A recent audio upgrade for the athletic facilities at Lafayette Christian Academy in Louisiana, a joint effort by Paul Mancuso of Vital Integrators (based in Lafayette) and the team at Highway Marketing (Dallas) is centered around an Allen & Heath AHM-16 audio matrix processor.
The first aspect of the upgrade was implementing new outdoor loudspeakers from One Systems, with six added for different home football stadium zones, one for the Champions Square tailgating section, and more one for the concession area. Power for the loudspeakers is provided by four LEA Professional amplifiers that also offer network remote control and monitoring anywhere in the stadium.
The 16×16 AHM-16 processor handles all the input of the PA announcer, special announcements and music. The AHM audio engine, with an open architecture platform, provides 8-band PEQ, gate, compressor and delay on all input channels, and 8-band PEQ, 30-band GEQ, compressor, ANC, source selector, limiter and delay on all zone outputs.
Another key in the project is the Allen & Heath’s Custom Control application, where Vital Integrators created a custom layout for PC and iPhone so that adjustments to the PA can be made anywhere in the stadium where a Wi-Fi signal can be delivered.
“Dennie [Edwards] and the Highway team have been great proponents of AHM since its launch. I’m thrilled to see more of his projects coming to life,” says Samantha Potter, Commercial Audio manager for Allen & Heath USA. “Custom Control is one of Allen & Heath’s most valuable tools, and it being free only adds to that value. Installations such as Lafayette Christian Academy are the perfect blend of scale, performance, and AV/IT, exactly where AHM excels.”
