The Domaine de Mas de Pierre is a newly refurbished, five-star hotel and resort located in Saint-Paul de Vence, France, on the Mediterranean coast. Set within the heart of a 20-acre garden, the resort comprises nine authentic, Provencal country houses with 76 suites. It also has a selection of luxurious restaurants, bars, a spa and several indoor and outdoor meeting spaces.
As part of the resort’s recent renovations, the hotel management wanted to upgrade its AV system to a networked, multi-zone installation. It also wanted local and centralized control to best manage sound for its many different spaces.
According to the hotel, some distance separates the resort’s guesthouses and main buildings. Thus, it needed a sound system built upon a blended analog and digital audio network with standard and Dante-enabled amplifiers from South Bend, Ind.-based LEA Professional.
Installing the LEA Professional Amplifiers
The hotel brought in local system integration firm Inovasystem to design and install the
resort’s new audio network and supporting equipment. Per a statement, Inovasystem has provided AV design, installation and maintenance solutions across the French Riviera for more than 15 years.
The company then turned to the team at Pilotefilms, LEA’s authorized distributor in France. The team, in turn, recommended the LEA Professional amplifiers. Philippe Pangallo, a managing partner at Inovasystem, became the lead engineer for the project.
“The most complicated part of this installation was that the existing network and wiring configuration had a mix of VLANs and Wi-Fi networks, as well as CCTV and hard-wire systems,” says Pangallo. He adds that they needed installation-flexible components for custom configuration. According to Pangallo, the LEA amplifiers offered Dante connectivity as well as the range of necessary analog options.
Pangallo also states that the team installed a mix of more than 150 Sonance loudspeakers throughout the resort. They cover a diverse range of spaces. These include the gastropub restaurant and bar, a grill restaurant, the hotel lobby, spa and pool areas. Other spaces include fitness centers, guest cabins and more.
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Features of the Connect Series Amplifiers
Moreover, for system amplification, the team installed a set of 10 multi-channel, LEA Professional Connect Series amplifiers for a total of 48 audio channels. Several of the amplifiers are Dante ready, with some of the amps driving 100V speaker lines. Meanwhile, others powered low impedance speakers.
The company also expanded on LEA Professional’s Connect Series. According to a statement, it is a commercial-grade audio amplifier family suited for small to medium-scale installations. It has three ways to connect. Thus, users 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.
Pangallo adds, “The LEA amplifiers have the high-quality sound, the headroom, the connectivity flexibility, and remote monitoring tools we needed to make this a success.”
He also reveals that the LEA cloud tools makes it easier to monitor the system’s performance from the office located five kilometers from the resort.
Moreover, the Connect Series features cloud connectivity. This allows users to harness the power of the cloud for remote control, monitoring, configuration, etc. from any personal device. The Connect Series also features HiZ and LoZ channel selectable analog inputs and Dante inputs. It also has external I/O control for remote on/off and fault monitoring.
In total, Inovasystem designed and installed the resort’s complete AV system. It also worked on the digital signage, televisions, big screens and the satellite reception and Chromecast systems.
“The customer is delighted with their system, and everything is going well,” remarks Pangallo. “I’m glad that we specified LEA. The amps are performing as planned, and we are very pleased. We look forward to more LEA installations!”
