Ryman Auditorium, Tennessee

The Opportunity

The Ryman Auditorium needed a consistent audio experience for every seat, especially in under-balcony sections that suffered from limited sight lines and uneven coverage.

The Solution

The audio team was won over by the JBL VTX A12, a compact, lightweight loudspeaker aimed at mid- to large-scale touring applications for its clarity, cohesiveness and lack of coloration.

The Impact

“We greatly improved the under-balcony experience for clarity,” says Les Banks and Opry front-of-house engineer. “It’s not so much volume; it’s definitely coverage. You want everyone who bought a seat to have the same experience. That was the goal.”

“The new system takes the under-balcony from eight passive speakers with eight zones to eight micro-line arrays utilizing JBL VT4886s with time-aligned VT4883 subwoofers in an alternating left-right-left deployment,” says Dan Heins, vice president of Nashville’s Clair Solutions, which facilitated the demos. “These zoned arrays have quadrupled the coverage energy for seamless sound in every seat.”