Opening as the 700-capacity Indianola Theatre in 1938, the Studio 35 Cinema & Drafthouse has seen a succession changes in both purpose and name in the intervening years. Most recently, an audio system upgrade delivered by Total Cinema Solutions includes LEA Professional amplifiers.
Located in the Clintonville neighbourhood of Columbus, Ohio, the theatre hosted special events, such as beer tastings, screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and live broadcasts of sporting events. In 2012, Studio 35 underwent significant renovations, including updates to its interior and the addition of a full bar with 40 draft beers.
The new audio system is built around a Trinnov Ovation2 cinema processor (the unofficial project goal was to ‘rattle the shingles of the building next door’) with JBL 4732 three-way ScreenArray loudspeakers as mains, supported by two JBL 4642A subwoofers and several JBL 9310 surrounds.
Vita chose Connect Series 704 amps to power the JBL systems. The IoT-enabled 704 provides 700W/per channel, supports Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel, and features Smart Power Bridge technology.
‘The best definition of an amplifier I’ve heard is that it’s a piece of wire with gain and nothing else,’ says Brian Vita, Sales & Service Manager at Total Cinema Solutions. ‘And that’s basically what LEA amplifiers perform as – they’re pieces of wire with gain that don’t add any noise to the signal. I mean that as a high compliment. The built-in speaker tunings in the LEA amps were great for this application, as was the ability to monitor them remotely,’ Vita says. ‘That level of control monitoring and the processing in them made the choice of amplifier easy and clear-cut for us.’
Additioanlly, with LEA Cloud connectivity, WebUI, third-party API control, the theatre’s A/V teams can remotely control and monitor the amplifiers regardless of location or time of day .
Reflecting the success of this upgrade, the owners of Studio 35 Cinema are considering making similar changes to other of their theatres.