The family run sales, hire and installation house, based in Co. Armagh, upgraded its front line fleet with JBL's new VTX V20 system - maintaining a relationship with the Northridge-based manufacturer extending back a number of years.
Director Barry McCusker, who fronts the business with his brother Colin and father Enda, confirmed the purchase of a rig comprising 24 x VTX V20 dual 10" line array elements; eight VTX G28 ground-stacked dual 18" subwoofers and four VTX S25 dual 15" arrayable sub-woofers.
The VTX Series is a result of JBL's continued effort to deliver more powerful, more compact, lightweight and flexible sound reinforcement. Designed for portable and fixed-venue system operators alike, VTX features JBL's sound quality coupled with multiple patents in driver, waveguide and suspension technology.
Powering the system are 13 new Crown iTech four 3500HD, featuring BSS Omnidrive HD processing. The I-Tech 4x3500HD is a high-powered tour sound amplifier featuring four inputs, analogue, AES3, and CobraNet, fully routable to any one of four outputs. Each channel features a complete compliment of OmnidriveHD Processing, including the LevelMAX Limiter Suite, and support for linear phase FIR filters as used in the latest JBL V5 loudspeaker tunings. The I-Tech 4x3500HD also features Crown's DriveCore technology which provides significant weight and power consumption savings.
The amp can also be used to drive McCusker's existing JBL VRX system, benefitting from new V5 speaker tunings which take advantage of the OmniDrive HD processing.
The journey leading up to the purchase had seen the McCusker family audition several leading brands after their older system was found too large (and at the same time not sufficiently powerful) for modern requirements.
"We looked at two or three leading brands, but when we auditioned the JBL VTX at Sound Technology's Letchworth demo facility it simply sounded the best, " said Barry. "Also it was flexible - small enough to do our normal day-to-day gigs and sufficiently powerful to handle the larger stuff."
And this often includes working on the burgeoning Irish country scene in front of audiences of 5,000-6,000.
McCusker Pro-Audio also works closely with staging company, Castle Stage Hire run by Cormac McCormick, and the new rig fits the staging footprint perfectly.
McCusker also see potential for cross-hire, and knowing that Mongey Communications in the south of the country recently invested heavily in JBL adds further momentum to the growing JBL community.
"The experience to date has been amazing," Barry says. "We have had great support from Joe East and Ben Todd at Sound Technology, as well as Harman's Ed Jackson." He was also quick to praise Reynolds of Raphoe sales manager, Brian McGrath. "Once we knew what we wanted he helped us put the most efficient package together."
Joe East, Sound Technology's business development manager for pro audio, adds, "When McCusker expressed their interest in JBL's new VTX V20 system, I immediately invited Barry and his team to our demo facilities in Letchworth, so they could hear it and get hands on with its intuitive rigging system. They were impressed, and following subsequent demos of competitors offerings, decided that V20 was the right choice. We're over the moon and delighted to have such a nice team of people on-board."
The VTX V20 rig was out three times during its first weekend with the company on 1 - 3 August - at Belfast's Pride Festival, the Clonmany Festival and the Ballymore Country Music Festival with more events already lined up.
(Jim Evans)
