D.A.S. Aero at Madison Square Garden

21 December 2004

USA - Considered to be the world's largest "reggaeton" event, the Megatón 2004 concert brought together some of the biggest names of this musical genre, which originated in Puerto Rico. The four-hour concert was held in October in New York's Madison Square Garden; D.A.S. Aero line array systems provided the sound reinforcement for reggaeton's leading artists such as Tego Calderon, Daddy Yankee and Don Omar, to name but a few.

The New York-based sound reinforcement specialist Abe, V Systems Inc headed by Abraham Viera, used 24 Aero 48 large format line arrays, flown 12 per side from a height of 65 ft. Flown beneath each of the main arrays by means of the AX-Combo rigging adapter, were four Aero CA-28A powered compact line array systems, used as down-fills to cover the rows closest to the stage.

Reggaeton's characteristic predominance of heavy bass, made the low frequency band a key issue for the success of the event. To make sure there was enough low-end punch, 16 Aero 218 Subs, dual-18" front loaded subwoofers, were distributed below the front of the stage with Crest Pro amplifiers being used throughout. Loudspeaker management and signal processing was accomplished using XTA DP226 digital processors. Abe, V Systems provided Klark Teknik DN360s for equalization along with Drawmer compressors and the FOH console used for the event was a Crest X-Eight.

two additional D.A.S.line arrays were flown to provide coverage for the large audience areas that were located to the extreme left and right hand sides of the stage. On stage, D.A.S. powered Compact systems were chosen for side-fills. Covering the forward most portion of the stage, two Compact 2 mid/high systems were flown on each wing. To cover the rear portion of the stage, four Compact systems comprising of two Compact 2 mid/high units and two Compact 218 subs were located on each side. Abe, V Systems provided the DJs with powered Compact 015's powered stage monitors. Passive stage monitors were powered by Crown Micro-Tech series of touring amps.

More than 15,000 reggaeton fans took over the Garden, supporting their favourite artists. For D.A.S. and its Aero line array systems, the Megaton 2004 event was no doubt a baptism of fire. Used for the first time in a large-scale U.S. event, the Aero systems performed flawlessly in one of music's most equipment punishing genres. The Megaton is a joint production of the Spanish-speaking radio station Mega 97.9 F.M.

(Jane Cockburn)