In the event, the installer turned the situation to his advantage. "We welcome challenges and restrictions such as this," he stated. "I derive no satisfaction in trashing historic buildings. But what you don't want to see is a pulpit ahead of where you want to place your speakers."
Angela Tilby, vicar of the Anglican Franciscan Church and well-known broadcaster, had long been aware of the shortcomings of the old omni-directional system. It was when she was appearing as guest preacher at nearby St. John's, where About Sound had installed a webcast system, that she remarked on how refreshing it was to be heard, and asked the Dean for the name of the installer.
Two years ago she contacted Matt Dilley - but the long journey to get the speakers and mics replaced in the 100-seat church, with its famous tower, was only just beginning.
"The architects in the 1980's had installed these pendulum, omnidirectional spheres - they were cleverly disguised but of course better technology had come along since."
Dilley's task was to combine form factor with performance - always aware that feedback suppression would be an issue. "I short-listed several and carried out demos, all the while knowing they would never have been acceptable to the architect on the grounds of being too obtrusive."
He was pleased he waited, for at last year's PLASA Show he saw the newly-launched JBL CBT Series. "It seemed just right, combining good looks with quality. A lot of these old columns contain multiple drive units which roll off at 250Hz, whereas the CBT's are full bandwidth.
The challenge was to get the same size of box but sounding better, he said. "The only ones I had seen in the form factor I wanted weren't good enough, however these sounded good, they were acceptable visually and they were signed off at a Diocesan hearing.
"We like to future-proof our installations where we can so that iPod's can be connected to the concealed XLR plug-in points near the lectern," he continues. Although the system is intended primarily for speech it will easily cope with background music and the future will see sermons recorded live with the aid of an SD card recorder.
But About Sound have dipped further into the Harman Pro catalogue, specifying a pair of Crown XLS 402 stereo amps to drive each channel of the system individually, a BSS SW3088 Soundweb Lite DSP, configured for four Mic and four Line inputs, to handle the routing matrix, and wired AKG mics.
(Jim Evans)
