ACOUTECH HEATS UP 2003 LATIN BILLBOARD MUSIC AWARDS
WITH JBL VERTEC SYSTEM

MIAMI, FLORIDA – MAY 8, 2003 – The 2003 Billboard Latin Music Awards, produced by media network giant Telemundo and staged at the 10,000-seat Miami Arena for the first time, featured concert audio services supplied by Acoutech of Hollywood, Florida. This growing regional rental audio vendor provided a multi-cluster JBL VerTec line array system, with Crown MA-5002 series power amplifiers and digital signal processing from BSS and dbx included in the sound system design.

Latin Music’s longest running and most prestigious awards show, the May 8th event capped Billboard’s annual Latin Music Conference. The Billboard Latin Music Awards is the only ceremony where winners are based on actual radio and retail chart performances. Finalists for the Billboard Awards are chosen solely based on their performances on Hot Latin Tracks and Top Latin Albums.

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Broadcast to millions of television viewers throughout the USA, Central and Latin America, and featuring many of the musical genre’s major artists like Ricky Martin, Cumbia Kings, Thalia, Gilberto Santa Rosa, and La India, the Billboard Latin Music Awards was the highest-rated televised special in Telemundo’s history.

“Special-event system designs always need to be carefully planned,” advised audio coordinator and soundmixer Michael Abbott. “But televised events raise the bar even higher. When live video is involved, successful synchronization of audio tracks to live performances is especially important. Integrating reinforced sound with video-screen displays in a large venue like this, was definitely a key part of the Billboard Latin Music Awards’ success.”

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With JBL’s VerTec line array system products, Acoutech was able to provide Telemundo producers with a minimum number of loudspeaker boxes to achieve the best net acoustical performance results in the sports-arena environment. Even with a massive stage set in place and on camera, Acoutech technicians were able to achieve a relatively low 35’ trim height for the clusters due to the compact size and flexible rigging of the JBL VerTec arrays.

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The event brought together a number of experienced individuals in the dynamic Latin Music community, including monitor engineer for the show Rafi Alkins, who is also the monitor engineer for Ricky Martin. Acoutech’s system engineer Juan Turro, responsible for sound reinforcement system setup, implemented a sound design that included main left and right arrays of 14 VT4889 full-size line array elements, outfill side hangs of six VT4889’s each, and a center group of eight VT4887 compact line array elements. These were supplemented with 16 VT4880 arrayable subwoofers. “Acoutech’s VerTec event system design performed very well in a demanding situation,” advised audio coordinator Abbott. “The VerTec arrays covered the audience area exactly as predicted with JBL’s Line Array Calculator software. The 8-box array of compact VT4887’s weighed under 500 lb. (227 kg), and provided exceptional pattern control while suspended at a radical downtilt angle. Telemundo production executives were pleased with the results.”

Headquartered in Northridge, California, JBL Professional is the world’s leading designer, manufacturer, and marketer of professional loudspeakers for recording and broadcast, musician, cinema, touring sound, commercial sound and contracting applications. JBL Professional is part of the Harman International network of professional and consumer audio companies. For complete product and company information, go to the JBL Pro website at www.jblpro.com.