54 l June 2013
www.psneurope.com
installationfeature
Lectrosonics SM beltpack transmitter in a Methodist Church
QSC AUDIO’S Q-SYS PLATFORM IS ROMANESQUE CATHEDRAL’S SALVATION
Clocking up 1,000 years, Germany’s Mainzer Dom – the Cathedral in Mainz – has been hanging around almost as long as the reverberation time in the nave. At 116m long and, at the tallest point, 54m high, it’s an interior to die for unless you’re an acoustician.
The latest AV refit
has seen media consultant Rolf Mayer of Bischofsheim-based IFB Consulting turn to networking and DSP in the hope of deliverance, and a digital backbone has been installed.
console that’s already set up.” Allen & Heath’s digital product specialist Nicola Beretta goes further. “When we launched the MixPad iPad app two years ago, for the first time engineers realised they could mix a show without a physical console,” he says. But, in this market, ease of use remains Chapter One, Verse One: Cadac’s CDC8 console has not one, but two touchscreens. “It’s a simplification,” explains head of R&D Nick Fletcher. “You can display so much more. But it has to be immediate, with no multiple layers and key- presses. What we’ve learned from the iPad is the swipe-scroll interface, which is perfect for reducing the dreaded layers of a touchscreen.” And, “The addition of remote control via the Midas Mixtender app on an iPad – which provides the operator with the ability to roam a venue – is an enhancement of the console, not its replacement,” proclaims Richard Ferriday, brand development manager for Music Group Research UK. Power with a conscience is here
to stay. Italy’s Powersoft, for example, has blazed a trail with Switching Mode technology for both the power supply stage and the amplification stage, creating Class D amplifiers with a previously patented solution called Power Factor Correction (PFC). The green concept is well and truly on the worship agenda, and there’s no shortage of ministries making the environment a central issue: everyone from stadium rockers to church installers has a choice, and the decision to take some action can be taken at production, distribution or tender level – or simply as a church committee directs a budget.
With complex routing and low- latency signal transport over standard TCP/IP hardware, and a sophisticated routing matrix for advanced control and monitoring, a Core 1000 processor and six I/O frames from QSC’s Q-Sys platform was recommended and supplied by Torsten Haack, project & sales manager for audio systems at QSC Audio’s German distributor Shure Distribution GmbH. And it
Clear-Com’s FreeSpeak Digital Wireless Set
works: “We’ve managed to achieve an STI in the middle section of the nave of between 0.55ms and 0.6ms,” Mayer reports, “because we’re mixing every mic in the system individually and applying different EQ for every speaker, without the need to add any further acoustic treatment.”
Holy Trinity Church in London’s
Chelsea has undergone a
upgrade to its audio system using
Sennheiser
microphones and K-array loudspeakers
SPEAKING IN TONGUES Reverberation in older worship settings is legion, and the industry is divided between those loudspeaker manufacturers who use electronics to tackle it and those who regard variances in horizontal dispersion as being in the mechanical domain. The latter is considered by some to be better for the wide range of worship users who are not acoustic experts: “You can steer the units on their own with absolute accuracy, and this is what the HOW market needs,” says Coda Audio representative Mick Anderson. “As well as old, stone architecture we’re finding new churches in a huge variety of modern buildings, so you need to set your acoustic image exactly where it wants to be. No, you
cannot predict an infinite number of variables, but you can set up for the majority.” The other well established name in this category is Iconyx, the very hi-tech solution made by US pioneer Renkus-Heinz. Iconyx gained a live sound version five years ago, via a double 15” sub along with higher output, new mounting options and advanced digital control revealed by the suffix ‘R’, denoting RHAON-compatible. RHAON is the manufacturer’s software control platform, and some worship users do exploit all the access and supervision capabilities provided by DSP in a distributed installation as well as being part of the regular download population. Users of intercoms in HOWs
have been getting used to the digital matrix idea: a chip-based patchwork of communications that provides much greater accuracy and flexibility than traditional induction loop-based systems. The volunteer’s life is made a lot easier by complicated systems being set up very simply, allowing them to work much faster. “Our intercoms are colour-coded and wireless, so they extend into the wireless world of remote control and monitoring,” a spokesperson for RTS Intercoms UK has told us previously. “For example, a matrix system could tie up with the paging system in a church, while also doing production prompts. So you can have artist- call, public address and production prompts all
controlled from the same centre, giving HOW stage managers an extremely powerful tool to do their job.” “Intercoms can also help
ensure safety while pulling off special effects and other theatrical elements,” adds Clear- Com’s Edmund Song, “and help with handling any monitoring activities the church video staff may require. Clear-Com offers three major categories of intercoms to churches: partyline; matrix; and wireless. Partyline intercoms offer one to four functional groups, ideal for small to mid-size churches, and run over standard microphone cable making their infrastructure requirements fairly minimal. Digital matrix intercoms are designed for group-level and
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