The third time’s the charm, as Baton Rouge, Louisiana sound company Premier
Production & Sound Services, LLC (PSS) found out when it supplied the sound
reinforcement system for the Voodoo Experience festival 2013 for the third year in a
row. The 3-day festival featured a dazzling array of more than 80 artists and more than
100,000 people at New Orleans’ City Park were treated to an epic sonic and musical
experience, courtesy of HARMAN’s JBL Professional VTX and VERTEC® line arrays,
Soundcraft digital consoles and Crown amplifiers.

PSS equipped the festival’s Flambeau Stage with eight JBL VTX V25 full-size line array
elements per side and four stacks of three S28 subwoofers arranged in cardioid
configuration. PSS also deployed 12 VERTEC VT4886 subcompact line array elements
atop the subwoofers for front fill. A total of 28 Crown IT 12000 HD amplifiers powered
the system.

Stage sound was furnished by 16 JBL SRX712M floor wedges, plus 12 VT4886
loudspeakers and six VT4883 subcompact subwoofers. All the loudspeakers on stage
were powered by nine Crown IT 4×3500 HD amplifiers.

In addition, PSS supplied two Soundcraft Vi6 digital live sound consoles for front of
house and monitor mixing. Brian Gordon, PSS Head Audio Engineer and Co-Owner and
his staff used the JBL VTX-LZ-K Laser Accessory Kit to precisely align all the
loudspeakers in the system.

“This was our third year of working on the Voodoo Experience festival and our second
with the JBL VTX Series line arrays,’ said Russ Bryant, PSS Director of Operations and
Co-Owner. “The sound was absolutely awesome. At a large-scale outdoor rock festival
like this, the demands on a loudspeaker system are tremendous in terms of the sheer
SPL and coverage required—and the V25 line arrays are phenomenal in their ability to
deliver clear sound even at high volume, with pristine, effortless headroom especially in
the upper midrange and high frequencies.’

The Crown IT 4×3500 HD amplifiers also made life easier for PSS. “Having four channels
in one amp allowed us to significantly cut down on the amount of cabling we needed and
save a lot of time and labor,’ he pointed out. “We are very happy with the flexibility they
offer and the fact that they can be optimized for use with VTX and VERTEC loudspeakers
using their V5 DSP presets.’

Anyone who has mixed sound at festivals with dozens of bands can attest that smooth
transitions between acts are crucial. “We wound up using the Soundcraft Vi6 consoles
for 31 front of house and monitor changeovers,’ said Bryant. “I can tell you that the Vi6
was much easier to use than other consoles that were at the festival,’ noting that in
addition to its superior sound quality, the Vi6 is laid out very much like an analog
console, which made it easy for visiting engineers to step right up and start mixing.
Another big advantage: “The Vi6 still passes signal while you’re loading show files into it
where some other consoles will not, which is a major benefit during the hectic time
constraints of a big festival.’

Bryant concluded, “There were four total stages at Voodoo Experience 2013 and we had
many people coming over from the other stages telling us that our stage sounded the
best.’