Marc Anthony Returns to His Roots with L-Acoustics and Wichie SoundAlthough singer / producer / actor Marc Anthony was born in New York City, his parents both originally hail from Puerto Rico. So, when the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time officially kicked off his recent UNIDO2 North American tour with two nights at San Juan's José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum, it was guaranteed to be a muy grande production. Distinguished as last year's highest-grossing Latin touring act, Anthony has cumulatively sold more than 12 million albums. Not surprisingly, the two-time Grammy and five-time Latin Grammy-winning singer quickly packed nearly 18,000 excited fans into the tour's dual kickoff shows, which were sonically reinforced via a massive L-Acoustics K2 system supplied by local provider Wichie Sound Performance, Inc. (WSP), based in Ponce, Puerto Rico. With the performance setup being "in the round," Wichie flew a total of 96 K2 enclosures (some cross-rented from ESI in Tampa, Florida) in eight hangs of 12 above the perimeter of the stage, with four additional sub arrays of four SB28 flown in cardioid mode. Two dozen more SB28 ground-stacked in cardioid groups of three around the 360-degree deck anchored low end for the show, which featured ample percussion, while 24 Kara stacked in twos across the stage lip delivered front fill. Four arrays comprising 16 more Kara were flown above each corner of the stage, down firing to deliver side fill, and a total of 55 LA8 amplified controllers provided power and processing. An Avid Profile desk at front-of-house and DiGiCo SD10 monitor console further rounded out the primary gear complement. "Maintaining low frequency control is the biggest challenge in this particular venue, especially in a 360 configuration," describes WSP's Wichie Martinez. "However, the versatility of K2's array angles combined with the subs in cardioid mode allowed us to provide amazing sound and perfect coverage throughout the space. Jose Rivera, Marc Anthony's front-of-house engineer, was particularly pleased with how clean the stage was in the low frequency range and very happy overall." Martinez notes that his company is now coming up on two years of owning K2, which he purchased for its "easy rigging, low weight, and awesome power," he says. "K2 is an outstanding box that can handle any big, challenging production, and it was the right choice for Marc Anthony's Puerto Rico shows. L-Acoustics always equals great sound!" 
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