Bethlehem Baptist Church, located in Greensburg, Kentucky, is a small, rural Christian congregation in a community where faith and tradition hold deep significance. A modest, brick building with a steeple — its interior is reflective of a traditional Baptist style, with pews arranged in rows facing the pulpit and a sense of reverence and intimacy in the service. Although open and airy, the parishioners struggled to hear and understand the sermon at times. Amplifiers from LEA Professional were the perfect solution to increase headroom during musical worship and provide better intelligibility for spoken liturgy.
Church staff contacted Alex Peake, a project manager at JCA Media, to design a new audio system for the sanctuary. Since the LEA Connect Series of two-, four-, and eight-channel amplifiers are the most full-featured in the industry, Peake recommended them to meet the church’s goal of high intelligibility. “Most amplifiers are being commoditized and sold at almost the same price,” said Alex Peake, project manager at JCA Media. “But then LEA adds in DSP capabilities, a control system [WebUI], and remote connectivity [LEA Cloud], essentially all for free. Those are huge benefits and a lot of the reason LEA is the primary amplifier I’m installing these days.”
Peake installed Connect Series 354 amplifiers to power the church’s new monitors as well as existing mains. The IoT-enabled 4-channel 354 provides 350 watts per channel into 2, 4, and 8 ohms, and 70Vrms and 100Vrms. It supports Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel and features Smart Power Bridge technology. The integrated 96kHz DSP effectively eliminated the need for unnecessary equipment in the rack, ensuring the overall job cost was kept to a minimum.
The Connect Series delivers an industry-first professional amplifier family to feature cloud connectivity, a revolutionary advancement, and a significant benefit for anyone maintaining the systems. With LEA Cloud, AV companies like JCA Media 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.
WebUI functions as a simple on-site control interface, offering integrators and end users an easy-to-use platform to view and adjust channel settings, ranging from load monitoring to EQ adjustments, through any standard web browser. For AV companies like JCA Media, WebUI streamlines on-the-spot testing and modifications, enabling efficient system setup and fine-tuning during system installation.
The difference between the old and new audio systems was immediately apparent. Parishioners no longer needed to struggle to understand the sermon, and the musical worship reproduction was crisp and clean. “Being able to mix and match four ohm, eight ohm, 70 volt, and 100 volt on the same amplifier is great,” said Peake. “And my favourite fact is that you don’t lose channels when you want to do that. Top it off with cloud connectivity for remote support, and that’s why I use LEA amplifiers every chance I get.”
