NEW ZEALAND: When Taieri Musical brought Jesus Christ Superstar to life at Dunedin’s historic Regent Theatre – one of New Zealand’s largest and most ornate venues – delivering concert-grade sound within the venue’s grand baroque-revival architecture was no easy feat. The 1,600-seat space—with its ornate ceilings, deep balconies and restricted sightlines—demanded a solution that could deliver consistent clarity and coverage without compromising the theatre’s visual splendour.

To meet these demands, Strawberry – one of the South Island’s leading audio visual production companies – deployed a meticulously engineered JBL Professional sound system under the direction of system engineer Dave Bennet. The main left and right arrays featured 3 units of the JBL VTX B18 subwoofers with 4 units of the compact yet powerful JBL VTX A8 line array elements per side, ground-stacked beneath the proscenium arch to maintain clear sightlines. Complementing these were additional hangs of 4 units of the VTX A8s per side for circle coverage, while a dedicated centre cluster of 8 units of the JBL VT4886 loudspeakers handled vocal reinforcement with precision and focus.

Dialogue fill was achieved using 6 units of the JBL AC25 loudspeakers suspended discreetly beneath the balcony, while JBL SRX712s loudspeakers were positioned for foldback and supplementary coverage. The entire system was driven by Crown I-Tech 4×3500 amplifiers and fine-tuned via JBL Performance Manager software, ensuring centralised control and cohesive sonic imaging throughout the space.

“In a theatre like the Regent, the challenge is covering all the seats while staying out of the sightlines,” explained Bennet. “You can’t just hang giant speaker arrays in front of the stage and those beautiful views. Instead, we used a mix of flown and ground-stacked arrays, discreet under-balcony fills and a few spot fills for the tricky areas.”

Sound designer and mixer Tom Acklin of Crossfade was equally impressed by the JBL system’s ability to merge musical power with theatrical nuance. “Sound design for a rock musical like Jesus Christ Superstar comes with many challenges and trade-offs, but the JBL range makes it elegant,” he said. “The VTX A8s handling the band content are the heart of the system. They tick many boxes for me as a sound designer—full-range frequency response down to 60Hz, compact size to avoid those sightline issues, and a wide 110-degree dispersion that’s perfect for this venue.”

The result was an immersive, evenly balanced soundscape that carried both the intensity of the live rock band and the emotional weight of the vocals across every seat in the house. “It’s all about making sure the story reaches everyone, no matter where they’re sitting,” added Acklin.

For Bennet, the production showcased the remarkable adaptability of the JBL VTX A Series to complex theatrical environments. “The key takeaway is that the A8s are at home in this kind of deployment,” he concluded. “From their wide coverage to their impressive low-end output even in small numbers, they’re an excellent choice for a musical show that needs big energy in a compact package.”

By integrating JBL’s VTX, SRX and A-Series loudspeakers with Crown amplification, Jesus Christ Superstar at the Regent Theatre stood as a testament to the precision, performance and versatility that define JBL Professional systems in the world of live entertainment.