Organised by the Foundation for Independent Music with the support of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), the Libera Awards recognise independent musicians and the teams that support their work each year.
The awards were created to celebrate the unique voice and importance of the independent music sector, and this year marked their fifteenth edition.
The 2026 ceremony recently took place at New York's iconic Gotham Hall, featuring performances by Mdou Moctar, Valerie June, Dawn Richard and Aaron Maine of Porches. The combination of live performances, audiovisual content, speeches and presentations required a high-performance sound system capable of delivering clear and consistent audio reproduction across every format in a venue renowned for its highly reverberant acoustics.
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New York-based Eastern Stage Productions (ESP), the exclusive audio provider for Gotham Hall, selected a CODA Audio system built around the German manufacturer's ViRAY line array for the event.
CODA Audio ViRAY is a compact three-way symmetrical line array designed for small- to medium-sized venues where high-fidelity sound and outstanding speech intelligibility are essential, making it the ideal solution to meet the acoustic challenges of both the ceremony and its spectacular venue.
ESP deployed a ground-stacked system comprising five ViRAY units per side, supported by four CODA Audio SCV-F compact 18-inch sensor-controlled cardioid subwoofers per side. Two CODA Audio CoRAY column line source systems were used as side-fills, while front-fill coverage was provided by four CODA Audio HOPS8 high-output 8-inch point source loudspeakers. The system was powered and managed by two CODA Audio LINUS14 DSP amplifiers and one LINUS12C, providing amplification, processing and loudspeaker management.
Gotham Hall is an extremely reverberant space, so having the highest-quality loudspeaker system is essential. The CODA Audio system was the best choice because it delivers distortion-free performance, exceptional clarity, extended frequency response and outstanding phase coherence. Its accurate frequency response, both on and off axis, is a major advantage, allowing us to focus the sound on the audience while keeping it away from reflective surfaces. Quite simply, it is better than any other system we have used in this venue over the past twenty-five years, said Bill Danilczyk, owner of ESP.
