High speeds, high heat, and high expectations. 🏎️🔥
As part of the Hungaroring’s major renovation, Visual Europe Group selected LEA Professional amplifiers to deliver clear, consistent audio across one of Formula One’s most demanding circuits. 🏁🔊
THE SPEC
🏁 Venue: Hungaroring F1 Speedway | Mogyoród, HUN
👷♂️ Integrators: Visual Europe Group
🔊 Audio Spaces: Entire Venue
🦈 Products Used: Connect Series 168D, Connect Series 352D (x4), Connect Series 704D (x23), Connect Series 1504D (x4)
Hungaroring F1 Speedway
Located near the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, and one of the seven members of the Claremont Colleges consortium. Home to 1,300 students, The Wall Street Journal/College Pulse 2025 Best US Colleges rankings rated Claremont McKenna as the 5th-best overall college or university and the best liberal arts college in the nation.
When the college’s gym could no longer adequately serve the college’s expanding varsity programs, the school decided to build a new athletic center — Roberts Pavilion. Groundbreaking took place in Spring 2014, and the building officially opened for recreational use in August 2016. Roberts Pavilion has become a central hub for CMC and the Claremont–Mudd–Scripps athletic community, offering cutting-edge facilities for varsity sports, fitness, physical education, and campus-wide events. However, the audio in the event arena no longer met the student body’s needs, so the college embarked on a project to improve the intelligibility and audio experience in the arena.
“LEA Professional was the obvious choice for this project,” said Alyssa Ishi, Applications Engineer at Geer Tech. “Its flexibility to support unique spaces, combined with the power of the Cloud, made all the difference. The students at Claremont College deserve exceptional sound quality, and that’s exactly what they now experience every day.”
THE INSTALL
The Hungaroring is a 2.7-mile (4.4 km) motorsport racetrack in Mogyoród, Hungary. It’s the home of Hungarian motorsport, and the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held there in the middle of summer, which is usually extremely hot and dry at the time. Considered one of the best tracks in the circuit, Hungaroring includes many high/medium speed corners chained together, making following challenging, plus very few hard braking zones. The twisty and bumpy nature of the circuit makes overtaking very difficult, earning it the nickname “Monaco without the barriers.” Besides Formula One, the track has also hosted the DTM and FIA GT Championship races.
2026 heralds the track’s 40th anniversary, and the racetrack is being completely renovated in advance of the milestone. The racetrack contracted with Visual Europe Group to design and implement an all-new audio system, and they included LEA Professional amplifiers as part of the buildout.
“The biggest challenge was providing a uniform, high-quality, and sufficiently dynamic sound system for the huge outdoor venue,” said Tamás Bodnár, Product Manager of Visual Europe Group. “LEA’s speaker tunings made it very easy for us when we swapped out the old gear.”
The Visual Europe Group team installed several LEA amps, including a Connect Series 168D, 4 Connect Series 352D, 23 Connect Series 704D, and 4 Connect Series 1504D models to power the venue’s audio system, covering the racetrack’s main grandstand, race control, and paddock building. The CS168D is an 8-channel amplifier with 160 watts per channel, the CS352D is a 2-channel amplifier with 350 watts per channel, the 4-channel CS704D offers 700 watts per channel, and the 4-channel CS1504D provides 1500 watts per channel.
All Connect Series amplifiers are professional-grade IoT-enabled smart amplifiers for any size installation, support Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel, and feature Smart Power Bridge technology. Connect Series also includes 96kHz DSP, which is standard in all models and offers a range of benefits that significantly enhance audio performance and system versatility. Dante-enabled models like the 168D, 352D, 704D, and 1504D include 96kHz-capable Dante and AES67 connectivity options, plus Dante simplifies system installation with scalable, high-resolution audio over IP (AoIP).
The Connect Series delivers an industry-first professional amplifier family to feature cloud connectivity, a revolutionary advancement and a significant benefit for anyone maintaining the systems. With LEA Cloud, AV teams like Visual Europe Group can remotely control and monitor the amplifiers regardless of the location or time of day, and with no subscription model or hidden costs, it’s completely free to use.
THE CONCLUSION
Good audio during a Formula One race enhances the thrill of the experience by capturing the raw intensity of engine roars, team radio chatter, and live commentary with clarity and precision. It immerses fans in the action, helping them feel every gear shift, tire screech, and strategic call in real-time, as if they were trackside.
“At a Formula One racetrack, every detail matters — including the sound,” said Bodnár. “We chose LEA amplifiers because their reliability and clarity ensure the energy of the race reaches every fan, from the pit lane to the grandstands.”
“Taming the reverberation in a gym isn’t easy — the high ceilings, hard bleachers, and parquet floors make it challenging for high intelligibility,” said Kevin Laymon, Project Engineer at Western Audio Visual. “That said, the project turned out great, as was working with Geer Tech and LEA Professional. I wish all my interactions with manufacturers were as enjoyable.”
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