The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, commonly known as the King Center, is located in Atlanta, GA, and serves as a living memorial to the life and legacy of the leader of the American civil rights movement. As part of a comprehensive upgrade plan for the King Center, the management team aimed to install a large video wall in the lobby to serve as a striking focal point for visitors. When the time came to execute the lobby renovations, venue staff selected S&L Integrated to design and implement the video wall and enhanced audio system, turning to the LEA Professional/ FlatPanel Audio system.
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Established in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, the widow of Dr. King, the center is dedicated to preserving the teachings of nonviolence and promoting social justice and equality. It provides resources for education, community empowerment, and the continuation of Dr. King's work towards achieving peace, racial equality, and human dignity. William Collins, the account executive for the project, recommended the LEA Professional/FlatPanel Audio system based on having heard them in a very acoustically live church sanctuary, and knew it would be a great fit for the King Center. The audio components were excellent right out of the box.
“The King Center’s lobby is very impressive looking, with brick walls, tile floors, glass, and stonework,” said Collins. “Acoustically, it’s a very challenging space, though. We knew we needed a unique audio solution to minimize acoustic reflections without overpowering the room. Once we found the right speakers for the environment, we knew that LEA amplifiers would be the perfect way to power them.”
S&L installed two FlatPanel DML500 loudspeakers in the lobby. Their 165-degree conical coverage and sound waves transparently deliver LEA’s signal path. DML loudspeakers ignore the center’s beautiful but sound-compromising windows and shiny floors. Paired with a FlatPanel LS118 subwoofer specifically designed to complement the DML500s, the power for both highs and lows provided by the LEA amplifier yields a significant sound quality improvement over the former sound system, according to the center’s employees.
S&L used the LEA Connect Series 1504D to power the loudspeakers and subwoofer. The Dante-enabled 4-channel 1504D provides 1500 watts per channel into 2, 4, and 8 ohms, and 70Vrms and 100Vrms. It also supports Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel and features Smart Power Bridge technology. S&L’s team doubled the output on one amplifier channel to power the subwoofer while two channels fed the left and right loudspeakers. Additionally, the Connect Series delivers LEA Cloud, allowing S&L to remotely control and monitor the amplifiers regardless of the location or time of day.
Visitors to the King Center are enthralled by his speeches on the video wall, affirming it’s not only a historical site but also a vibrant institution dedicated to continuing the work that Dr. King began, promoting a vision of unity, peace, and justice for all people.
“It’s an honor to play any role in maintaining the life, legacy, and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Collins. “For us, LEA amps just work. Between the Smart Power Bridge technology and LEA Cloud, they fit the bill perfectly for many of our installations.”