Lea Amps For Immersive Audio Sonic Sphere
To create hyperreal and deeply multisensory shared experiences, the creative team at Sonic Sphere chose LEA Professional to power the immersive journey. 
THE SPEC
Venue: Sonic Sphere | New York City, NY
Integrator: In house creative team
Audio Spaces: Full Sphere
Product Used: Connect Series 354D (31)
SONIC SPHERE
The Sonic Sphere is the brainchild of Ed Cooke, a British cognitive science expert and entrepreneur, sound architect Merijn Royaards, and engineering director Nicholas Christie. Since 2021, Cooke and his team have built Sonic Spheres in France, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and the United States, including Burning Man. The sphere at The Shed in New York City is the 11th and most advanced sphere, after iterations of increasing size and technical sophistication.
The sphere costs more than $2 million and includes 1,178 steel struts, 3,500 yards of cloth, and 12 structural cables supporting the sphere from the roof. The vast, 65-foot-diameter spherical concert hall has a capacity of roughly 250 people, who sit or lie in netted areas. This revolutionary new architectural space features immersive, 3-D sound and light explorations of music by boundary-pushing artists
THE INSTALL
Sonic Sphere installed 31 Connect Series 354D amplifiers to power the immersive audio experience. With 96kHz-capable Dante and AES67 connectivity options, the IoT-enabled 4-channel 354D provides 350 watts per channel into 2, 4, and 8 ohms, and 70Vrms and 100Vrms. The CS354D includes advanced DSP with 96kHz linear phase FIR crossover filters, acoustically transparent look ahead RMS and peak limiters, and 32-bit floating-point DSP with built-in sample rate converters. It also supports Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel and features Smart Power Bridge technology.
We were amazed with the LEA Amplifiers,” said Merijn Royaards, Creative Director at Sonic Sphere. “The footprint of each amplifier was a lot smaller, they perform over and above what we were used to, and they’ve got a really helpful interface and an excellent way of tuning a system, which we were missing very much with our previous solution. And suddenly, many previously difficult or impossible things were easy for us to accomplish.”
Within the sphere, guests are surrounded by 124 meticulously arranged loudspeakers that move sound above, below, through, and around the body. Sound and light waves are sculpted into spatialized, temporal architectures. Together, they create hyperreal and deeply multisensory, shared experiences
THE CONCLUSION
Whether from within the sphere or a different continent, controlling the Connect Series amplifiers from afar helps teams work more efficiently, reducing travel and saving time and money.
Sonic Sphere really is a laboratory for the senses, where technology and art come alive,“ said Brian Pickowitz, VP of Marketing at LEA Professional. “We’re very proud to have played a role in such a transcendental experience.
A special thanks to the creative team at Sonic Sphere for choosing our amps for this incredible installation. We’re thrilled at the opportunity to collaborate with you and ensure unparalleled sound quality for many years ahead.
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