Category: LEA Professional

Visiting The Trap North on any Wednesday through Saturday night gives guests an unforgettable dining experience. With live music playing throughout the restaurant, the food isn’t the only star of the night. To ensure every note is heard throughout the restaurant’s spacious interior and, in the summer months, on the outdoor patio, The Trap North contacted Mark D’Elia at SoundFX in West Warwick, RI. With over 30 years of experience in AV integration, SoundFX is the leading provider of AV solutions for businesses in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

“I like to design systems that don’t require service calls on weekends,” said D’Elia. “So I try to come up with something that I think will be super easy to use, very reliable, and can be fixed if I’m not physically onsite. LEA Professional is that system. The LEA Cloud allows me to troubleshoot from anywhere and has made a drastic difference in my response times, it’s improved the entire experience.”

D’Elia specified three Connect Series 704 4-channel amplifiers with 700 watts per channel, and one Connect Series 168 8-channel amplifier with 160 watts per channel, along with utilizing the LEA Cloud platform. As part of the Network Connect Series, the world’s first Internet of Things- (IoT) enabled professional-grade amplifiers, the CS704 and CS168 are perfectly suited for small to medium-scale installations such as The Trap North. 

To accommodate every area in the restaurant, the sound system can be remotely controlled by a staff member in each zone with strategically placed controllers. This way, one host can control the outdoor sections, vestibule, and the private dining area, while another host controls their section and the outdoor bar. 

To make this happen, Gloria de Cristo staff reached out to CCI Solutions to design and integrate a sound system to fit their needs. CCI Solutions is on a mission to provide the right amount of technology so churches can achieve their vision and deliver their message, without distractions. 

“The church came to me intending to incorporate a sound system that was a couple of decades old and then solve the reverberation issues preventing clear audio,” said CCI Systems Consultant Mike Robertson. “With a strong military audience, we wanted to ensure everyone could stay connected with the church via web streams that were easy to hear and understand. It was important to offer that accessibility to all.”

Robertson assessed Gloria de Cristo’s needs and specified one Connect Series 1504 in the nave and one Connect Series 352 in the fellowship hall. The CS1504 is a 4-channel amplifier with 1,500 watts per channel, while the CS352 is a 2-channel amplifier with 350 watts per channel. As part of the Network Connect Series, the world’s first Internet of Things- (IoT) enabled professional-grade amplifiers, both are well-suited for installations requiring high flexibility, making them the perfect choice for Gloria de Cristo’s widespread congregation.

“One of the coolest things about LEA Professional’s technology is the all-in-one capabilities,” added Robertson. “We were able to put everything on the CS1504 in the nave and everything on the CS352 in the fellowship hall. Connect Series is easy to integrate and operate, which can be a game changer for churches that don’t have tech support on site.”

Hazelwood turned to LEA Professional for the audio technology that fits the unique set of needs of Barista Parlor. Since Hazelwood performs lots of custom work, he looked for a solution that was flexible and that he could adapt to his own specific needs. LEA Professional has an open API where he could develop equipment around its platform, allowing Hazelwood to build a system that perfectly fits his and Barista Parlor’s needs.

“I worked with the LEA team directly, and they were extremely accommodating in answering my questions about development,” said Hazelwood. “They were just really supportive throughout the process, and I found LEA’s products to be amazing and effortless to use but still flexible for my needs. The adaptability truly pushes the LEA amplifiers ahead. No matter how specific my needs are, I know they’ll live up to the task.”

Hazelwood specified the Network Connect Series 702 and worked with the LEA Cloud to deliver impeccable quality that can be controlled from near or far. The CS702 is a 2-channel amplifier with 700 watts per channel. As part of the Connect Series, the world’s first Internet of Things- (IoT) enabled professional-grade amplifiers, the CS702 features the flexibility and power needed for this installation.

“The LEA Cloud service is a huge benefit to me and Barista Parlor. The fact that I can log in from here in Nashville and troubleshoot issues or make adjustments for them if they need, it’s game-changing,” said Hazelwood. “There’s very little that we can’t access remotely, and it saves our customer money in the long run because we don’t have to dispatch the local technician, or we don’t have to drive up there.”

