LEA Professional drives audio at Muldraugh Hill
- Details
This modest town, which sits directly in the centre of the Bluegrass State, is no stranger to exceptional music. Lebanon was an entertainment hotspot for three decades in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, hosting classic musicians like Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Jerry Lee Lewis at local clubs. So, it’s no wonder that great acoustics are important to the culture and history of this small town. The nearly 150-year-old Muldraugh Hill is among many Baptist and other denominational churches in the area that are transforming the dynamic of their services through audio, video, and lighting.
JCA Media is key to those transformations. JCA is a media partner in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and many surrounding states. The company has cornered the market on house of worship installations due to its exceptional capabilities, and finely tuning and tailoring installations to the needs of each church.
“We get tired of churches being sold things they don't need,” said Alex Peake, project manager for JCA Media, and AV technician at his local church. “We give churches what they need - quality equipment and a well-done installation. I have seen many installs where churches are sold things that are way above what was really needed for the job. Not that I don't love quality gear, but you can go overboard with it if you're not doing the right thing.”
At Muldraugh Hill Baptist, the church was hampered by an aging audiovisual system in its main sanctuary. The main projector was propped up by hymnals, affectionately called ‘shymnals,’ literally projecting on the wall from a laptop down in the front pew. The church had a centre loudspeaker cluster that didn’t cover the space adequately, and a choir monitor was hung 25ft from the choir, so reverberation from the walls was a challenge.
It was a challenge that JCA was well-qualified to handle. “We try to go into every install with the end goal in mind,” added Peake. “We don't want to lock you into a system that doesn't allow room for growth, but at the same time, we want to give you a long-lasting system that will do the job well, fit your needs, and grow with you."
The audio portion of the installation utilised a Danley SM100B loudspeaker, two SH Mini’s, two Cubes, and four Nanos, all powered by LEA Professional 704 and 354 Network Connect Series Smart Amplifiers. An Allen & Heath SQ-5 digital mixer runs all audio, connected to Earthworks choir, pulpit, and piano mics fed into ACE Backstage stage pockets and six Audio-Technica wireless mics.
“We were able to take a four-channel LEA 704 and Smart Power Bridge the first channel for the main Danley SM100B loudspeaker. Then we connected a channel per front fill, with a Danley cube on each side,” said Peake. JCA’s team then used the fourth channel for the choir monitors and the four-channel LEA 354 powered the four stage monitors. “Both LEA amplifiers are connected to their network via a Luxul switch so that we can utilise the LEA cloud monitoring feature,” added Peake.
“I love the Smart Power Bridge function. I can create a left-centre-right (LCR) configuration with a subwoofer on a single four-channel amp because I can Smart Power Bridge the sub on a single channel and then do the left, centre and right. That really helps in a lot of our layouts,” commented Peake.
LEA’s 704 and 354 Network Connect Series Smart Amplifiers, featuring 700 and 350 watts per channel, respectively, are well-suited for small- to medium-scale installations like Muldraugh Hill Baptist. The two, four, and eight-channel amps feature HiZ (70V or 100V) or LoZ, selectable by channel. With three ways to connect, the church can engage the built-in Wi-Fi access point, connect to the venue’s Wi-Fi, or connect to any local area network via Cat5 or Cat6 cable.
LEA’s Network Connect Series is also the first amplifier family in the industry to offer cloud connectivity, for easy troubleshooting and support from anywhere. “Being able to troubleshoot for a client remotely, sometimes three-and-a-half hours away, is a service we love to provide to our clients,” added Peake.
