Florida’s King Center Gets An Audio Upgrade

Melbourne, FL (April 1, 2025)—The heart of the Maxwell C. King Center in Brevard County is the 2,016-seat L3 Harris Technologies Theatre, a venue big enough to handle visiting musical acts, theatrical productions and more. As the only venue in a 50-mile radius equipped to handle a production that size, it’s a cornerstone of the region’s arts community—and it recently got a long-awaited audio upgrade designed by APAV Solutions.

The previous JBL Professional sound system, now 20 years old, had served its time, so Rob Adams, director of Facilities, and the venue’s technicians, including Ed Guilbeau, House Audio Technician at the King Center, were deeply involved in upgrading amplifiers and engineering a new steel beam to support the load of the new system coming in: JBL VTX Series loudspeakers.

Craig Beyrooti, CEO of APAV Solutions, led the design process, and noted, “I designed the system in JBL’s Venue Synthesis software only a few days after it had come out. I added a few boxes more than had been in the previous system, just for coverage, not power. There’s way enough power there. I spoke with the team at JBL Professional, had them review the design, and we did a little more tweaking. For instance, we ended up flying some subs in the center.”

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The new system centers around L-R array hangs, each sporting eight VTX A12 dual 12-inch line array loudspeakers and a pair of VTX A12W 120-degree dispersion dual 12-inch line array loudspeakers. Meanwhile, a half-dozen VTX B28 arrayable dual-18-inch subwoofers are flown in a center array that has two cabinets reversed in order to produce a cardioid dispersion pattern. The system is powered by 28 Crown I-Tech 12000HD amplifiers, plus four Crown I-Tech 4x3500HD amps.

“It’s all about coverage here, and this system just nails it down,” Guilbeau said. “When we host things like a ballet with an open orchestra pit, we used to have problems with the upfront coverage; the sound would go right over the heads of the first three rows past the pit. Now we’re covered almost overlapping into the pit. Everyone that’s come in since the install has commented that the coverage is exquisite. The system really fits the room; it’s nice.”