"AEE started in the industry back in the 80s," explains Tracey Towne, production manager for AEE. "At that time AEE built an excellent reputation for supporting dozens of national hip-hop and R&B tours. Though it was before my time with the company, I remember AEE being known as the 'low end' guys back then, so it was no surprise that they called us for a show like this."
The Verizon Amphitheater sports a distinctive fan-shaped roof, comprised of a translucent cloth-like material, suspended over a steel-framed structure. Located on 45 acres of land, the venue seats 7,000 under the roof and another 5,000 on the lawn. The I Love The 90s concert featured a number of well-known groups from the 90s including Salt N Pepa with Spinderella, Biz Markie, Kid 'N Play, All-4-One, Coolio, Tone Loc, Rob Base, And Young MC.
Towne and his team utilized left-right EAW KF line arrays to blanket the covered seating area. Each array consisted of eight KF740s with four KF730s. The KF740s covered the far seating while the KF730s were utilized for the seats closer to the stage. AEE tapped into a permanent system to cover lawn seating.
"The updated voicings really make using the KF730 and KF740 together seamless," Towne adds. "When you were walking around the venue you didn't hear any difference from front to back. They also work well with the SB730 and SB1000 subwoofers that drove the low end."
The recent voicing update incorporates improved equalization, crossover, Focusing and limiting parameters for enhanced clarity and tonal balance. It also brought DynO dynamic optimization to the KF740 for increased system protection and 4 dB additional low-frequency headroom.
AEE didn't disappoint in the "low end" with 16 SB1000z and four SB730 subwoofers in use. The SB1000z subs were stacked four by two under each array. The SB730s were ground stacked in front of the stage to further drive the system.
"The SB730 is a longer throw sub which allowed us to get a longer, punchier throw to the back seats," adds Towne. "That way we didn't have to drive the SB1000z subs too hard while still distributing serious low end throughout the venue. "
Side-fill coverage was handled by left-right arrays made up of three KF730 modules stacked on two SB730 subs. Six single KF730s spread along the lip of the stage took care of apron-fill.
"One of the things I like best about EAW's KF line array is that it covered the seating while still being controlled," concludes Towne. "We were riding at about 30-40% of what the system could do with plenty of headroom. It worked extremely well. The folks with Live Nation were very pleased with the result."
(Jim Evans)
