MTV Video Music Awards 2025 Sound System Gets a Power Boost with JBL VTX When this year's MTV Video Music Awards was hosted in UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, Firehouse Productions turned to JBL Professional to ensure every note and lyric carried with impact and clarity, matching the event's electrifying atmosphere and star-studded roster of nominees. This year's awards featured top-tier talents including Lady Gaga, who led with 12 nominations, followed by Bruno Mars with 11 and Kendrick Lamar with ten. Performers span genres and stages, from Lady Gaga's return to a live VMA performance and Mariah Carey's coveted Video Vanguard Award, to breakout acts from up-and-coming superstars like Tate McRae and Sabrina Carpenter, and also an Ozzy Osborne tribute by Yungblud, Nuno Bettencourt, Steven Tyler, and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. Mark Dittmar, vice president at Firehouse Productions, has engineered sound for 17 of the last 25 VMAs. This year, the system expanded to include 104 VTX V25 line array loudspeakers, 24 flown VTX S28 subs, 16 ground-stacked VTX G28 subs, and 32 VTX A6 front fills -- over 180 loudspeakers total -- driven by Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers. The system was designed using JBL Venue Synthesis software to successfully accommodate the complex staging and camera demands. Dittmar underscores that JBL's trademark intelligibility and rigging flexibility are essential for live television. "Intelligibility is everything on a show like the VMAs," he says. "At 170', the JBL VTX V25 ii CS loudspeakers still sounds in your face, even when it's not." The comprehensive VTX deployment allowed the production team to deliver consistent audio coverage across UBS Arena's complex layout, from thrust stages to remote camera spots, without compromising show pacing or visual aesthetics. "With the VTX system and Venue Synthesis, we're able to cover the audience no matter where the stage ends up, and the energy in the room is always exactly what the producers want," Dittmar adds. 
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