Las Vegas Sports Arena Goes Immersive

Las Vegas, NV (August 1, 2024)—University of Nevada made have opened the Thomas & Mack Center back in 1983, but the venerable 19,500-capacity arena remains cutting edge, hosting basketball, concerts, events and more throughout the year.

Recently, the site underwent a high-profile audio installation for the VIP experience, created by emerging audio company Edge Sound Research, founded by Valtteri Salomaki and Ethan Castro, who employed their proprietary audio technology called Embodied Sound, which brings sound not only to the ears of listeners but to their entire bodies. As part of delivering this immersive sound experience, the ESR pros used LEA Professional amplifiers.

“We take the audio from the game that gets picked up by the broadcast, and we provide it in our sections of a venue,” Salomaki said. “That way, a fan can hear and feel everything from the dribbles to the shots, the swooshes, everything that makes them feel like an actual player in the game versus a spectator. Our ultimate goal is to redefine how personalized and curated a sports experience can be.”

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As is the case with any installation, the fewer pieces of gear involved creates a simpler system, plus it keeps costs down and requires less space. With some of those aspects in mind, the duo turned to LEA. “Before we standardized on LEA Professional’s technology, we had to use two to three different pieces of equipment that would take up an entire rack,” said Castro. “To be able to have everything in a 1U rack space was the game changer that we needed. It’s sleek, it’s easy to control, and we can do it remotely with reliability we can trust.”

For the installation, Edge Sound Research specified multiple LEA Connect Series 354 amplifiers. The 354 is a 4-channel amplifier with 350 watts per channel. “LEA is right in that sweet spot where we have the power requirements, the channel counts, and the super-efficient architecture,” said Castro. “We no longer require a separate DSP unit or monitoring tool to determine uptime and ensure performance remotely. LEA’s excellent SharkWare and Cloud solutions give us all the control we need both on deployment and remote monitoring of all aspects of the system after we leave. The LEA Cloud takes care of that and provides us with unmatched efficiency and ease of use.”