A newly built community center in Auckland, New Zealand, established by the national charitable organization ISSO (International Swaminarayan Satsang Organization) to cater to the needs of the local community through health and wellness classes, music productions, weddings, large events and seminars, is equipped with a multi-zone audio system utilizing LEA Professional power amplifiers deployed by local integrator Audio Connect.
Raj Morar, manager at Audio Connect, worked with local distributor Jansen on the project to source the audio equipment, with Jansen representatives recommending the LEA Connect Series. “Being able to access the amplifiers and address all six zones from our phones via Wi-Fi, made the whole process a lot easier and quicker, ensuring we met our deadlines,” states Morar.
The LEA web UI allows users to get a status check and monitor the performance of every channel and every amplifier on the network. In addition, the platform gives users the capacity to view and adjust channel settings such as input settings, signal generator, crossover, equalizer, limiter, and load monitoring.
The system serving the two-story facility uses five amplifiers in total — a Connect Series 168D, three Connect 354, and a Connect 704 — all configured to drive a mix of 150 Martin Audio in-ceiling and surface-mount loudspeakers. As the installation continued during the lockdown in New Zealand, the team was able to use the LEA Cloud platform to program the system off site, so when they were finally allowed to return, they weren’t under the same time pressure.
Another challenge of the project was to ensure that the venue was future-proofed. As the community centre will be used in the future to accommodate up to four to five different events at once, they needed the ability to matrix everything for any possible scenario. “Giving the user the flexibility to be able to do whatever they wanted to do with the system was challenging,” said Morar. “We needed to ensure it would accommodate all their future needs and give them the channel configuration for any scenario. For this, the LEA technology, including the Smart Power Bridge, was fantastic, very friendly and easy to use.”
Proprietary Smart Power Bridge technology is designed to foster an improved way to bridge channels without sacrificing channel count. The amplifier uses the voltage headroom available from the 70/100-volt direct capability and automatically adjusts the current capabilities of that channel, and then applies it in a controlled manner to the low Z mode.
“The connectivity and flexibility of the LEA amplifiers allowed us to make this all work,” Morar concludes. “And as soon as we turned on the system and heard the sound quality, we and our customers were all blown away. We now routinely use LEA amplifiers on all our installs — LEA has definitely earned their spot as our amplifier manufacturer of choice.”
