Following the installation of 127 of these miniature speakers at the 16th century Trinity College, Cambridge, back in February, a similar solution has been provided at the famous New College Oxford chapel, which dates back to 1379, when it was founded by William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester.
The latest contract was fulfilled by classical recording specialists, About Sound, and also includes devices from fellow Harman brands, Crown, BSS Audio and AKG. All Harman Professional components were supplied by Sound Technology.
Working alongside the Chapel's musical director, Prof. Edward Higginbottom, and chaplain, Revd Dr Erica Longfellow, they were initially drafted in to set up a recording facility for the College's famous choir, enabling services of choral evensong to be webcast on a weekly basis,
About Sound's appointment was based on their pedigree - and particularly the work they had carried out earlier at St. John's College Cambridge, where they provided a similar set-up for their own world-famous choir.
It was during the second phase of work at New College that the issue of amplifying the spoken word was broached.
Says About Sound's technical manager, Richard Bland, "The College had been spending a fortune on rental PA for the larger events. To have speakers on sticks brought in to a building as eminent as this was not aesthetically ideal and the sound couldn't be described as intimate or discreet."
Aware of how successfully the JBL Control 52's had been integrated at Trinity College, About Sound MD Matthew Dilley arranged for two Control 52's to be demonstrated to the Chaplain. In the resulting design, around 100 JBL satellite speakers have been locked onto a custom bracket and mounted behind the pews on oak-stained plywood. Richard Bland also knew that in deploying large quantities of the Control 52's they could be driven at a much lower volume level. "It gives an almost mystical effect," he says.
These are processed and controlled within a BSS Soundweb London digital processing environment, comprising a BLU 100, with a fixed configuration of 12 inputs and eight outputs, two BLU-BOB breakout boxes providing necessary output expansion and BLU-8 wall-mount controller for selecting basic presets. Meanwhile, a custom touchscreen interface was designed around a Windows 7 wireless tablet PC for more complex control from any location.
(Jim Evans)
