The new Ed Robson Arena at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, a 3,400-seat multi-purpose venue that also serves as the first on-campus facility for the school’s hockey team, is outfitted with a sound reinforcement system utilizing LEA Professional Dante Connect Series power amplifiers.
With quality sound objectives in mind, Colorado College brought in AV consultant AJP to design and integration firm Champaign, IL-based C.V. Lloyde Audiovisual to install the new arena’s system. C.V. Lloyde recommended using a set of new LEA Dante Connect Series multi-channel digital amplifiers to play a central role in the project.
“Good audio quality is a critical part of any sports and entertainment venue; audiences have gotten used to excellent sound quality from their home systems and theaters and clubs; it’s expected everywhere,” says Stephen Morris, president of C.V. Lloyde. “To keep fans and audiences coming back, arenas need to put in the effort to improve sound and ensure that audiences and fans cannot just see but also hear everything going on. Colorado College was committed to this, and the results have been great.”
C.V. Lloyde was responsible for the entire AV package, including being part of certain design changes, installation of the system, all of the suite and zone programming, and all exterior/back-of-house sound systems.
The design incorporates five Dante-enabled Connect Series amplifiers — specifically, two CS704D, two CS354D, and a single CS168D deliver a total of 24 audio channels. The Connect Series are IoT-enabled amplifiers engineered for medium-scale installations, with two-, four-, and eight-channel models offering direct Hi-Z (70V or 100V) or Lo-Z that’s selectable by channel.
“The arena’s audio system is all connected and controlled via a Dante audio network,” Morris notes. “So having out-of-the-box, Dante-ready amplifiers powering the system made everything easy to connect and configure.”
The Dante Connect Series also offer Cloud connectivity so that integrators can harness the power of the Cloud for remote control, monitoring, notifications, and more from nearly any smart device. Further, LEA Professional amplifiers leverage the built-in Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT Core that fosters the monitoring of critical operational data points that are integral to maintaining system health remotely.
“The Ed Robson Arena’s audio system has the sound quality to engage fans and deliver a great experience, and the system’s Dante flexibility allows it to be configured to meet the needs of most any event,” adds Morris “The quality, efficiency, and connectivity of the LEA Connect Series amplifiers play a central part in pulling the project together.”
