SHINING STARS AT THE ACADEMY AWARDS

Hollywood & Highland Center celebrated its seventh year as the center of the cinematic universe on February 24, 2008, when the Kodak Theatre was again the site of the annual Academy Awards® presentation. The ceremony, hosted by comedian Jon Stewart, honored the outstanding film achievements of 2007. No Country for Old Men emerged as the Best Picture winner, and the film's directors, Ethan and Joel Coen, took home awards for Achievement in Directing. Daniel Day-Lewis, Javier Bardem, Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton triumphed in the acting categories. To support this star-studded evening, Harman’s award-winning JBL® VerTec® loudspeakers were once again installed in the world-class venue to provide crystal-clear sound for the live audience.

Kodak Theatre is located within the Hollywood & Highland Center retail, dining and entertainment complex, in the heart of historic Hollywood. The 3,400-seat theatre opened in November 2001 and soon thereafter became known to more than one billion people across the globe as the first permanent home of the Academy Awards. Built at a cost of $94 million, the theater was designed to be as glamorous as its onstage artists and celebrity guests, yet capable of serving the enormous technical needs of a live, worldwide television broadcast. The main stage area is one of the largest in the nation, at 120 feet wide and 75 feet deep.

Sound reinforcement services for this year’s Academy Awards were again provided by ATK/Audiotek, Inc. (Valencia, CA), with veteran sound system designer and operator Patrick Baltzell in command. In addition to multiple celebrity presenter podium positions, the audio crew supported a full live-show orchestra, positioned out of sight, beneath the stage. System engineer Jeff Peterson coordinated the setup of 28 JBL VerTec VT4889 line array loudspeakers and 16 VerTec VT4880A ultralong-excursion subwoofers, working from Baltzell’s show design. Main left and right arrays of 14 VT4889’s each were flanked by eight-box subwoofer arrays. JBL MS28 loudspeakers were specially installed as under-balcony fill speakers in the plush venue.

“The Kodak Theater is an acoustically good room, and a key goal to meet the producers’ criteria for this event was to ensure that the loudspeaker arrays did not appear on camera for the televised broadcast,” said Peterson. “This means that high array positions with steep suspension angles were required. The JBL VerTec system is ideally suited for this type of application.”

For additional information on JBL VerTec speakers, visit www.jblpro.com.