HARMAN’s JBL VERTEC® Line Arrays Get the Party Moving at The World’s Largest Disco


NORTHRIDGE, California  Don’t stop ‘til you dance enough! The World’s Largest Disco is a 7,000-person dance
party featuring DJs spinning classic ’70s tracks through a 300,000-watt sound system. Held at the Buffalo Convention Center in New York, the annual event, which traces its roots to the 1970s, is a charity fundraiser held by Conesus Fest for Charity to raise funds for Camp Good Days and Special Times, a summer camp for children with cancer. It was Boogie Fever in Buffalo as revelers dressed in ’70s regalia and danced through the night, fueled by a whopping 84 HARMAN’s JBL VERTEC® line array loudspeakers.

“If you’re doing the sound for The World’s Largest Disco, the system has to be no-holds-barred,” said Ray DiBiase, President of Northeastern Production Systems, which provided the sound, lighting and video systems for the event. “The music is the reason everyone was there and we had to move 7,000 people with loud, bass-heavy sound in a room that’s the biggest dance floor in New York State.”

While the music was retro, the sound system NPS brought in was anything but, comprising JBL VERTEC VT4889 fullsize line array elements, VT4886 subcompact line array elements and VT4880 fullsize arrayable subwoofers. Eight VT4889 loudspeakers were hung from each side of the main stage, with six VT4886 loudspeakers on each side, and 24 VT4880 subwoofers ground-stacked six wide and two high on each side of the stage. An additional left-right configuration of eight VT4888 midsize elements each served as delays, while another eight VT4889 loudspeakers provided center rear delay. Six VT4886 loudspeakers per side provided emergency backup sound, hung from the upstage lighting truss. In addition, a left-right configuration of four VT4888 loudspeakers per side, stacked on dual VT4882 subwoofers, served as the main system for the VIP Room at the event. Crown VZ5000 and MA2400 amplifiers powered the main VT4889 line arrays and the VT4888 delay loudspeakers. Crown IT8000 and IT12000HD amplifiers powered the VT4880 and VT4882 subwoofers, VT4886’s and the rest of the VT4888 and VT4889 loudspeakers. NPS also employed HARMAN HiQnet System Architect™ to link three dbx 4800 DriveRacks to a tablet computer with a wireless router.

“There were people everywhere, and we had to make sure that the music was heard and just as importantly, felt by everyone,” DiBiase noted. “As any sound reinforcement pro knows, thousands of bodies can absorb a lot of sound, aside from the fact that the party was in such a big room. Getting even and consistent coverage was a must. It was also a total party atmosphere with everyone making a lot of noise, and the system had to be heard above all that.”

VERTEC line arrays are ideal for this kind of application, DiBiase noted. “Aside from their sheer ability to pump out the volume, they can play loud yet stay clean, clear and articulate,” he said. “Since their coverage pattern is controlled and predictable, they really lend themselves to installations where you have to position speakers all around the venue.”

“The VERTEC line arrays were a huge part of the success of The World’s Largest Disco,” DiBiase concluded. “They really kept the people going.”

For more information on Northeastern Production Systems, please visit www.northeasternproduction.com

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,900 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.4 billion for year ended June 30, 2012.
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