To ensure clear, impactful live sound with wide, even coverage for the Long Beach Jazz Festival, AV integrator Flag Systems deployed a dynamic selection of JBL Professional solutions.
Featuring headliners Robert Glasper, Ledisi and Sergio Mendes, 2022’s Long Beach Jazz Festival took place at Rainbow Lagoon Park as fans enjoyed an eclectic mix of jazz, soul and R&B.
While the location was a pristine setting for a weekend of laid-back jazz, the stage needed an audio rig with enough coverage to reach audiences on both sides of the lagoon, while also considering the stage’s limited height and space.
To meet these requirements, Flag Systems designed a sound reinforcement system exclusively featuring JBL VTX and VRX Series solutions.
“If you’ve ever seen the site, you know one of the main challenges is that there’s a lake right behind the front-of-house,” said Kevin Kelly, engineer, Flag Systems.
“You don't have to cover the lake itself, but the audience goes around each side of the lake, and so we had to penetrate fairly far. The other main challenge with this particular event is that the stage is not high enough to do a bigger array. I've always felt it's needed to be a 10-to-12 deep hang to cover it correctly, but the bottom side of the top truss is only 28 feet, and so hanging that many boxes would put the bottom of the arrays below the height of the stage.”
The rig consisted of left and right hangs of eight VTX V25-II-CS line array speakers each, giving the audio crew both high-impact sound and no-fuss rigging.
Featuring an advanced HF Waveguide and JBL’s patented Radiation Boundary Integrator technology housed in a lightweight enclosure and advanced easy-rigging system, the V25 provided the coverage and output needed to reach fans throughout the festival grounds while working within the stage area’s size limitations.
Additionally, the stage left area included four JBL VTX A12 line array speakers alongside the main left hangs for reinforced coverage for the lagoon’s more pronounced curvature on one side.
With specially designed JBL transducers that guarantee maximum output relative to the speaker’s size and weight, the A12 offers up to 90-degree dispersion and dynamic clarity even at all volume levels. These speakers gave the stage left area the extra coverage and output needed to reach audiences while only adding minimal additional setup.