with 12 SRX712M monitors and a pair of Soundcraft Vi6’s—one at the stage and one at FOH.

Summing up, the challenges of getting so many large VTX systems out to so many major events, ESS Audio director, Witold Karalow said, “Poland is a great place to see how versatile and powerful the JBL VTX system is. We have been able to cover the four biggest and most famous festivals in the country with JBL line arrays—presenting totally different music genres, from rock and pop thru classical, R&B and club music.”

HARMAN (www.HARMAN.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of audio, lighting and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson®, and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with Harman audio and infotainment systems. Harman has a workforce of about 14,300 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.

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