CHICAGO – Tommy Gawenda, owner of JT AV Corp., chose Lab.gruppen amps for an audio system upgrade at The Vic Theatre, which first opened its doors as a vaudeville house in 1912. Along with live music, the 1,400-capacity venue has three bars and serves up older movies and beer as the Brew and View.
Gawenda's company has been regularly updating The Vic's sound system for the past five years. For the EAW KF850 mains, JT AV provided three Lab.gruppen C 68:4s, two C 48:4s and one C 28:4. For monitors; three C 48:4s, two C 16:4s and one fP 2600 amp to drive the wedges, plus one C 68:4 and one fP 2400Q for the side fills.
"I've been using Lab.gruppen amps for a few years now," Gawenda said. "I like the way they sound and I like the performance and the fact they consume less power," he said, listing the reasons for using the gear. "Number one is sound quality. Number two, efficiency, and number three, reliability – they never seem to go down."
Gawenda, whose two decades in the business includes a solid background in touring, is aware of how sound quality can leave artists and engineers who visit a venue happy with their experience there.
"You want every piece of equipment in the system to be as strong as it can be. That's not always possible economically, but if it is, you start updating," he noted. "Companies come out with new processors and amps every few years, and if you want your system to sound better, you should integrate them when you can."
For more information, please visit www.labgruppen.com.
