The recently opened Aus$52m Keilor East Leisure Center is the largest aquatic centre in the city of Keilor East, eight miles northwest of downtown Melbourne and Moonee Valley’s largest capital works project to date. The facility includes multiple indoor and outdoor swimming pools, gym, cycle studio, spa, steam room and sauna, a childcare facility and water playground, and a full-service café.
Needing background music and the ability to deliver announcements throughout the centre, as well as support staff A/V presentations, the services of local A/V consultancy and installation company Programmed were required.
‘This is an expansive facility and all the systems here are as network-based as possible, and that includes the A/V system,’ says Programmed Account Manager, Philip Gan. ‘We needed to design and install the sound system on a Dante audio network; LEA Professional is known for its IoT technology and flexible connectivity, so the Dante Connect Series amplifiers were perfect.’
Gan explains that the Leisure Center needed a flexible sound system with network connectivity that could take advantage of the facility’s robust data infrastructure.
‘LEA’s built-in Dante technology made for easy connections between all the components, the control system, and for distributing audio and data across the network and throughout the centre,’ Gan explains. ‘Many of the facility’s spaces are very large with high ceilings – as with the big, indoor swimming pool areas – and it was challenging enough to run a single network cable across these spaces; multiple pairs of analogue cables would have been very difficult and expensive.’
Using standard IT networking for audio provides a very efficient and creative connectivity model. Networked audio systems are always connected via a network of standard switches and cabling rather than a legacy point-to-point topology with many disparate analogue cables to run, maintain, and manage. Software determines where data is sent and received, so any combination of signal routes can be directed quickly and easily without moving a cable.
Gan and the Programmed team installed seven Connect Series 704D amplifiers to serve the facility, totalling 28 channels of audio. The team then set up an intuitive set of audio zones for easy control, allowing the staff to adjust volumes and content and make announcements as needed.
‘I’m impressed with the LEA amplifiers; they are easy to work with, sound great with plenty of power, and the built-in Dante connectivity was a must-have feature in this situation,’ Gan reports. ‘We will definitely add LEA to our list of go-to manufacturers, and I can see Connect Series providing solid solutions for many projects.’
