The nerve centre of the multi-zone installation in the Stella Maris church is an Electro-Voice NetMax N8000 controller that can be controlled remotely from a TPI-5 touch panel. Using IRIS-Net software, twelve different channels can be supervised and controlled individually and remotely. By this means, the loudspeakers in the hall and on the balcony as well as near the main and rear entrances can be turned on and off and their volume controlled independently.
"The advantage of having different zones is that it gives you greater flexibility," says Sami Janho, general manager of Advanced Solutions. "During normal church services, only the loudspeakers in the nave and on the balcony are used. On major festival days, on the other hand, every pew is often taken and it becomes necessary then to provide sound reinforcement also to the exterior."
Despite the considerable size of the church and the low sound absorption of the façade, Advanced Solutions has succeeded in mastering the acoustic challenge superbly. And, thanks to the FIR filter presets of the Electro-Voice N8000 digital matrix controller, the intelligibility is truly convincing. "We are particularly grateful to the architect, Osama Twal of Contour for Engineering, without whose commitment to the quality of the sound we would have been unable to achieve such convincing results in what is an extremely reverberant building," says Janho.
(Jim Evans)
