Positive Reinforcement: CTS Audio Adds More Than 100 HARMAN JBL VTX Series Line Array Loudspeakers to Its Tour Sound Inventory

FRANKLIN, Tennessee — Sound contractor CTS Audio was one of the first adopters of HARMAN JBL’s flagship VTX Series line arrays and it’s safe to say they’ve liked what they heard—the company just purchased more than 100 more of them. CTS Audio added a total of 108 V20 line array loudspeakers to its inventory, plus another eight V25 loudspeakers and a bevy of VTX F Series F12 loudspeakers.

While Franklin, Tennessee-based CTS Audio had used the V25 arrays at a number of high-profile events in the past year, the company put the V20 to the test for the first time at the recent 2014 K-Love Fan Awards, held at Nashville’s Opry Hotel and featuring the biggest names in Christian music including Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, Amy Grant, Scott Stapp, Sidewalk Prophets and more than 40 other artists.

“Based on our experience with the VTX Series V25 and S28 subwoofers, we didn’t think we were going out on too much of a limb with the V20’s, which we were interested in for their smaller size and which would give us a more flexible loudspeaker inventory that would be adaptable to a wider variety of venues,” said Mike Taylor, Vice President at CTS Audio.

Nevertheless, it was definitely a case of “try before you buy”, and Taylor and his team flew out to the JBL headquarters in Northridge, California to give the V20 an audition. Taylor was hoping to hear big sound from a more compact loudspeaker–and was floored. “We listened to six of the boxes from 200 feet away and were amazed at how much clean, powerful sound the V20 put out.”

For the K-Love Fan Awards, CTS flew 10 deep V20 arrays over four S28 subwoofers on each side of the stage, complemented by two F12 speakers per side for outfill. The loudspeakers were driven by 24 Crown I-Tech 12000 HD amplifiers, and CTS used JBL HiQnet Performance Manager™ for system setup and control. “We’ve used the Crown amps with the V25 line arrays and Performance Manager on dozens of events, so the transition to the V20 was pretty close to effortless in terms of setup and calibration,” Taylor said.

“The sound we achieved was stunning, absolutely stunning,” Taylor added. “The headroom with the V20s is really impressive and a marked step up from other loudspeakers that we’ve used in the past.”

Taylor noted that in fact, they never came anywhere close to hitting the limiting for the system, and the V20 exceeded their expectations in its ability to fill the Opry with even coverage from the front to the back of the hall, with a smooth tonal balance and impressive dynamics and presence.

Taylor and his crew also appreciated the V20’s smaller size that makes it easier to fly, load in and load out. “It’s just a really well thought-out design,” he concluded.

For more information on CTS Audio, please visit www.ctsaudio.com

HARMAN designs, manufactures and markets premier audio, visual, infotainment and integrated control solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. With 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson ®, the Company is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a global workforce of 15,200 people and reported sales of $5.1 billion for the last 12 months ended March 31, 2014.