HARMAN’s JBL Professional VTX V25 Line Array Loudspeaker Wins 2012 PLASA Award for Innovation

(Left) Ed Pagett, PLASA Chairman and (right)
Mark Gander, JBL Professional.

Photo Credit: Chris Toulmin

NORTHRIDGE, California– HARMAN’s JBL Professional today announced that its VTX Series V25 fullsize line array loudspeaker is a 2012 PLASA Awards for Innovation winner.

PLASA is one of the premier international events for entertainment and installation technology. During the show’s opening two days in September, 47 products were judged by an independent panel of industry experts, who toured the show floor to evaluate each product. Eight Awards for Innovation winners were chosen, including the JBL VTX V25 which was also the only audio product selected.

The V25 “addresses a lot of the traditional problems with loudspeakers by addressing the problems at the driver engineering level,” the PLASA Awards for Innovation judges said.

The JBL VTX Series V25 is a fullsize, 3-way high-directivity line array element that features two 15-inch Differential Drive® woofers mounted, with four 8-inch Differential Drive midrange transducers and three D2 dual-diaphragm dual-voice-coil compression drivers mounted on a third-generation waveguide/Radiation Boundary Integrator assembly. The Radiation Boundary Integrator combines the midrange and high-frequency sections of the V25 so the transition across each frequency band is uninterrupted while providing broad, stable horizontal coverage combined with proper line source array coupling for 0-10 degree inter-enclosure angles in the vertical plane.

The dual annular diaphragms employed in the D2 driver addresses the limitations of conventional compression driver technology: limited high-frequency extension due to the mass of a dome diaphragm and voice coil assembly, and distortion from dome breakup modes. The D2 merges two compression drivers into a single transducer that utilizes two voice coils instead of the larger, heavier single voice coil found in conventional drivers. The result is increased power handling and SPL along with smoother, extended high-frequency response and lower distortion.

“We are gratified that the PLASA Awards for Innovation judges have recognized what we have achieved with our new flagship V25 line array,” said Paul Bauman, Senior Manager, Tour Sound for JBL Professional. “Since its introduction earlier this year, the V25 has been praised by some of the world’s top front-of-house engineers and sound contractors as a significant leap forward in clarity, resolution and accuracy along with its ability to deliver higher SPL and higher dynamic fidelity.”

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and Mark Levinson. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,400 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $4.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.