NORTHRIDGE, California – Underscoring its global leadership in audio system design and unique capacity to swiftly deploy new products especially developed for local markets, HARMAN’s JBL Professional KTV audio systems are gaining strong traction in the China’s fast-growing KTV (Karaoke Television) marketplace. A $500 million market, KTV has rapidly become a staple of Chinese family entertainment. KTV entertainment facilities comprise multiple private lounges equipped with KTV machines that play music and display video clips and lyrics. The lounges are available for rent by families and for parties, and the audience is generally limited to invited guests. A typical KTV entertainment facility may house up to 50 or more separate performance lounges, each featuring dedicated sound systems with specialized directivity, control and audio quality to ensure a good customer experience and to avoid overspill between rooms.
JBL KTV sound systems are especially popular in the premium China KTV market, where sophisticated KTV venues are located in elite neighborhoods and combine highly-evolved interior architectural designs, concierge services, valet parking and menus and drink services on par with the best restaurants. It’s fitting therefore that these new JBL sound systems have gained such popularity among both customers and venue operators of the KTV phenomenon.
“Customers come to KTV venues for a personalized ‘rock star’ singing experience,” said Daryl Wong, Director of Marketing, HARMAN Professional, China. “It’s entirely appropriate—almost requisite—that they get to enjoy the same audio technologies as those featured on the biggest stages and in the most prestigious recording studios. JBL is the clear sound system of choice for music’s elite performers—whether it’s Canto-popor traditional folk—and our systems perform as well in the KTV venues of China’s regional cities and towns as they do on stages around the world! We are very pleased and proud to see our technologies deployed in such exciting, ambitious venues!”
Available models in the KP600 Series include the KP615 (15-inch woofer, 1.5-inch tweeter), KP612 (12-inch woofer, 1.5-inch tweeter), KP610 (10-inch woofer, 1.5-inch tweeter), and KP618S (18-inch subwoofer); the KS300 series KS312 (12-inch woofer, 1-inch tweeter), KS310 (10-inch woofer, 1-inch tweeter) and KS308 (8-inch woofer, 1-inch tweeter). All models feature sophisticated wooden cabinet enclosures that can be ceiling- or surface-mounted.
This broad range of speaker models is combined within venue-tailored system designs that meet various regional tastes. “There is no such thing as a universal loudspeaker,” noted Wong. “Geographic regions have discrete preferences for the tonal quality and balance of bass, mid and high frequency ranges.”
Numerous examples of KTV entertainment facilities throughout the country demonstrate the flexibility of JBL’s new KTV product range. As one example in central China, the Yue Hao Hotel in Xi’an, which combines a clean, contemporary design with 5-star amenities, has equipped its KTV rooms with no less than 84 JBL KP612 and KP610 speakers.
Located in China’s southwestern coastal region, the Da Di Entertainment Centre is the best and largest entertainment park in Putian, Fujian, with 136 KP610 speakers installed in 58 KTV rooms. Fujian’s Di Hao Club offers 20 luxurious KTV rooms featuring tiled walls, chandeliers, multiple built-in video screens—and two KP612 speakers in each room. The QuanzhouJing Yi Hui Fashion Club in Fujian has 19 KTV rooms of opulent elegance, where patrons can sing along to their favorite songs in rooms with velvet seating areas, large video projection screens and a total of 22 JBL KS312 and 18 KS310 ceiling-mounted speakers.
“When it comes to fixed installations that can be scaled for and tailored to venues of this size, our engineers and product-development specialists working together in China and Northridge have come up with a loudspeaker series that is uniquely designed, built and priced for China’s KTV market,” continued Wong. “We are very pleased with the results of their efforts —and it appears the market is too!”
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 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,400 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.4 billion for the twelve months ending June 30, 2012.