As UNC-Chapel Hill expanded its Kenan-Flagler Business School with the construction of Bell Hall, the university needed an AV solution capable of supporting a wide variety of learning and collaboration spaces. Integrator ClarkPowel chose LEA Professional amplifiers to deliver the flexibility, efficiency, and reliability required for the school’s newest academic facility.
The Spec
Venue: Bell Hall, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | North Carolina
Integrator: Richard Kessinger | ClarkPowell
Audio Spaces: state-of-the-art learning facilities including lecture halls, multi-zone divisible rooms and common areas like cafeterias and quads
Products Used: Connect Series 352, Connect Series 702, and Connect Series 704 amplifiers.
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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) is one of the oldest public universities in the United States. In 2022 they began construction of a new state-of-the-art building to support growing enrollment at their Kenan-Flagler Business School, housing classrooms, meeting rooms, and event spaces, all featuring modern, flexible learning environments for collaboration.
Bell Hall represents a major investment in academic infrastructure at UNC-Chapel Hill, increasing capacity and modernizing the educational experience for business students while fostering collaboration across disciplines.
After a competitive bidding process, ClarkPowell was chosen to design and implement the AV infrastructure for Bell Hall. Richard Kessinger, a Pre-Sales Engineer at ClarkPowell, played an integral role in the project and recognized that LEA amplifiers would be ideal to power the AV systems.
“We’ve found that LEA Connect Series amplifiers have less power waste and heat output than comparable 70-volt amplifiers,” said Kessinger. “ That efficiency means more energy is dedicated to driving audio instead of heating the rack room. Combined with LEA’s six-year warranty, which reinforces long-term reliability and reduces risk over the life of the system, Connect Series amps deliver meaningful value from day one. A win all around.”
LEA amplifiers were deployed to power larger lecture halls, divisible rooms, spaces with multiple zones, and public areas such as cafeterias, open study areas, and corridors, allowing for background music and other uses. ClarkPowell installed a variety of LEA Connect Series amplifiers to address the diverse needs of the spaces in Bell Hall, including multiple Connect Series 352, Connect Series 702, and Connect Series 704 amplifiers.
“Using LEA’s loudspeaker profiles decreases the processing requirements for the standalone DSPs used in the project, allowing us to save money by avoiding additional DSP hardware,” said Kessinger. “Next year, after the completion of the new building, UNC Kenan-Flagler plans to renovate all the classrooms in the existing McColl Building. We hope to incorporate more LEA amplifiers in this next phase, as they’ve been a perfect fit for a lot of our projects.”
The Conclusion
With LEA Connect Series amplifiers powering everything from lecture halls to common areas, Bell Hall is equipped to support a modern, connected, scalable learning experience for years to come. For ClarkPowell, the project’s success reinforced the value of LEA’s efficient design, built-in loudspeaker profiles, and long-term reliability, making the amplifiers a natural fit for future campus upgrades at UNC-Chapel Hill.
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