Detroit’s Movement Festival returns with JBL
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Held in the city considered to be the birthplace of techno, Movement Festival is an annual three-day electronic music festival that brings thousands of fervent audiences to Detroit every Memorial Day weekend. After being postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 marked Movement’s highly anticipated return to form and a chance for the close-knit electronic music community to finally gather in person once again.
“Detroit techno was always a dark room and a huge PA - it didn't matter what kind of lights you had or whatever; if you wanted the visceral experience in regards to clarity and a loud sound system, you came to Detroit in the nineties,” explained Sam Fotias, director of operations, Paxahau. “Since we all came up in that paradigm, that's what we bring to the table for the festival. We don't have a decibel cap, and all of our systems are designed five times more than what is needed for the coverage at each stage.”
Working within the gear, personnel and budget constraints of a still-recovering live music industry, Movement organisers Paxahau required a live audio system that upheld the festival’s reputation for immersive sound at every performance area. To meet these goals, Thunder Audio designed and deployed streamlined rigs featuring JBL VTX A12 loudspeakers and B28 and S28 subwoofers for several of Movement’s stages.
“We have a reputation that when you come to Detroit to the Movement Festival, that the audio experience is going to be spectacular,” said Mike Fotias, production manager, Paxahau. “Thunder Audio, being our partner for almost all of the years that we've been doing the festival, has worked very closely with us in always making sure that not only do we have the latest technology deployed in our sound systems, but also that there is very solid engineering and design that goes into each one of those sound systems.”
Featured on the Stargate, Red Bull and Pyramid stages, the JBL VTX A12 is a line array speaker designed from the ground up to best serve the needs of festivals and touring productions,
Alongside the A12 at the Stargate, Red Bull and Pyramid stages - as well as the semi-indoor Underground stage - the JBL VTX B28 subwoofers delivered a deep, immersive bass response as low as 25 Hz – a must-have for bass-heavy music genres.
The Underground stage, a low-ceiling space intended for more aggressive and high-energy artists, most prominently featured the B28 alongside JBL VTX V25 and VT4888 speakers.
