Catalina Island Jazz Trax Festival

What Client Says

“Many of the guest engineers this year have mixed at this event for many years, some veteran engineers as many as 20. They all echoed that this is the best PA and best the ballroom has ever sounded, and they have heard some of the top A-list competitors’ systems here. The ViO X206 is an incredibly versatile box.”
Justin Lusignan [System Engineer]

Catalina Island started as a stop for smugglers, gold diggers, pirates, hunters, and missionaries, and as an army base during WW2 before becoming a mainstay shooting location for over 500 movies and TV shows in the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. The chewing gum giant William Wrigley Jr made the Island the Spring Training home of his beloved Chicago Cubs in 1921. In 1929, Wrigley built the iconic Catalina Casino, named after the Italian word “casino,” meaning “a gathering place.” There has never been gambling at the Catalina Casino; rather, it is home to the World’s largest circular ballroom without supporting pillars —boasting 20,000 square feet of space, with an arching 50-foot ceiling, an elevated stage, raised seating areas around the dance floor, and a vintage, full-service bar in the back. It hosts the Island’s many annual events, including the past
editions of the JazzTrax Festival.

The VIO X206 system can now be used beyond permanent installation applications, with Catalina JazzTrax Festival debuting this new option in the US. “The X206 exhibits the same remarkable ViO performance we’ve come to expect from its larger family members,” explains Colin Studybaker, President of dBTechnologies USA. The X206 can be used in multitudes of applications with different dispersion patterns — with a 60°x90° horn that’s end-user switchable with a 100°x15° waveguide. The system, with its two 6.5” neodymium transducers and a single 1” compression driver, is driven by a Digipro class D 900 Watts RMS power amplifier equipped with RDNet, allowing for remote control with dBTechnologies proprietary Aurora Net software.

Many big, powerful loudspeaker systems have been used in the venue in previous years, including a permanent install dating 20 years back, but this marks the year that the sound was finally redeemed as “in your face” and “surgically precise” by guest Engineers who mixed on the ViO
system. Hudson Audio Works’ Gregg Hudson, in conjunction with House of God Productions, provided the system, with Justin Lusignan executing the sound design, deploying and tuning the ViO system. The mains consisted of 16 flown ViO X206 100°x 15° Line Array systems (8 per side), four groundstacked ViO S118 self-powered 18" subwoofers (2 per side), six ViO X206 (with 100°x15° waveguide) were positioned as front fills on the stage lip, and ViO X206 in a point source configuration (with 60°x90° horn) as an outfill. dBTechnologies’ active Opera Reevo 210 wedges provided stage monitoring. The wide room with two recessed cove-like spaces off on the wings was an acoustically interesting challenge to overcome: “Because I work with so many Houses of Worship, I have extensive experience designing unique spaces. I added the ViO X206 point source box with a 60°x90° horn on a pole mount to address the room's architectural details, resulting in the same uniform sound throughout.” Lusignan explains. “This round hard ballroom wasn't designed (in 1929) with a live PA in mind,” laughs Hudson. “Thus, what we've come to understand over the many years of doing sound in the room is that less is more — The X206 seemed to cut through without the heavy reflections and overtones that bigger boxes can produce in that room” Hudson reflects on his sixth year providing sound solutions at the festival. One of the standout performers at the festival was Grammy-winning Dutch saxophonist Candy Dulfer. She gained fame through her high-profile collaborations with Dave Stewart and the legendary Prince. In the “Partyman” video, Prince humorously stated, “When I want sax, I call Candy,” which led to her becoming a permanent member of his NPG band for the record-breaking ‘Musicology’ tour and album. Benno Linnemann (Candy Dulfer FOH Engineer, Peter Frampton Systems Engineer) commented: "I was genuinely impressed by the expressions—striking. Positioned at 20 to 25 meters (65 to 82 feet) in a diffusing hall, I was glad to get the mix in my face! The fills were exceptionally clear as I was walking around. I'm thoroughly impressed.”

Justin Lusignan, who was on deck for the entire festival as the Systems Engineer, summarized: “Many of the guest engineers this year have mixed at this event for many years, some veteran engineers as many as 20. They all echoed that this is the best PA and best the ballroom has ever sounded, and they have heard some of the top A-list competitors’ systems here. The ViO X206 is an incredibly versatile box.”