Conveniently located 20 minutes from downtown Dallas, Texas, the Curtis Culwell Center is a beautiful, state-of-the-art multi-purpose facility boasting over 190,000 square feet of space, including a 7,000-seat arena and conference center. Opened in 2005, the venue is owned by the Garland Independent School District, which initially used it for community and school functions such as graduation ceremonies. Currently, it hosts a broad scope of different types of revenue-generating events.
After 20 years of operation, some of the original audio infrastructure began to fail. Individual devices were replaced to keep the system functioning, but the school district recognized they needed a more comprehensive equipment overhaul to ensure reliability for crucial public address functions. Culwell Center staff contacted Ron Stanley, Proprietor of NX A/V, with whom they had a long-standing relationship for audio systems support, to recommend system upgrades. Stanley immediately included LEA Professional amplifiers as part of the retrofit.
“Recently, I was trying to decide on what our go-to amp was going to be moving forward, so I brought in several amps for a shootout,” said Stanley. “LEA was the winner, not just for the sound quality but feature set as well.”
Stanley’s team installed 5 Connect Series 354, 4 Connect Series 704, and 4 Connect Series 1504 amplifiers to power the venue’s public address system. The CS354 is a 4-channel amplifier with 350 watts per channel, while the 4-channel CS704 offers 700 watts per channel, and the 4-channel CS1504 provides 1500 watts per channel. All Connect Series amplifiers are professional-grade IoT-enabled smart amplifiers for any size installation, support Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel, and feature Smart Power Bridge technology. Curtis Culwell staff can connect to the built-in Wi-Fi access point, the venue’s Wi-Fi, or the local area network via Cat5 or Cat6 cable.
The Connect Series 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 teams can remotely control and monitor the amplifiers regardless of the location or time of day, and with no subscription model or hidden costs, it’s completely free to use.
Stanley remarked, “With the cloud registered amps, we, as well as registered venue staff, can get notification of events and faults, like a speaker circuit that is over or under the expected impedance that could indicate a blown speaker or broken wire, often before anyone in the venue actually notices.”
Given the smaller form factor of the LEA amplifiers, Stanley was able to consolidate five racks of amplifiers into two, thereby significantly reducing space without losing any functionality.
“The built-in speaker tunings in the LEA amps were great for this application, as was the impedance monitoring,” said Stanley. “With the upcoming graduations, the system has to work error-free, and LEA amps fit the bill perfectly.”
