At the same time, those same characteristics are what give choral music and the church's pipe organ a special kind of warmth. In fact, they are what help draw crowds to the several organ and classical music events that the church hosts each year. It can be difficult to keep the church's message clear and articulate without affecting the acoustical properties that are a key part of this kind of traditional ecclesiastical architecture.
A RoomMatch system from Bose Professional Systems provided the answer. As it has done for scores of houses of worship with similar challenges, the RoomMatch system was able to precisely address the space's exact acoustical characteristics and keep sonic energy off of reflective walls and floors, and direct the sound to the seating areas where it needs to go with enhanced clarity.
For this installation, the Mitchell Design Group, with offices in Kokomo and Carmel, Indiana, installed a centre array design consisting of an RM7010 module atop an RM9010 module and two RM12020 modules, all powered by a Bose PowerMatch PM8500N networked amplifier.
"The challenge is that they are a very traditional church with a pipe organ in the balcony, and they didn't want to compromise the acoustical environment that they believe is advantageous to that, but at the same time they weren't getting good speech articulation," explains Phil Mitchell, owner of the Mitchell Design Group. "The RoomMatch system allowed us to give them both the live acoustical environment and good speech reproduction."
(Jim Evans)
