Lafayette Christian Academy’s Audio Upgrade Powered by Allen & Heath AHM

Lafayette Christian Academy recently invested in a major audio system upgrade, which was a joint effort by Paul Mancuso of Vital Integrators and the team at Highway Marketing.

The first aspect of the upgrade was to the outdoor speakers by One Systems. Six were added for different home stadium zones, one for the Champions Square tailgating section and one for the concession area.

At the heart of the audio control center is the Allen & Heath AHM-16. The 16×16 Audio Matrix Processor handles all of the input of the PA announcer, national anthem, special announcements, bumper music, and hype music. AHM processors deploy next-generation FPGA technology and 96kHz sample rate, bringing acclaimed Allen & Heath sound quality and sub-millisecond latency to installation. The audio engines have the power to deliver far more processing than the usual open architecture platforms, including 8-band PEQ, gate, compressor and delay on all input channels, and 8-band PEQ, 30-band GEQ, compressor, ANC, source selector, limiter and delay on all zone outputs.

A key in the integration is Allen & Heath’s Custom Control application – where Vital Integrators created a custom layout for PC and an iPhone, so that adjustments to the PA can be made anywhere in the stadium where a Wi-Fi signal can be delivered.

“Dennie and the Highway team have been great proponents of AHM since its launch. I’m thrilled to see more of his projects coming to life,” remarked Samantha Potter, Commercial Audio manager for Allen & Heath USA. “Custom Control is one of Allen & Heath’s most valuable tools, and it being free only adds to that value. Installations such as Lafayette Christian Academy are the perfect blend of scale, performance, and AV/IT – exactly where AHM excels.”

The power for the system is provided by 4 LEA Professional amplifiers. In addition to having presets for the One Systems speakers, these amplifiers also provide network remote control and monitoring anywhere in the stadium.

“This project shows a perfect synergy of customer input design, expertise, and the cooperation of multiple manufacturers to achieve a desired goal,” noted Dennie Edwards of Highway Marketing.