JBL by HARMAN VTX Series speakers, powered by Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers,
delivered the highest quality live sound at the annual LakeShake music festival,
where tens of thousands of country music fans gathered on the beautiful shores of
Lake Michigan for three days of exciting performances by some of the hottest
artists in country music. The festival’s audio provider, Thunder Audio, deployed
their JBL VTX V25-II speaker system for its exceptional clarity, coverage, frequency
response and power.
“VTX has a great reputation in the country music industry,’ said Greg Snyder,
Business Development Manager at Thunder Audio. “Many top touring acts include
VTX on their rider because of the abundant power and exceptional clarity that the
system provides. When it comes to country music events, VTX is our go-to choice.’
The Windy City’s LakeShake music festival brought together more than 30 of
country music’s biggest stars, including Lady Antebellum, Brooks & Dunn, Tim
McGraw, Jason Aldean, Martina McBride and many more. With such a high-calibre
line up of performers, it was critical to deliver the best possible sound for the
performers and audiences alike.
The live sound professionals at Thunder Audio have relied on JBL equipment for
many years, recently using VTX for countless festivals and tours, including
Lollapalooza, Moogfest and Austin City Limits. Widely accepted in the industry and a
favourite among live sound engineers, VTX offers superior fidelity and a compact
footprint that’s ideal for events like the LakeShake Country Music Festival.
The system Thunder Audio deployed for the LakeShake festival included main hangs
of 16 x VTX V25-II cabinets per side, side hangs of 8 x V25-II cabinets per side,
flown arrays of 5 x VTX S28 subwoofers, a horizontal cardioid array of 30 x VTX
S28 subwoofers in front of the stage and delay hangs of 12 x VTX V20 per side.
Using VTX V20s as the delay system enabled Thunder Audio to have a significantly
larger and more even coverage area, with a small-format cabinet that exactly
matches the tonality and performance of the V25-II main hangs, thanks to factory-
standard V5 tunings.
The entire system was powered by racks of Crown I-Tech 12000HD amplifiers, and
the Thunder Audio team relied on JBL HiQnet Performance Manager 2.0 software to
control and configure the entire VTX system and ensure optimal performance. The
software dramatically reduces design time, simplifies networking and eliminates
costly re-scoping, taking the complexity and guesswork out of system configuration.
“We use Performance Manager for sound design, equalization, amplifier
programming and data—it’s our primary control for the audio system,’ Snyder
explains. “We find it to be a very accurate system that we can stand by.’
