CTS Audio Shows Faith in Harman's JBL Professional VTX Line Arrays at National Catholic Youth Conference

	National Catholic Youth Conference with Harman Professional

Continuing a series of high-profile events using Harman's JBL VTX line arrays and Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers, CTS Audio provided a Harman Professional audio system for the National Catholic Youth Conference at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Sponsored by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, the National Catholic Youth Conference featured a variety of spoken-word, live music, and dramatic performances. Given the event's diverse programming, CTS Audio -- which has supplied the sound reinforcement for the bi-annual National Catholic Youth Conference for more than 15 years -- needed an audio system that would accommodate this variety in a large stadium environment. Working with production company Declan Weir Productions, CTS Audio designed and deployed a Harman audio system featuring JBL Professional VTX line arrays powered by Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers.

The production was configured in the round, with the main PA system including a total of 90 JBL VTX V25 fullsize line array elements (in six columns of 15 each), with 24 S28 subwoofers flown in the center of the main PA loudspeakers in a cardioid setup. Eight VRX932 constant curvature loudspeakers provided additional fill. At each end of the stadium, 24 JBL VerTec VT4888 midsize line array elements served as delay loudspeakers. Crown I-Tech HD 12000 amplifiers powered the system.

According to Mike Taylor, Vice President of CTS Audio, the main challenges of the event included proper time-alignment of the loudspeakers. "We were faced with a complex task of achieving direct sound rather than reflections in such a large stadium," said Taylor. "And with the design, coming up with a subwoofer arrangement that was even across the room was also a challenge."

In addition, CTS Audio configured and monitored the audio system with JBL HiQnet Performance Manager.

"[JBL's associate director, tour sound] Paul Bauman and [Harman Professional's application engineer, live sound and rental for North America] Raul Gonzalez helped us develop a solution utilizing Performance Manager," Taylor noted. "This enabled us to model and program every loudspeaker in the system before even hanging a single box."

Although CTS Audio has used VTX frequently since adding the loudspeakers to its inventory, this was the first time CTS supplied VTX for the National Catholic Youth Conference. "The event was a huge success," Taylor said. "Two years ago we used VerTec and this was an improvement on an already good-sounding system. VTX is a whole different animal -- the enclosures and the high-frequency range are amazing."