Colombian singer/songwriter/guitarist Juanes recently wrapped up his Loco De Amor (Crazy In Love) tour, which was reinforced by an Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) Anya PA provided by Camarillo, California-based Rat Sound Systems, Inc.
The tour traveled with 40 Anya modules and eight EAW KF364NT loudspeakers for fill. Because the size of the venues varied, the PA would range from eight modules per side to 20, depending upon the coverage required.

“I went to a demo of Anya last year and had the opportunity to mix with it and was so impressed,” Stanley Soares, FOH engineer for Juanes explains. “When I received confirmation about the Juanes tour I immediately suggested that we go out with an Anya system and was absolutely thrilled we could make that happen.”

One of the many features of Anya – in addition to exceptional fidelity – that Soares found useful was the adaptive nature of the arrays.

“The technology is a real a game-changer,” he continues. “It reminds me of when line arrays were introduced years ago. Some people don’t like to take a risk on trying something new. But everyone from management to the artist were extremely happy with the results of the Anya PA.”

Each Anya module includes 22 highly customized transducers: 14 HF compression drivers provide a continuous line of apertures on a horn that expands to fill the entire face of the enclosure, six 5-inch MF cone transducers combine with Radial Phase Plugs and Concentric Summation Array technology to sum coherently with the HF wavefront, and dual 15-inch LF cone transducers employ Offset Aperture loading to extend horizontal pattern control well into the lower octaves. Each of the 22 transducers in an Anya module are powered and processed independently to provide extremely high resolution and control.

“Once the venue parameters are input into the Resolution 2 software, it tells us exactly what we need to ensure coverage throughout the room,” explains Rat Sound’s System Tech, Jason Brandt. “It’s quick and easy to use and the more familiar I am with Resolution, the more it impresses me. If I found out the seating area had changed – they either added more rows or opened up a new section – we could easily adjust our coverage by modifying the software.”

“Many times I have to spend so much energy during the day making sure that coverage is even, but not with Anya. It always delivers,” Soares concludes. “It gave me peace of mind so that I could concentrate on creating an amazing mix and giving Juanes fans an incredible show.“