Anya is not simply a loudspeaker system. It is the embodiment of a new concept: Adaptive Performance. Engineered to be capable of generating virtually any three-dimensional wavefront surface, each Anya module packs 22 transducers that are independently driven by 22 amplifier channels and 22 channels of DSP.

Although complex, using Anya is straightforward. Anya columns hang straight, allowing out fill arrays to hang adjacent to the mains. Resolution software generates DSP parameters to simultaneously adapt the wavefront surface and optimize the system frequency response to match the requirements of any venue within minutes.

Anya combines almost all major aspects of EAW technology – and many new ones – into a comprehensive, adaptive system that can meet most large-scale sound reinforcement applications. This result is the answer to questions we started asking over a decade ago with the design of the DSA series.

The questions: Could we create a system that would deliver an optimal three dimensional solution, one that could truly adapt to most sound reinforcement environments? Could we create a system that would give designers control without constraints? Could we create a system that would significantly reduce setup complexity and time?

The answer to all three of these questions, we found, was “yes.”

Acoustical Advantage
Our goal was to change, or better control, the vertical directivity and eliminate the need for down fill or angling the physical array. In order to significantly alter the shape of a wavefront without negatively impacting the impulse response, we needed to achieve very high resolution and discrete control of every device. This allows the relative change between adjacent devices to be small while the overall impact to the entire surface of the array is large.

Beginning with the low-frequency subsection, we determined that a horizontally-spaced 2 x 15-inch design would be optimal for several reasons. First, the diameter of a 15-inch woofer, combined with a carefully matched crossover frequency, offered the granularity we needed while also providing the “punch” demanded by a top-of-the-line system. The lows needed to complement the mid- and high-frequency elements and extend horizontal pattern control as far into the bass region as possible, while also maintaining an efficient truck pack.

Anya arrays flying at the recent American Country Awards show in Las Vegas. Photo credit: Gabe Echeverria. (click to enlarge)

About five years ago, we developed a 10-inch woofer for the KF740, probably the first woofer that used a split-winding coil design that allowed for a very linear BL Curve over wide excursion. Due to the exceptional low frequency capabilities this woofer affords, we decided to bring it to a larger 4-inch coil, 15-inch woofer. It uses a 32-mm coil winding with +/- 12 mm linear travel range, which we’ve not seen in a 15-inch woofer. The neodymium magnet structure provides high BL for strong impact while keeping weight to an absolute minimum.

Armed with the right low-frequency component, these woofers were loaded into the cabinet in an offset manner to retain optimum cabinet size and allow for an effective truck pack, while also giving us correct aperture spacing for ideal horizontal pattern control. The proprietary Offset Apertures are strategically placed several inches wider than the actual transducer spacing. This not only extends the uninterrupted surface of the horn, but also pushes the apparent origin of the low frequency sources farther apart. The net result is a design that delivers optimal and consistent horizontal directivity for an enclosure of this size.
Once the dual-15-inch LF section and general cabinet dimensions were defined, we were able to design precisely matched mid- and high-frequency sections.  Keeping to the goal of high device resolution needed for Adaptive Performance and building upon what was learned with products like DSA, 1-inch HF spacing was a known design parameter – meaning the HF device itself had to be quite small, yet offer the required high output capability.
In addition, the use of smaller-format high frequency devices is fundamentally better for extreme high frequency reproduction. The absence of diaphragm break-up modes and large-dimension phase plugs makes the impulse response ideal. No aspect of the design was left un-optimized.
Diaphragm material was carefully selected. A new neodymium magnet structure was tooled that offered the proper flux in a physical package that fit our tight center-to-center constraints. The result is a 35-mm voice coil, aluminum diaphragm high frequency driver that offers high output, high power handling and excellent sound character.

A concurrent design effort was focused on a unique and patent-pending horn throat geometry that would allow 14 of these devices to converge into a single column of 1-inch apertures on a 1-inch spacing – for the entire length of an array.  This consistency and granularity in the spacing enables Anya to adapt to almost any venue scenario, with the ability to create almost any coverage pattern up to nearly plus or minus 90 degrees in the vertical plane.

The selection of the mid-frequency device followed the same design requirements: high resolution, output, and fidelity. The device size and spacing was driven by the requirement to radically vary the directivity over the entire bandwidth of the device. Three vertically-stacked 5-inch midrange elements would provide the appropriate spacing and couple well with the array of 14 HF drivers, while also providing an appropriate transition from the woofers.

 
The elements making up an Anya module. (click to enlarge)

Duplicating this array of three drivers on either side of the HF section allows for the optimal horizontal spacing to maintain ideal pattern control, while also offering the required horizontal symmetry. We also have patented technologies that facilitate this further and are uniquely applied to Anya.

The Radial Phase Plug, first developed for the KF750 in the late 1990s, optimizes the loading of the midrange thereby perfecting the mid/high transition. Concentric Summation Array (CSA) technology minimizes and randomizes the size, shape and location of the midrange apertures to present minimal impact on the HF wavefront, allowing mid- and high-frequency passband origins to coexist in nearly the same point in space without mutual interference.

