LEA Professional Amplifiers Bring Power, Flexibility, and Connectivity to Revamped 4- Star Australian Resort

	LEA Professional assists The Beachcomber in Toukley, Australia

When popular Australian Hotel and Resort, The Beachcomber, decided to completely gut and upgrade their entire audio system ahead of their busy season, local supplier Pro Sound and Lighting called on LEA Professional to amplify and transform the space.

The Beachcomber Hotel & Resort, or as the locals call it "The Beachie" is an iconic waterfront destination located in the heart of the Central Coast, Toukley. The resort sits between two Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean with nearly 100m of lake frontage and its own private pier. The sprawling complex was recently relaunched as a 4-star, 80-room resort offering multiple indoor and outdoor bars, restaurants, six function rooms, gaming and bottle-shop amenities as well as expansive guest facilities including a 20m pool, sauna, gymnasium and wellness services, and a three-level car park all amid a 1-hectare site with lawns terracing down to the water's edge.

With international travel to or from Australia on hold due to COVID-19 restrictions, the resort's offering of a "Hamptons-inspired ambience" meant a big uptick in demand from locals looking for a unique vacation experience within Oz.

To carry out the extensive renovation work, the resort relied on local production company Pro Sound and Lighting to provide a new audio system for the resort's gaming and sports bar, DJ area, outdoor area, and hotel lobby areas.

Leonard Buckley, production manager at Pro Sound and Lighting, explains the demanding timeline of this project meant that the team was fighting against the clock and struggling with many manufacturers not having equipment on hand: "This project had a particularly quick turnaround time, we needed to get the entire install done within the space of three or four weeks and couldn't be held back because of equipment delays. One of the main reasons why we chose the LEA amps was because they were so easy to get our hands on and they were one of few companies with no supply chain issues."

Ultimately the company decided to power the resort with five LEA Professional Dante Connect Series Amplifiers, including three of the Connect 354D, one Connect 702D, and one Connect 704D.

LEA Professional Dante CONNECT SERIES amplifiers are the world's first Internet of Things-enabled, professional-grade amplifiers. Available in two, four, and eight-channel models, they feature direct Hi-Z (70V or 100V) or Low-Z selectable by channel. With three ways to connect, integrators can engage the built-in Wi-Fi access point, connect to the venue's Wi-Fi, or use the FAST Ethernet to connect to any local area network via Cat5 or Cat6 cable.

For the Beachcomber Resort, Pro Sound and Lighting utilized QSYS and QSC speakers, InDesign box and ceiling speakers, Community speakers and Shure wireless systems.

"As the LEA amps can integrate with any kind of system, I wasn't worried about investing in them without knowing what kind of system we would end up putting in the space,'' comments Buckley. "We didn't have to worry about what sort of system we were pairing with, and that's what made it so easy for us to use them, there was no special programming or training involved, everything talked to each other nice and simple."

The Connect Series is also the first professional amplifier family to feature Cloud connectivity, allowing system technicians to harness the power of the Cloud for remote control, monitoring, notifications, and more from most any personal devices.

"The very first thing I did with the amps was connect them to the cloud," explains Buckley. "From the very first day of installing them I was able to remote monitor and see what was going on, it was really handy, especially as our office is a three-hour drive from the resort. We haven't had any issues, the amplifiers have been flawless so far but the fact that the option to control them remotely is there, is really great."

Buckley explains that one of the main challenges of the project was that the scope of the work was constantly changing due to the owners reconfiguring the space.

"Throughout the project the owners made changes as to how different areas of the resort would be utilized. The versatility of these amps was amazing, we never had to stress about things changing at the last minute because the amps were flexible in terms of what they could drive in their power outputs, we just put them in and knew we'd be okay."

For Pro Sound and Lighting, this was their first time using LEA Professional amplifiers, yet because of the simple visual interface and resources provided by LEA, the team was able to install them quickly with no assistance.

"Everything was so intuitive that I didn't need any assistance with getting everything going. There's a couple of tutorial videos that I watched, and they had more than enough information for what I needed to do. The interface was very visual and very easy to understand. You didn't have to do any specific training to get these things going like you do with a lot of audio-visual equipment in the industry. That was brilliant."

The entire installation is now complete with the resort back open and taking bookings. So far, the team has received positive feedback and plan to do similar installations in other resorts within the hotel group.

"I want to put these amplifiers into every one of these clients' venues and I'm really glad I found them," concludes Buckley. "They've just been really reliable, even just the simple things of them turning on and off when they've been told to. That may seem like a small thing, but it makes a huge difference when things just work at the first go and at the price point they are, it's just amazing."