Lab.gruppen is building on its 30-year heritage with its new D SERIES install-dedicated 4-channel DSP amplifier platform. The new gear was featured at InfoComm in Las Vegas. The D Series platform is available in two distinct variants – one featuring Lake, the other featuring Tesira by Biamp Systems. D Series will be available for shipping mid-summer 2014.
More details from Lab.gruppen (www.labgruppen.com):
Drawing upon experiences and new technologies developed recently as the company’s flagship, and TEC Award-winning, PLM 20000Q – built primarily for the high-end touring market – increasingly became the preferred choice for consultants in demanding stadia and arena installations, D Series represents the most advanced and capable install-dedicated platform ever conceived by Lab.gruppen.
Total integration is the core ethos behind D Series, delivering what Lab.gruppen engineers describe as an amplifier platform that offers ‘genuinely open interoperability’ – a product that can integrate seamlessly with a wide range of digital audio and control protocols – bringing unique features and performance capabilities to virtually any high performance fixed-install project.
The D Series platform is available in two distinct variants – one featuring Lake, the other featuring Tesira by Biamp Systems – each offering unique capabilities and advantages. The Lake variant offers a well-established and proven package of Lake Processing DSP with analogue, AES and a Dual-redundant Dante network solution; supported by the development of new custom software to provide extensive integration potential with most key systems manufacturers. With the Tesira variant of D Series, comes a potent new collaboration between Lab.gruppen and Biamp Systems. This has resulted in dedicated models equipped with Tesira DSP, with AVB audio and control, to offer unheralded amplifier and DSP platform integration, designed to ensure seamless interoperability between respective systems.
Available in 3 power configurations (8000 W, 12000 W and 20000 W total power output), each available in either variant, D Series also heralds the debut of Lab.gruppen’s ground-breaking Rational Power Management™ (RPM) technology. Unlike other amplifiers where ‘flexibility’ often involves compromise (eg. reducing channel count or reducing the total power), RPM allows truly flexible power allocation across all channels to ensure the most efficient and rational use of total amplifier inventory.
At the heart of RPM, lies the unique ability for each model to deliver up to 5000 W output on any single channel, even on the lower power models, leaving the remaining available power to be allocated freely to the other channels. This enables more optimized system design, with each channel being tailored to the precise requirement of the load, rationalizing the system to achieve most efficient use of the total amplifier inventory.
D Series reinforces Lab.gruppen’s position as the leader in ‘real’ green amplifier technology, having evolved from the tested and proven amplifier and patented power supply technology found in the PLM 20000Q, delivering best-in-class Power Factor Correction and low peak mains current draw to power output ratio. Augmenting those green credentials is a new software suite called CAFE (Configuring Amplifiers For the Environment). In addition to providing full system surveillance capabilities as well as RPM configuration, CAFE also includes an innovative design aid in the form of ESP (Equipment Specification Predictor) that provides an optimized recommendation for specifying D Series into the project, including model and number of amps, heat generated, channel distribution and current draw. All coming together to enable more accurate mains management, avoiding over-specification of UPS (where required, such as in mission-critical PA/VA applications) and installed cooling systems.
