A new distributed audio system recently implemented at the W Hoboken, an upscale hotel perched on the Hoboken, NJ waterfront that offers views of the New York City skyline across the Hudson River, incorporates LEA Professional Connect Series power amplifiers.
Specifically, hotel staff contracted audio consultant Ron Lorman of Busy Puppy Productions to design the new system for the facility’s common areas and meeting rooms. Lorman specified LEA Professional amplifiers based on a recommendation from Doug Asher of Essential Communications, and to minimize disruptions to guests and staff, the existing loudspeakers will remain in place for the foreseeable future.
“We discovered the existing loudspeakers were low-impedance speakers; some were wired in series and other sets in series-parallel,” Asher explains. “They were running at less than two ohms because they had so many eight ohms speakers on a line. That can tax normal amplifiers quite a bit, leading to burnout. Lorman re-designed the wiring schemes to achieve more balanced operational loads. We felt that the LEA amplifiers were the best solution because we knew they could handle a two-ohm load and operated at very reasonable temperatures. Add in all the other advanced features like the web interface, ease of setup, and control of the amplifiers, and it was a no-brainer.”
Asher’s team decided to use a Connect Series 704D, a Dante-enabled four-channel amplifier with stated 700 watts per channel, to drive the loudspeakers in the ballroom. The 704 supports high-Z (70- or 100-volt) and low-Z that’s selectable by channel, giving the hotel excess capabilities for possible future expansion.
For the meeting rooms and remaining common areas and hallways, several Connect Series 168D amplifiers were installed to run the remaining loudspeaker lines. The larger ballroom is divisible, so care had to be taken to set the zones up properly given the possible various room combinations. The 168D is a Dante-enabled eight-channel amplifier offering a stated 160 watts per channel, and like the 704D, it also supports high-Z and low-Z, selectable by channel.
While all the loudspeaker processing happens in the LEA amplifiers via the built-in DSP, hotel staff wanted control of background audio throughout the building. Essential Communications deployed a Symetrix DSP in the rack room to control the system. Control pages were created in the Symetrix software that could be accessed via a web browser. Hotel management was provided with two iPads — one for the common areas and the other for the meeting rooms — that allow staff to manage all the zones, select the music, and control volume levels.
“Commissioning the LEA amplifiers was flawless,” Asher concludes. “We test everything in our shop before it gets to a client site. All we did on-site was make sure we connected the more than 60 speaker runs to the right amplifiers. Everything worked when we turned on the system and started walking around the hotel, checking all the controls and the zones. Everything came up the first time; the music was playing, and it was playing in the correct zones. Everyone was really pleased about the transition from the old to the new system and how smoothly it went.”
