JBL’s New VERTEC® V4 DSP Presets Win Fans Worldwide As Global System Performance Consistency Is Achieved

Demonstrating how global adoption of the company’s new V4 DSP presets is helping achieve enhanced performance results for its VERTEC® worldwide loudspeaker system user group, JBL Professional reports an enthusiastic response to its recently-completed digital signal processing file suite for the company’s popular full-size, mid-size and compact line array elements. With a growing number of VERTEC system owners now having upgraded their system drive files to V4, touring sound mixers are realizing a significantly improved level of system performance and consistency, regardless of where in the world a VERTEC system is sourced and deployed.

“I’ve previously used VERTEC on tour with David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails, but the new V4 DSP presets have definitely taken this PA to the next level,” observed FOH engineer Pete Keppler, after using a JBL VT4889/VT4880A system from Firehouse Productions for Nine Inch Nails’ summer North American tour.

The new presets are having a particularly strong impact internationally, as globetrotting sound mixers now find the system performance consistency they have been seeking on concert rental systems from one continent to the next.

“With JBL’s new V4 DSP presets, VERTEC is completely different, it is awesome,” offers Andy Meyer, veteran FOH engineer for recent global tours by artists like Justin Timberlake and currently in preparation for the upcoming “Saints of Los Angeles” world tour by Motley Crue. “With V4 the PA becomes transparent. You do not focus on the speaker system as the sound source when listening; you identify the instrument and its placement in the mix. With the V4 software upgrade, properly implemented, VERTEC is now truly the best bang for the buck.”

In Australia, Glenn Helmot, Audio Applications Engineer for Jands Technical Resource Group, also notes that the V4 DSP presets have been a major improvement for VERTEC. “Previously, system performance could have been hit or miss depending on where you hired the system and who was running it,” he recalls. “‘Why does VERTEC sound different everywhere?’ was a comment I regularly received from system operators. Now it’s common that I receive compliments on how good VERTEC sounds with V4 and it really is quite a nice surprise.”

In Canada, Mark Radu, Systems Engineer/R&D for P.A. Plus, observes that with V4, the company’s VERTEC system now sounds better all the way from the front row to the back row in any venue. “It’s absolutely providing better phase-coherency for the system,” commented Radu. “Offering remarkable sonic improvements while delivering a uniform consistency throughout the VERTEC line, JBL continues to raise the bar in speaker performance."

In India, V&P Sound’s Senior System/Mix Engineer, Mr. Mallesh T., recently deployed his company’s VERTEC system for multiple international artists at the G.I.R. (Great Indian Rock) 2008 festival and achieved similar results. “Our VT4889 and VT4880A system using the ‘X’ mode within JBL’s new V4 DSP presets has more impact and pristine clarity than any other system,” he enthused. “I think that VERTEC is indeed creating a unique experience, a new interest and excitement in the industry, with JBL's new V4 DSP presets.”

Paul Bauman, JBL’s Director of Tour Sound Product & Application Engineering, notes that V4 presets are differentiated from previous offerings by the fact that the company basically started from scratch and applied an entirely different preset development methodology based on a combination of detailed measurements, modeling and real-world listening tests. “Proprietary JBL simulation tools now at our disposal simply did not exist for the development of previous preset generations,” observed Bauman. “Another key factor is the fact that V4 presets were simultaneously engineered for the entire VERTEC line. This helps ensure a consistent ‘family sound’ so that all models ‘play well together’ from a sound design perspective.” Bauman also commented that, “nothing is more personally gratifying than hearing from FOH or system engineers that V4 has made their life so much easier. Advancing a gig is also a lot easier – if it’s a VERTEC system, most will simply specify that the local provider will be running V4, and they’re confident that they will have a good show.”

For passive VERTEC models and outboard loudspeaker management units, V4 DSP presets are available to VERTEC system owners for download online at http://www.jblpro.com/products/tour/Vertec/V4download.html
In a related development, V4 presets are now shipping from the factory in all of JBL’s DP (DrivePack) series of VERTEC system models, enabling system owners of passive, or powered, VERTEC systems to realize the same, consistent level of performance with improved fidelity, phase-coherency and comparable sonic signatures across the entire product line.

A new DPIP Upgrade Kit for JBL DrivePack-equipped systems fitted with dbx (non-networked) input modules has also just been released for VERTEC owners wishing to realize the benefits of V4 processing for their existing, base-model VERTEC DP Series system inventories. The Upgrade Kit consists of a USB port adapter cable, download utility software and V4 firmware for the various models that allows users to re-program existing VT4888DP, VT4882DP, VT4887ADP or VT4881ADP models with V4 presets.

V4 device files for Crown I-Tech, dbx 4800 Loudspeaker Management Systems and VERTEC Drivepack DPAN and DPCN models also come bundled with Harman Professional HiQnet™ System Architect software, available for download at: http://hiqnet.harmanpro.com/downloads.php