Among the oldest settlements in the state of Kentucky, Stanford boasts the first brick-built house west of the Allegheny Mountains, and was a key location in the early days of horse racing. Just off Main Street lies Stanford Baptist, an unassuming church with seating for more than 300 congregants. Although open and airy, the vaulted ceilings of the sanctuary compromise the speech intelligibility during services.
Church staff contacted Alex Peake, an integration specialist at JCA Media, to design an audio system to overcome the problem. He recommended LEA Connect Series amplifiers.
‘The biggest thing that excited us about LEA amplifiers was the Smart Power Bridge function,’ Peake says. ‘I can’t count how many times we’ve been able to save an amp channel or not have to install another amplifier because we could use Smart Power Bridge and feed a small sub rather than taking up two channels. That has been a big financial saver in projects, not having to install another amplifier but still having enough power for everything.’
The sanctuary’s main loudspeakers are a flown in a left-right configuration with a Martin SXCF118 cardioid subwoofer. A unique feature of the subwoofer is that it features both forward-facing and rear-facing drivers, which require two amplifier channels. Smart Power Bridge allowed the integrator to double the power on a single channel without sacrificing other amplifier channels.
Racked with an Allen & Heath AB168 Stage Box JCA Media installed an LEA Connect Series 1504 amplifier for the main loudspeakers – an IoT-enabled four-channel model offering 1.5kW/channel into 2Ω, 4Ω or 8Ω, and 70Vrms and 100Vrms. It also supports Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel – and features Smart Power Bridge technology. JCA’s team doubled the output on one channel to power the front-facing subwoofer driver, while another channel served the rear-facing driver. The remaining two channels were used to feed the main loudspeakers.
Two balcony delays and six wedge loudspeakers are used for the musical worship service, so JCA used the LEA Connect Series 168 to power them. The 168 is an eight-channel model offering 160W/channel – an excellent fit for the wedges, as well as two delay speakers mounted midway down the sanctuary.
JCA also used LEA’s SharkWare software to fine-tune the system while walking around the sanctuary. SharkWare includes amplifier grouping, offline design, granular user access control levels, locked speaker tunings and a graphical EQ. SharkWare also allows users to monitor the status of every amplifier connected to the network and the status and performance of individual channels. In addition, the software gives users the ability to view and adjust channel settings such as input settings, signal generator, crossover, EQ, limiter and load monitoring for all LEA Professional Connect Series amplifiers.
Using the Connect Series cloud connectivity, JCA is using LEA Cloud to remotely control and monitor the amplifiers regardless of the location or time of day.
‘We’ve found that a lot of other manufacturer’s amplifiers are not the easiest to connect to,’ Peake says. ‘I know that sounds like a small thing, but LEA proves it doesn’t have to be hard. Just pop out the access point, connect to it, and roll on. It’s so easy to get connected to their amps. Between that, Smart Power Bridge technology, SharkWare and LEA Cloud, they fit the bill perfectly for a lot of our installations.’
