LEA Amplifiers Support Art Exhibit at Venice Biennale

	John Akomfrah; Listening All Night To The Rain, 2024. Photo: Jack Hems, Courtesy of Sir John Akomfrah and Lisson Gallery

The UK-based integrator ArtAV has gradually standardized its use of Connect Series amplifiers from LEA Professional and loudspeakers from Fohhn. The relationship between ArtAV and LEA was facilitated by product specialist Audiologic. Together, these technologies have enabled ArtAV to balance operational simplicity with a robust technical foundation across several international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale.

ArtAV's team sets up, measures, and fine-tunes the audio at each installation using LEA Professional's extensive DSP parameters and its highly regarded Sharkware configuration suite. "Usability can be every bit as important as amplification power and sonic performance," says Simon Weightman, project manager at ArtAV. "In addition to the built-in DSP capabilities and speaker tunings, LEA amplifiers offer an absolutely fantastic web GUI [WebUI] that simplifies day-to-day operations for front-of-house staff. That is a huge benefit and a significant part of the reason we standardized on LEA for amplification."

ArtAV worked alongside John Akomfrah on his largest and most ambitious exhibition to date, Listening All Night To The Rain, at the 60th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. It included 104 audio channels distributed across a basement gallery, flanking side rooms, and a main hall, all of which were required to play in precise sync.

Each space carried its own distinct soundscape: Eighteen loudspeakers setting a foreboding tone in the basement, voices threading through a suspended sculptural cloud of tape players and vinyl records, and a sphere of sound shaped by 20 loudspeakers in the main gallery's immersive eight-projection wrap-around. With spaces in proximity and wildly different sonic characters, the audio mix needed to both stand alone in each room and cohere as a single, unified experience.

LEA's amplifiers proved central to achieving that balance. ArtAV's team installed several Connect Series 168 amplifiers to power the exhibit. The CS168 is an eight-channel amplifier providing 160W 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.

"With over 100 channels of audio in the installation, LEA's metering and control enabled fast fault-finding and responsive level tweaks during the exhibition, but it wasn't just a case of 'set and forget'," recalls Weightman. "We could monitor and manage the system remotely from the UK during operation, as well as during the installation. Also, the LEA amps fit eight channels of 160W in 1U. Being able to have that smaller form factor is a massive bonus for us."

"As installations become more immersive and increasingly reliant on complex audio, having intelligent amplification is now just as important as having great loudspeakers," says Weightman. "With LEA, we know we have a platform that is reliable, flexible, and easy to support remotely, which allows us to focus on helping artists realize their vision."

WebUI allows users to check the status of every amplifier connected to the network and the status of every channel on any given amplifier to monitor channel performance. In addition, the platform allows users to view and adjust channel settings, including input settings, signal generator, crossover, equalizer, limiter, and load monitoring.

SharkWare allows integrators to configure a base profile and push it out to all the pre-staged LEA amplifiers. SharkWare includes amplifier grouping, offline design, granular user access control levels, locked speaker tunings, and a graphical EQ. SharkWare also allows users to monitor the status of every amplifier connected to the network, as well as the status and performance of individual channels. In addition, the software allows users to view and adjust channel settings, including input settings, signal generator, crossover, equalizer, limiter, and load monitoring, for all LEA Professional Connect Series amplifiers.

The Connect Series delivers a professional amplifier family to feature cloud connectivity. With LEA Cloud, AV integrators like ArtAV 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, the company says.