Category: LEA Professional

Lilia Waikiki is a vibrant mixed-use development in the heart of Waikiki, one of Hawaii’s most well-known destinations for retail, lodging, dining and commercial entertainment. Opened in 2022, the 28-story residential tower features over 400 apartment units and over 40,000 square feet of neighborhood-serving retail. 

“We needed to achieve distributed audio in one seamless integration. The audio needed to follow the tenant through every building touchpoint from the lobby and the mailboxes, to the elevator, recreation deck and more. Not only that, but the music would run for long periods of time, so it needed to be a very stable, reliable system,” commented Corey Lopez, Project Manager, PAC Audio.

To deliver on this brief PAC Audio required a scalable, flexible system. The company was recommended to try LEA Professional by Sonance. Once PAC Audio understood LEA Professional’s pedigree and combined 200 years of audio experience, any trepidations about using a new manufacturer disappeared. 

The team chose three LEA Connect Series 168D Dante-enabled smart amplifiers for the project, installing one on the first level, and two on the 9th level of the complex. These alongside a lineup of 23 speakers – five different models – powered all of the common areas of the complex. 

“The Web UI was super useful. We had amplifiers on different floors of the building and the ability to view and adjust the first-floor amp while on the ninth floor was really convenient,” commented Kale Bishop, Senior Engineer at PAC Audio.

In the highly competitive music industry, staying on the cutting edge of technology and providing musicians with top‐notch facilities and the tools they need to sell their music and climb the charts are keys to survival for any recording studio. Clear Lake takes that very seriously, continuously upgrading studios and adding new equipment. “We want musicians to want to come here,” says studio owner Eric Milos. “We’re always pushing the envelope with our look and capabilities to stay ahead of the game.”

With a desire to take Studio B to the next level, he sought out the expertise of Russ Belttary at RSPE Audio Solutions to transform the room from a 5.1 surround setup to a cutting-edge 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos system, complete with the newest range of high‐resolution PMC speakers. RSPE, long known for its expertise in integrating analog and digital audio with the film and music industry, was up for the challenge. “The stakes are incredibly high in this business for companies like Clear Lake Recording,” says Belttary. “Our mission is to give them the very best guidance, service, and products in creating a state‐of‐the‐art recording studio.”

The team at RSPE knew that to achieve the ultimate in sound quality it had to recommend the perfect amplifiers to seamlessly connect with the Avid MTRX, DADman software, and a Dolby Atmos hardware renderer. Enter three LEA Professional Connect Series 354D — its integrated Dante connectivity eliminates unnecessary analog conversions for the purest signal and lowest noise floor possible.

While top‐notch sound quality was of critical importance to Milos, he also wanted amplifiers that were
reliable and easy to use. “The LEA amplifiers fit the bill perfectly and were able to be tucked away in the
machine room, thanks to their renowned dependability,” says Belttary.

Phillip Gan and the Programmed team installed a set of seven Connect Series 704D amplifiers to power the entire facility, totaling 28 channels of audio. The team set up an intuitive set of audio zones for easy control, allowing the staff to adjust volumes and content and make announcements as needed.

“This is an expansive facility and all the systems here are as network-based as possible, and that includes the AV system,” said Gan. “We needed to design and install the sound system on a Dante audio network; LEA is known for its IoT technology and flexible connectivity, so the Dante Connect Series amps were perfect for this project.”

Using standard IT networking for audio provides a very efficient and creative connectivity model. Networked audio systems are always connected via a network of standard switches and cabling rather than a legacy point-to-point topology with many disparate analog cables to run, maintain, and manage. Software determines where data is sent and received, so any combination of signal routes can be directed quickly and easily without moving a cable.

“LEA’s built-in Dante technology made for easy connections between all the components, the control system, and for distributing audio and data across the network and throughout the leisure center,” said Gan. “Many of the facility’s spaces are very large with high ceilings — as with the big, indoor swimming pool areas — and it was challenging enough to run a single network cable across these spaces; multiple pairs of analog cables would have been very difficult and expensive.”

Covenant got to work and designed a new AV system in twelve identical rooms across four different campuses, consisting of one amplifier per room powering Electro-voice EVF 1122S speakers. Like many integrators, the team faced supply chain issues and the original amplifier provider could not deliver on time. Under pressure to get the school up and running before the new school year began, Covenant turned to LEA Professional, a company they heard of within the industry but had yet to try. 

“At a time where we were scrambling to find amplifiers, the Connect Series not only filled a gap but provided us with more features, power and smart tools than we have seen from other amplifiers,” said Kyle Hall, Customer Support Specialist at Covenant. “I’m glad it all happened the way it did so that we could experience the hype for ourselves and understand why they are becoming popular in the industry.” 

To set up the system the team at Covenant used LEA’s Web UI. The Web UI is LEA Professional’s browser-based interface which allows local monitoring of every amplifier connected to the network from any phone, tablet or PC. In addition, it allows users to view the status of every channel on any given amp, where the amps are online or offline, powered on or in a standby mode. The Web UI can even allow for a quick performance status to report any errors or faults and more. This ensures that any system issues are flagged immediately during the install process.

 “The Web UI is one of my favorite features about the Connect Series amplifiers,” commented Hall. “With this tool we didn’t need to download any software, instead it was just all on a web browser, allowing a super easy and fast set up.”

 Not only that, but the sleek, clever design of the Connect Series ensures all power switches are hidden, removing the worry of students tampering with the amps.