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FEATURE: HOUSES OF WORSHIP The new ‘gospels’ of worship audio


Addressing general acoustical challenges associated with historic buildings has been the primary agent of change for houses of worship audio for the last decade and more. But could it be that a shortfall in integrator and end-user skills means that HoWs aren’t always getting the most out of their increasingly powerful systems, asks David Davies?


TOA’s SR-H2S line array speakers were chosen for the Parish of St Andrew & St Mark in Surbiton, UK


[KEY POINTS]


Accommodating frequently high RTs remains a priority for project designers


Minimising the visual impact of speaker cabinets is another enduring challenge


Larger, new-build HoWs in Western Europe and America are increasingly savvy to the benefits of extensive networks


THE ORNATE, imposing architecture of many houses of worship has generally been sufficient to endear them to the public – even those who now find little resonance with HoWs’ loftier spiritual purposes. One only need consult Church Going, an evocative poem by the decidedly non-devout Philip Larkin, to capture a flavour of the hold these spaces can exert on the secularly inclined.


24 March 2014


There is, however, one ‘denomination’ whose members have historically had a little more reason to be resistant to the charms of HoW design: audio installers and designers. The unsympathetic materials and challenging configuration of many older HoWs tend to spell unforgiving reverberation times and challenging installs. Equally critically, the budget-strapped


nature of many HoWs means that the dreaded ‘C’ word –‘compromise’ – can be a regrettably prominent part of the specification process. The emergence of beam technologies able to deliver precisely directed sound, as well as better microphones and more powerful processors, have done much to address some long- standing issues. But as the following four new ‘gospels’


devised from recent conversations with manufacturers who have sizeable interests in the HoW market confirm, it remains a challenging area of the market with considerable scope for improvement.


1. STEERABLE SYSTEMS Steerable speaker systems and better DSP have really boosted general intelligibility. Thomas Giczy, business


Regrettably, the selection of more complex systems isn’t necessarily being matched by an uplift in end-user training


development manager for installed sound at AKG, puts it succinctly: “Intelligibility has been a focus point for houses of worship because without clear and precise sound, the message is lost.” Fortunately – and by a fairly broad consensus – there has been much progress in this regard over the past decade.


www.installation-international.com


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