NEW ZEALAND: Designed to host conferences, exhibitions, banquets and live performances on an international scale, the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) has been equipped with a comprehensive HARMAN Professional Solutions audio ecosystem centred on JBL Professional loudspeakers delivering a flexible, venue-wide solution capable of supporting a diverse range of event formats.

As New Zealand’s only venue with official International Convention Centre status, NZICC comprises hundreds of spaces with varying acoustic demands, from meeting rooms and exhibition halls to its flagship Te Paepae Theatre. To support this wide range of applications, the venue required an integrated audio solution capable of delivering consistent sound quality while remaining flexible enough to accommodate multiple room layouts and event formats.

Working alongside integration specialists JPRO and Vega Global NZ, the venue deployed a HARMAN Professional ecosystem comprising JBL Professional loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers, Soundcraft mixing consoles and BSS Soundweb processing, providing a unified technology platform across the facility.

At the centre of the installation is the Te Paepae Theatre, a highly adaptable auditorium that accommodates up to 2,850 seated guests or 3,300 banquet attendees. The venue can also be divided into two independent theatres, requiring an audio system capable of maintaining consistent coverage, tonal balance and speech intelligibility across multiple configurations.

To meet these demands, the theatre has been equipped with 40 JBL Professional VTX A8 line array loudspeakers deployed in scalable configurations, supported by JBL Professional VTX G28 and VTX B18 subwoofers, JBL Professional VTX F15 delay loudspeakers, JBL Professional VTX M20 stage monitors and JBL Professional AC18/95 loudspeakers providing front-fill coverage.

The system is powered by 34 Crown I-Tech 4x3500HD amplifiers and managed via BSS Soundweb London BLU-806DA processors with Dante networking, while front-of-house control is provided through dual Soundcraft Vi3000 mixing consoles paired with 64/32-channel stage boxes.

To optimise performance across the theatre’s multiple operating modes, JBL Venue Synthesis 3D Acoustic Simulation software was used to model full-theatre, dual-theatre and hybrid room configurations. System tuning and calibration data are stored directly within the Crown amplifiers, enabling venue staff to recall preconfigured system settings quickly, reducing setup time and simplifying transitions between events.

Beyond the main performance venue, JBL Professional loudspeakers have also been deployed throughout meeting rooms, exhibition halls, public spaces and back-of-house areas, ensuring consistent voicing and audio performance across the entire convention centre.

The resulting installation provides NZICC with a scalable audio platform capable of supporting everything from keynote presentations and international conferences to banquets and live productions. Within the Te Paepae Theatre, the JBL Professional VTX A8 system delivers uniform coverage across changing room layouts, maintaining both speech intelligibility and musical clarity regardless of seating configuration.

Combined with Crown amplification, BSS Soundweb networked processing and Soundcraft mixing consoles, the integrated HARMAN Professional ecosystem streamlines venue operation while enabling rapid changeovers between events. The deployment equips the New Zealand International Convention Centre with a comprehensive audio infrastructure designed to meet the demands of international conventions, exhibitions and performances while delivering consistent sound quality throughout the facility.