The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) is one of the oldest public universities in the United States. Chartered in 1789, it regularly ranks among the top 10 public universities and serves a student population of 21,000 undergraduates.
UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School began construction of a new academic building, Steven D. Bell Hall, in 2022 to support its expansion. Opened in 2026, Bell Hall is a state-of-the-art facility designed to accommodate the significant growth of UNC Kenan-Flagler’s programs and student population. It includes tens of thousands of square feet dedicated to classrooms, meeting rooms, and event spaces, all featuring modern, flexible learning environments for collaboration.
Given Bell Hall’s planned capabilities, the AV requirements were substantial. After a competitive bidding process, ClarkPowell was chosen to design and implement the AV infrastructure for Bell Hall. Richard Kessinger, a Pre-Sales Engineer at ClarkPowell, played an integral role in the project and recognized that LEA amplifiers would be ideal to power the AV systems.
“We’ve found that LEA Connect Series amplifiers have less power waste and heat output than comparable 70-volt amplifiers,” said Kessinger. “That efficiency means more energy is dedicated to driving audio instead of heating the rack room. Combined with LEA’s six-year warranty, which reinforces long-term reliability and reduces risk over the life of the system, Connect Series amps deliver meaningful value from day one. A win all around.”
LEA amplifiers were deployed to power larger lecture halls, divisible rooms, spaces with multiple zones, and public areas such as cafeterias, open study areas, and corridors, allowing for background music and other uses. ClarkPowell installed a variety of LEA Connect Series amplifiers to address the diverse needs of the spaces in Bell Hall, including multiple Connect Series 352, Connect Series 702, and Connect Series 704 amplifiers.
The CS352 is a 2-channel amplifier with 350 watts per channel; the CS702 is a 2-channel amplifier with 700 watts per channel; and the 4-channel CS704 offers 700 watts per channel. All amplifiers in the Connect Series are professional-grade, IoT-enabled smart amplifiers suitable for installations of any size. They support both Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z, selectable by channel, eliminating the need for separate amplifiers to handle different speaker impedances, while streamlining installations and reducing equipment costs. The Connect Series also includes 96kHz DSP as a standard feature, providing a range of benefits that greatly enhance audio performance and system versatility.
The Connect Series delivers an industry-first professional amplifier family featuring cloud connectivity, a revolutionary advancement and a significant benefit for anyone maintaining the systems. With LEA Cloud, AV integrators like ClarkPowell 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.
Bell Hall represents a major investment in academic infrastructure at UNC-Chapel Hill, increasing capacity and modernizing the educational experience for business students while fostering collaboration across disciplines.
“Using LEA’s loudspeaker profiles decreases the processing requirements for the standalone DSPs used in the project, allowing us to save money by avoiding additional DSP hardware,” said Kessinger. “Next year, after the completion of the new building, UNC Kenan-Flagler plans to renovate all the classrooms in the existing McColl Building. We hope to incorporate more LEA amplifiers in this next phase, as they’ve been a perfect fit for a lot of our projects.”
