Harman distributors Wild and Marr held an industry showcase of a new range of Harman products at The Sound Room in Midrand yesterday, 4 August 2014. The new products included the new medium format JBL VTX V20 line array with accompanying S25 subwoofer, the Soundcraft Vi3000 digital mixing consoles and the next generation JBL EON 600 series.
The afternoon commenced with a welcome note from Wild and Marr’s Darren Durbach, followed by a presentation of the VTX V20 and S25 by Harman Professional manager of application engineer Tom Williams. A detail of the technologies behind the VTX series was given, centred on JBL’s proprietary D2 driver and Differential Drive technology, which is pivotal to these products’ performance.
This was then followed by a presentation of the new JBL EON600 series by Harman International director of sales, Dave Budge. The EON600 is an updated, more technologically advanced version of the original EON series released in 1995 of which one million units were sold. The keynote of this product is that it incorporates Bluetooth for remote control and features newly designed waveguides for a smoother response.
After a short refreshment break Paul Bauman, JBL senior market manager and the developer of the VTX line array systems, was available on a Skype conference call from his home in Los Angeles for an interview led by Durbach. Bauman is also well known for his development of the L-Acoustics V-DOSC line array, widely regarded as the progenitor of modern line array systems.
Harman International senior application engineer Sam Branden then gave an overview of the new Soundcraft Vi3000 digital mixing console that is aimed at filling the gap between the Vi1 and the Vi4 within the Soundcraft range. Also presented was the Soundcraft Realtime Rack, a UAD-powered plugin interface for Vi-range of digital consoles.
Concluding the event, the attendees were treated to more refreshments and a demonstration of the VTX V20 system with accompanying S25 subwoofers run from a Vi3000 with the integrated Realtime Rack running UAD plugins by Audio Logic’s Marius Marais. The demo featured pre-recorded material, live acoustic music and a full band that played cover material.
