USA - The Liberty Public School District (LPS) is a cornerstone of the Liberty, Missouri community, dedicated to providing a high-quality education that prepares students for success in college, career, and life.
The school district has a rich history with STEM programs like Project Lead The Way, winning numerous accolades. However, LPS is also renowned for its commitment to the fine arts. For example, the high-school broadcasting programme operates cable channel 18 under the non-assigned call letters KLPS.
The district initiated an innovative programme three years ago to install mobile AV racks in every fine arts classroom, complete with speakers, an amplifier, microphones, a mixer, and a CD recorder so that teachers could record and send home CDs of student performances for parents and extended families to enjoy. Over time, district staff recognised that not all of the AV gear was specified correctly, so they turned to the award-winning amplifiers from LEA Professional to solve some of the issues.
Steffen Edwards, a fine arts technician with the school district, was selected to facilitate the AV upgrades. The project was submitted for a capital expense and, once approved, went out for bid. Schillers Audio Visual won the bid, but Edwards’ team performed the upgrades themselves.
“When we were looking at what to do and how to proceed, I mentioned LEA’s Connect Series because of its slim profile – it doesn't take any space,” said Edwards. “There are no knobs on it for teachers or students to adjust or fiddle with, and just the simple fact that we could network the amps (after getting IT’s approval) and manage them remotely without having to get in a car and go to a school was huge. The tamper-proof front plate really helps everything.”
Edwards selected a Connect Series 352 amplifier to power each system, and 24 amplifiers were installed in 18 buildings across LPS. The IoT-enabled two-channel 352 provides 350W per channel into 2, 4, and 8 ohms, and 70Vrms and 100Vrms. It also supports Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel and features Smart Power Bridge technology. Each amplifier drives two low-impedance speakers mounted on each mobile rack.
The teachers loved the enhanced ease of use the upgrades provided. They no longer had to spend valuable class time getting the technology to work correctly and instead could focus entirely on their students.
“The school district covers a pretty large geographical area,” said Edwards. “So when teachers need something, especially something simple like level adjustment, we can now look remotely on LEA Cloud before driving to the school. Being able to see what's happening [remotely] saves a lot of time and minimises class interruptions, which was a huge selling point for us.
“Because of our ability to see and manage what's happening in the field with those amplifiers, we'll use the Connect Series when it comes time to upgrade our performance auditoriums, given our prior success with LEA's amplifiers. The output settings are so versatile that if something changes, we can use the built-in Smart Power Bridge technology to upgrade the wattage without having to rewire anything.”
