The new Ed Robson Arena at Colorado College is a 3,400-seat, multi-purpose, sports venue and the first on-campus hockey facility for the Colorado College Tigers in their 86-year history. To enhance audience enjoyment and engagement, a new audio system has been installed.
Today’s audio systems play a critical part in any stadium and arena event so contracted LEA Professional to install a high-quality, flexible sound system that can give spectators a great experience — far beyond that of the harsh, voice-only PA systems of yesteryear.
Colorado College brought in AV consultant AJP to design and integration firm C.V. Lloyde to install the Ed Robson Arena’s sound system. C.V. Lloyde recommended using a set of new Dante Connect Series multi-channel digital audio amplifiers from LEA Professional to play a critical role in the audio system.
“Good audio quality is a critical part of any sports and entertainment venue; audiences have gotten used to excellent sound quality from their home systems and theaters and clubs; it’s expected everywhere,” said Stephen Morris, president of C.V. Lloyde. “To keep fans and audiences coming back, arenas need to put in the effort to improve sound and ensure that audiences and fans cannot just see but also hear everything going on. Colorado College was committed to this, and the results have been great.”
C.V. Lloyde was responsible for the entire AV package, including being part of certain design changes, installation of the new arena sound system, all of the suite and zone programming, and for all exterior/back-of-house sound systems.
At the heart of the new system is a set of five Dante-enabled, Connect Series digital audio amplifiers from LEA Professional. Specifically, two CS704D, two CS354D, and a single CS168D deliver a total of 24 audio channels. The Connect Series is the world’s first IoT-enabled, professional-grade series of amplifiers. Ideally suited for medium-scale installations, these two-, four-, and eight-channel amplifiers feature direct Hi-Z (70V or 100V) or Lo-Z selectable by channel.
“The arena’s audio system is all connected and controlled via a Dante audio network,” said Morris. “So having out-of-the-box, Dante-ready amplifiers powering the system made everything easy to connect and configure.”
The Dante Connect Series is also the first professional amplifier family to feature Cloud connectivity. With Dante Connect Series, integrators can harness the power of the Cloud for remote control, monitoring, notifications, and more from nearly any smart device.
The Cloud Platform provides systems integrators with powerful, reliable and secure remote monitoring and control capabilities across the entire lineup of IoT-enabled LEA Professional Connect Series amplifiers. Unique within the industry, all LEA Professional amplifiers leverage the built-in Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT Core. The platform allows integrators to monitor critical operational data points that are integral to maintaining system health remotely. The capability delivers greater visibility to provide preventative maintenance, easier troubleshooting and fewer on-site maintenance requirements.
Since the arena’s opening in 2021, it has hosted games for several hockey leagues, and the arena’s open-skating hours — supported with music — have become very popular. The arena also features a multi-purpose event room, a small catering kitchen run by Bon-Appetit, and an outdoor meeting patio space for use in the warmer months.
“The Ed Robson Arena’s audio system has the sound quality to engage fans and deliver a great experience, and the system’s Dante flexibility allows it to be configured to meet the needs of most any event,” added Morris “The quality, efficiency, and connectivity of the LEA Connect Series amplifiers play a central part in pulling the project together.”
