Story Sound Enhances Amplifier Inventory With HARMAN's Crown I-Tech HD Series

CrownELKHART, Indiana — In a move that immediately upgrades its sound reinforcement capabilities, leading Dutch sound rental company, Story Sound, has purchased a battery of over 70 HARMAN Crown I-Tech HD series amplifiers. The decision to move to I-Tech HD amplifiers was driven by many factors including the availability of the new HARMAN HiQnet Performance Managerâ„¢ software.

Earlier in the year, managing director Michael Story announced that his company would be touring the Royal Netherlands Air Force with its JBL VerTec system and at the same time he took the opportunity to field test his first 12 I-Tech HD12000 amplifiers.

Story stated that he was already running his JBL VerTec rig on standard I-Tech's and he believed the HD's would offer the best of all worlds. He knew that I-Tech HD features a new user-inspired DSP engine co-developed with BSS and Linear Phase FIR filters that offered unrivalled performance. But the introduction of the new HiQnet Performance Manager Software provided the deciding factor.

This highly refined user interface facilitates the design of venue sound reinforcement systems, specifically for touring and theatrical sound engineering. A development of HARMAN HiQnet System Architectâ„¢, it takes the workflow paradigm to a higher level of functionality and is fully integrated with JBL's Line Array Calculator II loudspeaker configuration and acoustic modeling software, providing automated design to optimize the JBL VerTec performance.

“It was this software, plus the sound quality of the amplifiers, which marks a major step forward and the wonderful stability of the Crown network persuaded us,” stated Story. “Network stability was certainly an issue with other amplifiers we reviewed. We tested the Crown I-Tech HD's for one and a half years without experiencing any failure.”

“The advanced phase filtering provided the final piece of the puzzle. We will now simply attach all the linear phase settings we have to the HD series amps,” added Story.

Paul Bauman, Senior Manager – Product Development, Tour Sound at JBL Professional commented “Story Sound's I-Tech HD investment is an important step towards future-proofing their Vertec system and I look forward to collaborating with Michael on the upcoming VerTec V5 preset release. As a software plug-in upgrade, VerTec V5 will provide significant performance enhancements for the entire VerTec line including improved horizontal coverage and overall sound quality due to the detailed phase linearization made possible by OmniDrive HD processing.”

Harman HiQnetâ„¢ is the world's first connectivity and control protocol that integrates all product categories in the signal chain for professional audio systems of all types, size, and applications. Harman HiQnet no longer requires the user to manage multiple disparate operating systems or be responsible for programming individual signal processors, speaker controllers, wireless microphone systems, and mixing consoles. HiQnet was developed by engineers from across Harman's Professional Division and is coordinated by the System Development and Integration Group (SDIG), a team of dedicated systems specialists based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 11,800 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $3.5 billion for the twelve months ended December 31, 2010. The Company's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol NYSE:HAR.