Harrah's Resort Atlantic City Wins Big With JBL VerTec, VRX And Control Contractor Loudspeakers

Demonstrating JBL Professional’s ability to provide loudspeaker solutions for all environments, Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City recently renovated its pool area, coffee shop and food court. The renovated areas feature new sound reinforcement systems that include JBL VERTEC® line arrays, VRX portable line arrays and Control® Contractor ceiling speakers.

The pool at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City is housed under a 200-foot-round by 80-foot-high glass dome and hosts numerous events during evening hours as part of Harrah’s “The Pool After Dark” program. Since many of these events feature live DJs and performers, Harrah’s purchased a “performance” system that could be set up during events, as well as a permanent system for daily use.

The permanent system at the pool features 10 VRX932LAP powered, portable line arrays and two VRX918SP powered, portable subwoofers. Twelve cabanas line the pool, with VRX loudspeakers placed on top of the cabanas, evenly dispersed around the pool area. To control the system, dbx DriveRack 4800 loudspeaker management systems were installed.

Components of the performance system are set up in all four corners of the pool area. Each corner contains a line array comprised of four VERTEC VT4887ADP compact powered line array elements and two VT4881ADP compact powered subwoofers, with another two

VT4881ADP subwoofers flanking each array at the bottom. To provide concert-quality sound during events, the arrays are staged in the corners and rolled out nightly. dbx DriveRack 4800 loudspeaker management systems are in use as well.

According to Jim Esher, Entertainment Technology Manager for Harrah’s Entertainment, the decision to install powered loudspeakers was a matter of aesthetics and efficiency. “Going with self-powered speakers made the most sense because the pool area is an oasis environment, so from a cosmetic standpoint there wasn’t much desire to have amp racks in that space,” he said. “We were able to put three outlets in the flower beds and gardens and we can roll the VERTEC line arrays out as ‘caterpillars’ and have the entire system up and running in half an hour.”

The new coffee shop at Harrah’s, “Reflections,” opened on President’s Day weekend and contains six zones of audio with more than 50 JBL Control 26CT in-ceiling loudspeakers. In the food court, three zones of audio contain another 20 Control 26CT loudspeakers. Both systems are driven by Crown CTs amplifiers with BSS Soundweb London BLU-80 signal processors.

With much of the Harrah’s property built around an infrastructure comprised of Harman components, it made sense to stick with a winning formula. “I have to maintain a UL listing for all the audio systems I install and JBL was one of the first companies to recognize that their speakers need to be UL listed,” Esher said. “We have installed Control Contractor ceiling speakers throughout the Harrah’s and Caesar’s Palace casinos and the support from JBL has always been fantastic. This was also true with the VERTEC system, where JBL and our regional representative Sigmet Marketing spent an entire weekend training our staff on setting up the system. It’s been a great relationship from the beginning.”