The newly constructed Church of the Incarnation, located in Dallas, Texas, recently
installed an Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) Anya sound reinforcement system
designed to blanket the 500-seat worship space.

The Episcopal church had a number of requirements for the new system – it needed
to be heard but not seen, flexible enough to handle a variety of types of music, and
because it is a highly reverberant space, the sound needed to stay off the walls to
aid vocal intelligibility.

To handle the challenge, church leadership called up the Dallas-based system
design group Idibri, who quickly assigned consultant Ryan Knox to the job.

“The church is a gothic looking, long narrow room with traditional high ceilings and
a slightly cruciform design,’ Knox explains. “Aesthetics were a priority. They had
two insets to the left and right of the altar for sound reinforcement purposes which
they hoped would accommodate a contemporary sound system that could handle
full range music. I’ll admit, it was a pretty tall order.’

Fortunately, EAW had recently introduced Anya, a complete, self-contained, high-
power sound reinforcement system that adapts all performance parameters
electronically. In addition, columns of Anya modules hang straight, without any
vertical splay, allowing them to fit in the limited space set aside for loudspeakers.

“We specified two Anya modules for each array for two reasons: we thought that
would be more than enough system for the room and also because they fit in the
space allocated for loudspeakers,’ Knox adds with a smile. “Anya solved a lot of
problems from a design perspective and from the audio perspective.’

Knox used EAW’s Resolution 2 software to produce asymmetrical output that
delivers coherent, full-range frequency response across the entire coverage area.
Each Anya module includes fourteen 1-in exit / 35mm voice coil HF compression
drivers loaded on a proprietary HF horn that expands to fill nearly the entire face of
the enclosure. Six 5-in MF cone transducers, arranged in two columns of three, use
Radial Phase Plugs™ and Concentric Summation Array™ technology to enter the
horn and sum coherently with the HF wavefront. Dual 15-in LF cone transducers use
Off-Centre Aperture loading to increase the spacing of the apparent acoustical
centres, extending effective horizontal pattern control well into the LF range.

“I was really pleased that when we went to tune the system it required very little
work beyond configuring the Resolution 2 software,’ adds Knox. “On our first pass it
was 90% of the way there – tweaked it a bit and we were set. The results match
exactly what the modelling said it would. For this challenging application where
aesthetics and acoustic performance were critical, Anya offered a compelling value.
Needless to say, the church is extremely pleased with the result.’