This careful integration did not eliminate the need for a top-quality midrange driver. The resulting design used as strong a neo magnet structure as the 5-inch frame could carry, driving as large a coil as can mate to the cone.

The result is a high-sensitivity and high-output device, provided by the significant BL and power handling. This device is then housed in a custom-designed cast aluminum chamber that provides optimum loading and serves as a heat sink for the magnet structure.

Robust Package
As the acoustic concept was refined, the technical details of the engineering requirements would guide the overall shape of the product. Specifically, we emphasized the functional form of the large, continuous and contiguous horn with premium materials and finishes in order to achieve a unique and distinctive appearance.

Continuing to use function to guide Anya’s design, the straight-line acoustic solution influenced the rigging system. For ease of use and to maintain functionality in horizontal arrays, the operational features of the rigging were strategically placed on the rear of the enclosure.

We also determined that in order to protect the enclosures during the rigging process, the structural elements of the rigging had to be retractable. The resulting precision engineered mechanisms within the module permit the user to complete the rigging connection between two modules in three quick steps with no loose hardware – pull the rigging slide to the open position, rotate and push a handle to lower the catch mechanisms, then push the rigging slide to return it to the locked/travel position.
The complexity of the rigging hidden within Anya allows for straightforward operation while providing the strength to suspend 18 modules with a 10:1 design factor.

As we considered simplifying other facets of using Anya, we included bright, reflective orange stripes on the rigging mechanisms to easily and definitively alert users if any aspect of the rigging process was overlooked. Additionally, heavy-duty pallets were designed to allow stacks of four modules with a fly bar to travel pre-rigged, reducing the overall number of rigging connections as well as load-in/load-out time.

 
Click for a larger view of Anya modules.

Power Plant
All that work on the physical package would have been pointless if we couldn’t deliver discrete processing to every element in the array. As noted earlier, each module contains 22 transducers, so it requires 22 channels of digital signal processing and amplification. The amplifier components were intentionally selected to match the power requirements of the devices we had developed.

The DSP, ancillary hardware, and associated algorithms (heavily evolved from those developed for KF900 and DSA) are all EAW, while the audio network and bidirectional communications are on the Dante platform. Anya is only possible due to the enormous leaps in DSP, amplification and networking, in terms of speed, power and size.
Advanced Control

Resolution, the acoustic and mechanical modeling software first released with the KF740 that is now supporting dozens of EAW products, also underwent a complete and purposeful upgrade. Many of the implemented features are only possible given advances in PC technology.

In order to support the 3D Adaptive capabilities of Anya, the algorithms at play would need a full understanding of the three-dimensional characteristics of the space.  Resolution was re-written from a 2D to 3D modeling program, and moreover, it serves as the communication center for Anya – all parameters are monitored and sent to the array(s) via Resolution.
Within minutes, the software is simultaneously assessing the venue, calculating the ideal wave front, deriving the DSP parameters for the transducers in the defined array, and communicating those parameters to the modules.

The precision offered by Anya requires that reality exactly match the virtual model. Rather than a user having to worry about assigning cabinets to a virtual module in Resolution, infrared transceivers were included on each surface of each module to allow arrays to be constructed automatically and accurately within Resolution.

 
3D modeling is just one of many capabilities of Resolution software. (click to enlarge)

The selected amplifier platform allows transducer impedance, amplifier temperatures, voltages, and currents to be continuously monitored in each module and recorded in a “live” status log that can be downloaded from Resolution.  If a failure occurs, Resolution was designed to (with user acceptance) revise the coverage to compensate for the failed component.

Because we realize that sometimes shop “QC” happens as the gear is rolled onto the truck, a battery-operated status feature included, triggered by any failure, allowing one to instantly verify the state of a module (good/bad) simply by pressing a button that lights an LED (green/red) – even when A/C power is unavailable.

A high-accuracy microphone capsule was added to the face of each module, its purpose to record a snapshot of every transducer’s transfer function when it leaves the factory. This reference is stored in memory on the power module and can be used, through a user-accessible diagnostics feature within Resolution, to further verify the state of the module by repeating the same factory measurements anywhere, any time. 

With Resolution and a licensed copy of (Rational Acoustics) Smaart 7, a user can utilize a measurement microphone to define or refine the shape of their venue. Similar to GPS, bursts of noise are generated from a calculated set of discrete transducers within the Anya arrays (whose precise locations are known) allowing Resolution to locate a microphone in 3D space. 

All of these features combine into a complex yet easy-to-use and elegant system that positively answers the questions we asked ourselves over a decade ago. This is Anya.

From the author: Anya’s technical achievements represent an enormous collaboration effort from many talented individuals within and outside of EAW. In my 15-plus years with EAW working in a variety of roles within the engineering organization, no other project has proven this complex or this fulfilling. I hope that everyone who has already touched Anya, or is reaching out now, feels a similar sense of satisfaction.

Nathan Butler is director of engineering for EAW. Be sure to check the company’s newly redesigned website here.