Great Park Live

Pacific Coast Entertainment (PCE) returned to Great Park Live to expand the venue’s EAW ADAPTive sound system ahead of the 2025 season. With the City of Irvine adding roughly 1,500 new seats and widening the seating area, PCE looked to EAW to expand the PA to ensure flawless, even coverage across the revised footprint while preserving the clarity, consistency and neighborhood‑friendly control achieved in the original installation.

The project added EAW Anya and Anna modules, retuned the existing Otto subs and incorporated EAW engineering support onsite, resulting in a balanced, high‑performance system ready for larger audiences and diverse touring productions.

Upgrading the Great Park Live sound system presented several intertwined challenges, all stemming from the venue’s rapid growth and the need to preserve the exceptional performance achieved during the original installation.

The most significant hurdle was accommodating the newly expanded seating area (approximately 1,500 additional seats spread across a much wider footprint) without compromising the clarity, consistency and neighborhood‑friendly control that defined the first phase of the project. The original system had been meticulously tuned to the venue’s dimensions at the time; widening the audience area meant the team had to rethink coverage patterns, horizontal reach and overall system balance.

The expanded width created a particular challenge: ensuring seamless, even coverage across more than 220 feet of seating. The existing Anya arrays were powerful, but the new geometry required additional modules to maintain uniform SPL and tonal consistency from left to right. PCE addressed this by increasing each main hang to 16 Anya modules, delivering 140 degrees of horizontal coverage per side. This allowed the system to “grow” with the venue while preserving the ADAPTive precision that had made the original installation so successful.

Another challenge emerged in the center section. Once the new seating was in place, it became clear that the area beneath the main hangs needed reinforcement to avoid a subtle dip in presence and intelligibility. The solution was to add two Anna modules beneath each main hang, which immediately transformed the center image and restored the cohesive front‑to‑back experience the venue required.

The team also needed to extend coverage to the rear of the expanded audience area. Three additional Anna modules per side were deployed as delay positions behind front of house, ensuring that the farthest seats received the same clarity and headroom as the front rows.

Finally, retuning the 24 Otto subwoofers for the new system geometry required careful coordination. EAW engineers joined PCE on-site to fine‑tune the entire rig, ensuring phase alignment, low‑frequency control and overall system coherence.

The Great Park Live sound system upgrade deserves recognition because it exemplifies how thoughtful engineering, adaptive technology and collaborative execution can transform an evolving venue into a world‑class performance environment. This project was a strategic response to the venue’s accelerated growth, requiring a solution that preserved the precision and control of the original installation, while extending performance to a significantly larger audience area. The result is a system that meets the new demands of the space and elevates the venue’s identity as a premier destination for touring artists and large‑scale events.

What sets this project apart is the way PCE and EAW approached the challenge. Rather than simply adding more boxes, they re‑engineered the system architecture to deliver seamless coverage across a now 220‑foot‑wide seating area. The expanded Anya arrays and newly added Anna modules were deployed with purpose, strengthening center fill, extending reach to the farthest seats and preserving the tonal consistency that touring engineers expect from a top‑tier venue. The immediate improvement in the center image demonstrates the team’s commitment to listening critically and solving problems with precision.

Equally award‑worthy is the collaboration between PCE and EAW. The presence of EAW engineers on-site to fine‑tune the expanded system underscores a level of partnership and technical oversight that goes beyond typical manufacturer support. Their work ensured that the 24 Otto subwoofers were retuned for the new geometry, maintaining the venue’s hallmark low‑frequency control and minimizing sound bleed into surrounding neighborhoods.

The impact speaks for itself. Since the upgrade, Great Park Live has successfully hosted its largest audiences to date, with touring engineers consistently praising the system’s headroom, even coverage and effortless throw. The project not only enhances the audience and performer experience today but also positions the venue for its long‑term evolution into a permanent amphitheater.