Signals Scales Up with JBL SRX900 | CX Magazine

Signals is a production and backline company that has been servicing NSW’s Illawarra region since 1990. The company has a long and enviable record of being in-house at several of the region’s venues, including 33 years at Wollongong University, 26 at the Towradgi Beach Hotel, and 15 at the Oaks Hotel Motel.

Owner and operator Andrew West has a fair bit to juggle with those venues. The University has two spaces with capacities of 275 and 750 respectively, plus a busy calendar of smaller events. The Towradgi Beach Hotel runs three nights a week in its 330-pax space, while its Waves live music venue packs in 1,450. In addition to all that, there’s a lively local scene of festivals, corporate and community gigs, and more.

What all this calls for is flexibility, and Signals has found it in the shape of JBL’s SRX900 Series of selfpowered line arrays. Counting them all up, deployed across its venues and in its general hire stock, Signals has 20 SRX910LA dual 10-inch line array elements, 12 SRX906LA dual 6.5-inch line array elements, 14 SRX928S dual 18-inch subwoofers, and four SRX918S single 18-inch subwoofers.

“The first SRX900 Series units we purchased are now running in Waves,” reports Andrew. “That’s 12 SRX910LA tops and eight SRX928S subs. Wollongong University’s 750-capacity room has eight SRX910LA tops and six SRX928S subs.”

The simplicity of boxes with their own power and processing has made administering Signals’ venues a lot easier. “Because SRX900 is selfpowered, I got rid of all the amp racks, and everything’s so neat and clean now,” says Andrew.
“We have one distro with a dbx DriveRack 4800 processor for distribution and limiting. Waves hosts a lot of hardcore bands, so the processor is doing some limiting before the actual limiters in the boxes.”

The smaller SRX906LAs and SRX918S subs make a powerful yet compact system that can handle almost all of Signals’ other work. “That all fits in half a standard HiAce van, leaving the rest of the space for monitors and lights,” continues Andrew.

“Or, we can go to Wollongong University Hall, which has a capacity of 2,500, and combine the existing rig and the smaller rig. We fly 10 elements per side, run 14 subs across the front, and use the SRX906LAs as our front fill. We then have enough gear left over to do either side fills or a big drum fill.”

Versatility works both ways. “At the other end of the spectrum, we do smaller configurations, as we did at a conference last week at the Wollongong University Innovation Campus,” explains Andrew.

“There were two rooms, side by side, operating at the same time. We had a single SRX918S sub with a pole mount and two SRX906LAs per side. The SRX906LA has become the mainstay of our small systems, covering capacities of up to 500.”

When I spoke to Andrew, Signals had just spent the weekend working at the Yours and Owls Festival in Wollongong, a two-site, 12-stage, two-day event.

The first day was an outdoor, two-stage event held in a park, with the second day held in CBD venues. Signals supplied two PAs on the second day: one stage ran three SRX910LAs with three SRX928S subs per side, and the other ran six SRX906LAs and one SRX928S per side. Overall, it was the biggest event Signals has ever looked after, providing production to six stages and backline to seven.

James Suckling, operations manager at Signals, is usually the operator at FOH for its SRX900 systems. He’s a JBL veteran, with experience dating back to the old VERTEC rigs, but he much prefers SRX900.

“The old JBL VERTEC had eight drivers per element compared with SRX900’s three, which produce the same amount of level at even lower frequencies,” observes James. “The top-end and mid-range response is completely different, in a good way! We run the SRX910LA down to 60 Hz; they handle the 60 to 100 Hz range beautifully. I’ve demonstrated their low-end handling to visiting engineers by muting the subs, and most can’t believe they’re just listening to the top boxes.”

At Yours and Owls, James enjoyed the SRX900’s flat response, lack of extra EQ and processing out of the box, and musicality. “I had a singer jump off the stage and stand on the crowd barrier directly in front of the PA stack,” he reports. “I was standing there with the pan knob, waiting for it to feed back. It did not feed back.”

The festival weekend was made much easier by the SRX900’s rigging system, which every tech I’ve talked to raves about. “The rigging is just easy and simple,” agrees James. “If I’m flying 10 a side at a venue, I’ll set them up in two stacks of five, attach a fly frame, set all my pins, and just hoist it up and then lock it all in. Then, I drop the dolly and connect the next one. To bring it back down, it’s the same method: simple and easy.”

SRX900 and all of JBL’s Performance Audio range are distributed and supported by MadisonAV and its newest recruit, National Performance Audio BDM Grant Embury. “Grant’s fantastic!” enthuses Andrew. “We’ve never had support like this before. It’s a huge help after being in business this long. It’s really important in a supplier relationship, and we love the fact that Grant’s on board.”

Versatility for Signals with the JBL SRX900

Harry the hirer Productions invest in JBL VTX System

Case Study: FIFA Fan Festival™ Atlanta

JBL introduces VTX-B35

Australia Gets a Seat at the Table: Elite Event Technology at JBL Tour Summit

JBL Software Updates with SRX900

JBL Professional Expands SRX900 Series

Bruce Mason Centre upgrades with JBL

JBL Audio Innovations at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

Soho Theatre Walthamstow upgrades with JBL VTX-Series

Jesus Christ Superstar at Regent Theatre, NZ

The Art House Wyong Upgrades with JBL VTX-Series

Shimokitazawa’s Iconic Live Music Venue Daisy Bar Ushers in a New Era of Sound

Elite Event Technology invests in JBL VTX A-Series

Active vs. Passive Loudspeaker Systems: Design Guide for Audio Professionals

JBL VTX A-Series for Orange Ex-Services Club

KBS Arena Upgraded with the World’s Largest Installation of JBL Professional SRX 900 Series

Twickenham Stadium JBL Professional Audio Upgrade

Twickenham Stadium has been home to the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and England Rugby since 1907, hosting its first match in 1909. The Stadium has constantly evolved over its long history and has always had a focus on the fan experience. The stadium’s 20-year-old system was no longer supporting that aim so the RFU turned to Vanguardia to create a sound system that would offer the high sound pressure levels it required for the entertainment element alongside the intelligibility vital in a life safety PA/VA solution.

JBL Powers the Sound of SoFi Stadium

JBL VTX A-Series turns up the volume at BIGSOUND 2024

JBL Professional VTX A8 System in London's West End

JBL VTX A-Series for Tina Arena’s 'Love Saves' Tour

JBL VTX A-Series at Star Struck 2024

Ko Pha Ngan’s Half Moon Festiva

JBL VTX A-Series at Enlighten Festival Canberra

JBL Professional VTX A-Series at St Kilda Festival

JBL VTX takes the stage at festivals

JBL VTX A-Series takes on the stage at Bigsound

JBL Performance Audio - VTX A-Series Overview

JBL Deployed at the Warner Theatre in Pennsylvania

Swansea Arena chooses Scalability with JBL VTX

Stuart Graham – Ambassador Theatre Group: Another premium system had originally been specified for the 3500-seat theatre. “This was our first UK arena and I thought we should reach and test new products. “There was a more ample budget available for the system’s design and implementation, and we wanted to focus on the scalability of the system and that it would work within every conceivable application. With that in mind, we opted for something tailored very much towards versatility and broader functionality

Versatility for Signals with JBL SRX900