ITALIAN RENTAL FIRM A.V.L. PRODUZIONI HANDLES W.O.M.A.D. FESTIVAL WITH NEW HLA SOUND SYSTEM FROM JBL PROFESSIONAL

Growing Firm Receives Praise At Global Music Festival's event in Sicily

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PALERMO, ITALY - September, 1998 - The W.O.M.A.D. Festival (World Of Music Art and Dance), inspired by Peter Gabriel's Real World Records, seeks to bring together and celebrate many forms of music, arts and dance from different countries and cultures around the world. Since the first W.O.M.A.D. event was held in 1982, W.O.M.A.D. festivals have been staged in dozens of different countries on nearly all continents.

Sound reinforcement needs for Italy's 1998 W.O.M.A.D. festival, staged September 1-6 in Palermo on the island of Sicily, were handled by A.V.L. Produzioni, a growing rental firm. A.V.L. is a full-service production firm offering both sound and lighting rental services. The company supplied its new HLA loudspeaker system from JBL Professional for the W.O.M.A.D. festival. HLA model 4895 3-way units were suspended in scaffold-mounted hanging arrays, while JBL's high-performance HLA model 4897 carbon-fiber bass enclosures were positioned below the main arrays at ground level in Palermo's Teatro de Verdura, an popular outdoor venue featuring a sloping audience seating area.

World music artists like Midge Ure, Sierra Mastra, Natasha Atlas and Maryam Mursal and Musica Internazionale Locale, featuring some of Italy's most renowned Jazz artists, were featured. "Our production needs for this concert series include a clear sound system with excellent coverage characteristics," noted Michel Russotto, production manager for the event series in Palermo. "Besides Italian artists, we presented a wide variety of performers from around the globe…nations like Cuba, Zaire, Mali, Somalia, India and Argentina. The sound for this year's W.O.M.A.D. festival has turned out very well thanks to A.V.L.'s Roberto Fontana and his crew."

A.V.L. Produzioni handles touring production throughout Italy and has recently worked with artists like George Benson, Diane Schuur, Chick Corea, Arturo Sandoval, Larry Coryell and ex-Police guitarist Andy Summers. Notes owner Roberto Fontana, "When it came time to purchase a new main speaker system, we needed something that would let us serve the many international artists who come through our region, and JBL is one of the most respected names on artists' concert technical riders. The HLA system lets us handle small or large venues, for indoor and outdoor events, and deliver powerful, distortion-free coverage for many different types of audience areas. We need something that gives us the most amount of sound from a relatively small system, and that's what HLA delivers."

A.V.L. Produzioni relies on JBL MPX Series model 600 and 1200 amplifiers and JBL's DSC260 and DSC280 digital system controllers for use with its HLA loudspeaker system.