Caguas is an autonomous municipality in the east-central region of Puerto Rico. Nicknamed “The Creole City,” it was founded on January 1, 1775, and approximately 125,000 people currently reside there. Like the rest of the country, baseball is part of the municipality’s cultural identity and history.
The local baseball stadium, Estadio Yldefonso Sola Morales, was inaugurated in 1947 and, since then, has been the field of the Criollos de Caguas, a professional baseball team in Puerto Rico. Named after Senator Yldefonso Solá Morales, the stadium is a symbol of local pride and heritage. The stadium has undergone numerous renovations over the years, most recently in 2022 when the renowned reggaetón duo Wisin & Yandel acquired the Criollos de Caguas baseball team. This latest phase included installation of new artificial turf, upgraded lighting, seating, and restrooms — marking a modern era for the historic venue. However, the audio system was inadequate for the updated stadium and sorely in need of an upgrade. To invigorate the crowd experience, the venue turned to the award-winning amplifiers from LEA Professional.
The municipality, in its search for a new system, issued a public tender for a new sound system, with high expectations that the system would enhance the audience experience to the level of play on the field. AVL Group won the bid to revitalize the audio system.
“There were no specifications to meet; they simply wanted a system that didn’t sound like the existing system, that was loud enough to cover the audience area, that could handle the narrators and background music, and create a more hyped sporting environment,” said Alexander Rojas, Vice President of AVL Group. “We felt that LEA amplifiers could easily do all of that.”
AVL Group’s team installed 9 Connect Series 1504 amplifiers to power the stadium’s 54 EAW MK Series loudspeakers installed throughout the stadium. The IoT-enabled 4-channel CS1504 provides 1500 watts per channel, supports Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel, and features Smart Power Bridge technology. A Connect Series 704 amplifier, a 4-channel amplifier with 700 watts per channel, was used to power loudspeakers in the corridors, suites, and restrooms. Connect Series amplifiers also feature 96kHz DSP, a standard in all models, offering a range of benefits that significantly enhance audio performance and system versatility.
AVL Group’s technical team utilized LEA’s free SharkWare software to configure a base profile and push it out to all the pre-staged LEA amplifiers. 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, equalizer, limiter, and load monitoring for all LEA Professional Connect Series amplifiers.
The Connect Series also delivers an industry-first professional amplifier family to feature cloud connectivity, a revolutionary advancement, and a significant benefit for anyone maintaining the systems. With LEA Cloud, AV companies and system integrators like AVL Group can remotely control and monitor amplifiers from anywhere, at any time, and with no subscription model or hidden costs. It’s completely free to use.
The city uses the stadium regularly for baseball and other sporting events, and the staff is very excited about the improvements that the audio system has provided to the stadium’s environment.
“The new sound system really gets the crowd going,” said Rojas. “The built-in speaker tunings in the LEA amps were great for this application, as was the remote monitoring. We already have a few LEA projects planned and expect to have many more in the future.”
