Every year, over 100,000 fans flock to the grounds of Slovakia’s two largest music festivals – Pohoda and Topfest – to experience everything from EDM, experimental music, classical and more. In order to support the audio needs of an incredibly diverse group of artists and musical genres, Slovakia-based production company RentalLive turned to JBL by HARMAN VTX Series loudspeakers and Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers. The reliability and sonic versatility of the JBL VTX series enabled system engineers Marek Barabas and Tomas Oravec to deliver accurate, high-impact sonic experiences at both festivals.
“JBL has an excellent track record and reputation in Slovakia,” said Barabas. “With great bands on stage like Prodigy, Europe and PJ Harvey, we really needed to be sure about our system performance. The VTX Series opened up new possibilities for us, and everyone expressed thanks for such great sound.”
Held every July at Trenčín Airport, Pohoda is a three-day festival that features eclectic musical performances, theatrical productions, dance, literary discussions and more. Pohoda has grown exponentially over its nearly 20-year history and is now the biggest annual music event in Slovakia, with more than 30,000 in attendance each day. For the Main Stage, RentalLive hung main PA arrays of 28 VTX V25-II loudspeakers with 28 S28 flown subwoofers, eight V25-II for out fills, two V20 loudspeakers for front fills, plus six V20 and four S25 subwoofers for side fills. For the smaller Nay Stage, they used 16 VTX V20 loudspeakers and 12 S25 subwoofers as the main PA.
Topfest is an annual summer rock music festival set in the popular Piestany Airport venue. The festival has hosted such acclaimed artists as Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Twisted Sister and more. In order to provide powerful, highly accurate and intelligible sound across a vast open-air venue, RentalLive deployed two JBL VTX Series systems – one for the larger A2 stage and a smaller system for the C stage. The A2 system consisted of 28 V25-II loudspeakers, six V20 subwoofers and 32 S28 subwoofers for the main PA, with fourV20 for front fills, six V25-II for out fills, plus six V20 and four S25 for side fills. The C stage system was comprised of 16 V20 and 12 S25 for the main PA.
Each JBL VTX system was powered by racks of Crown I-Tech 12000HD and 4x3500HD amplifiers. RentalLive also used the JBL HiQnet Performance Manager 2.0 software to tune and configure the VTX system to their specifications.
“The JBL VTX Series systems allowed us to provide superior sound coverage to every part of the venue,” said Barabas. “We were able to achieve accurate sound up close, 70m away in the last rows, and at the VIP sections which were positioned 45° angles away from the stage. Thanks to JBL VTX, fans of all genres were able to hear their favorite music in superb sound quality. These systems are great!”