Hotel staff contracted Ron Lorman of Busy Puppy Productions, as an audio consultant, to design a robust audio distribution system for the hotel’s common areas and meeting rooms. Lorman specified LEA Professional amplifiers based on a recommendation from Doug Asher of Essential Communications. To minimize disruptions to guests and staff, the existing loudspeakers would remain in place for the foreseeable future.

“We discovered the existing loudspeakers were low impedance speakers; some were wired in series and other sets in series-parallel,” said Asher. “They were running at less than two ohms because they had so many eight ohms speakers on a line. That can tax normal amplifiers quite a bit, leading to burnout. Lorman re-designed the wiring schemes to achieve more balanced operational loads. We felt that the LEA amplifiers were the best solution because we knew they could handle a two-ohm load and operated at very reasonable temperatures. Add in all the other advanced features like the web interface, ease of setup, and control of the amplifiers, and it was a no-brainer.”

Asher’s team decided to use an LEA Connect Series 704D to power the loudspeakers in the   Ballroom. The 704 is a Dante-enabled 4-channel amplifier with 700 watts per channel, perfectly suited for small to medium-scale installations. The 704 supports high-Z (70V or 100V) and low-Z selectable by channel, giving the hotel excess capabilities for possible future expansion.

For the meeting rooms and remaining common areas and hallways, several LEA Connect Series 168D amplifiers were installed to run the remaining speaker lines. The larger ballroom is divisible, so care had to be taken to set the zones up properly, given the possible various room combinations. The 168D is a Dante-enabled 8-channel amplifier offering 160 watts per channel, which was an excellent fit for the common areas, hallways, and meeting rooms. Like the 704D, the 168D also supports high-Z (70V or 100V) and low-Z selectable by channel.

While all the loudspeaker processing happens in the LEA amplifiers via the built-in DSP, hotel staff wanted complete control of background audio throughout the building. Essential Communications deployed a Symetrix DSP in the rack room to control the system. Control pages were created in the Symetrix software that could be accessed via a web browser. Hotel management was provided with two iPads — one for the common areas and the other for the meeting rooms — that allow staff to manage all the zones, select the music, and control volume levels.

The venue management team’s broad vision for immersive exhibitions meant the new RXP AV system needed to be flexible enough to meet the most demanding, highest-quality audio needs for immersive musical and visual performances, plus more basic productions, including corporate events and DJ shows. “The multidimensional nature of the events held in the RXP venue meant we needed to recommend a system that we could scale and adapt as needed,” said Eugene Yeo, Owner of Acoustic & Lighting System. “We’ve had a lot of success with LEA products and felt they were a perfect fit for RXP because they could provide the power, performance, and reliability needed.”

Set in a former movie theater, RXP reimagines the legacy of the Rex cinema space by bringing in a new, cutting-edge digital art experience. As the first immersive venue in Malaysia, the venue team wanted to get the details right and spent over a year planning, working with the participating visual artists, and designing the spatial audio tracks. The immersive environment includes 18 projectors mapping visual elements on the walls and floor, while the spatial audio design required that the venue be fully modeled in 3D.

Eighteen compact two-way loudspeakers, backed by four subwoofers, are strategically located throughout the RXP to provide the spatial audio listening experience. To help meet the range of audio needs, Acoustic & Lighting chose a combination of two of LEA Professional’s Connect Series 1504D and five Connect Series 704D for the digital art experience. The 1504Ds power the subwoofers, while the 704Ds support the two-way loudspeakers. Both models include 96 kHz-capable Dante and AES67 connectivity options.

The REXKL team recognized the invaluable advantages of leveraging the LEA Cloud for this installation. Whether operating within the confines of REXKL or remotely from another continent, the ability to control the Connect Series amplifiers from a distance will significantly enhance the team’s efficiency. This not only minimizes the need for extensive travel but also results in substantial time and cost savings.