XTA APA Series Amplifiers Do a Clean Sweep at Post-RNC/DNC EventsIn July, Cleveland, Ohio-based Rock The House Audio Visual (RTHAV) provided audio for three major events around the upcoming US Presidential election. Their PA system powered the sound for the Marshall Tucker Band, Big & Rich, "The Voice Versus American Idol" and Jim Brickman at an event hosted by the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County, Ohio after the Republican National Convention in Cleveland; an AT&T-sponsored event featuring MC Lyte and DJ Damage at the Hyatt hotel in downtown Philly to close out the Democratic National Convention; and the official launch of the Clinton-Kaine bus tour in Columbus, Ohio after the DNC. The politics at each event may have been strikingly different but they all had one thing in common: the sound at every one of these high-profile events was powered using four recently acquired XTA Electronics APA Series APA-4E8 adaptive processing amplifiers. "These were very busy amplifiers in the first two weeks we owned them," notes Ryan Konikoff, Rock The House Audio Visual's chief operating officer. "They did three major projects in fifteen days!" The XTA APA Series amps were used to power RTHAV's unique PA system: an Audiocenter KLA 210 line array. Konikoff says the company heard the system during a visit last year to the Prolight + Sound show in Guangzhou, China and felt it delivered excellent sound extremely cost effectively. What now puts that system into the same league as more widely recognized brands in the US, he says, is pairing it with the XTA APA Series amplifiers, which were chosen to support Rock The House's broad range of clientele. "We began as a sound company for local events, such as school dances," he explains. "While we've expanded quickly and now also do large events like the ones we did around the Democratic and Republican conventions, we continue to work with local clients. The APA amps help us in a number of ways: first, they sound and perform fantastically, but as important is the fact that they are very programmable. We can dial in the DSP and other performance parameters we might need to power a system for a small stage or other local event at the warehouse and then send the system out ready to play. We don't need to send a highly experienced audio technician out with it, which really helps us manage our manpower. I can put my best guys where I need them." Konikoff says RTHAV only considered a narrow range of top brands when it came to choosing their amplifiers, but XTA won based on a number of factors. Aside from exceptional sound and powerful DSP, he notes that Group One Ltd., the brand's North American distributor, included training with the sale. "They offered to send people to train our staff, which is a level of service that we like to see," he says. "We're very careful with our equipment decisions, and we base them on a wide range of factors, including cost effectiveness and performance, not just brand names. We chose our PA system because it gives our clients the best sound and us the best return on investment. That's how we chose XTA, too. It was the right decision." XTA's APA Series -- short for adaptive processing amplification -- are four-channel Class D amplifiers with extensive processing, connectivity, and control capabilities. The new power and DSP platforms have been designed to interact intelligently and adapt to prevailing conditions, protecting drivers, and significantly enhancing performance from all speaker systems. The APA-4E8 is a power and processing platform that tightly integrates with its power supply featuring 96k analog-to-digital converters, not only on the analog inputs, but also directly at the speaker outputs, monitoring voltage, and current. Inputs and outputs are simultaneously being processed by the DSP, along with data about the mains supply, allowing the APA to adapt and correct to keep music sounding better than ever. In addition to this adaptive processing, users still have full control over a powerful suite of filtering and protection, including multiple bands of legendary XTA EQ, FIR filtering and phase linearization, ultra-transparent limiting, and all the classic crossover and EQ components traditionally used to set up the system. Add to this a fully flexible matrix with the ability to source audio either locally from AES or analog inputs, or via a networked audio connection (Dante/AVB). Unused local DSP resources can process incoming audio and output it onto the network, providing additional processing where required and allowing all inputs to be made available to all other connected amps. The power amplifiers are capable of 5,000W peak per channel and driving 2R loads with sustained output power guaranteed by a PFC supply capable of high-sustained output. With native Mac and PC remote software also available, the company says it's easy to understand why XTA's APA isn't just an amplifier with some DSP built in. For more info on Rock The House Audio Visual, visit www.rthav.com. 
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