The historic Shingle Style sanctuary building features Romanesque rounded arches and good examples of American Opalescent stained glass windows, carefully restored in 2000 by members of the 600-strong church community. Inside, a cathedral-style ceiling meets white walls, soft carpet and wooden pews.
Mike Sinclair of New Jersey-based system integrators Audio Incorporated explained that a combination of desires - for both better acoustics and better aesthetics - on the ministry's part led to the choice of audio systems.
"It was partly an architectural and partly an intelligibility issue," he says. "They used to have a large speaker that hung in the middle between the lectern and the pulpit which didn't belong there visually and didn't really do a very good job. So we suggested using two Iconyx, and we found the perfect location exactly in the corners of the room, from where we're cross-firing them over the room. The one on stage left is firing to the right audience and vice versa which gives everybody a very even sound field."
Each self-powered Iconyx is configured with two nodes apiece, the lower node digitally beam-steered down to the near most seating, while the majority of the cabinet steers a node to the larger rear part of the congregation.
"Acoustically," adds Sinclair, "it's a very nice space and the reflections sound warm in nature. But the real challenge was getting sound to the front half, more than it was to the rear, because of the need to reach that area with sound without obstructing the architecture. By placing the Iconyx finished in white, in the corners against the white plasterwork, they 'disappear' and because we're able to steer lobes to the front of the congregation it resolves both problems.
"The cross-firing also means that anyone sitting in the front rows looking at somebody talking in the pulpit gets the impression that the speech is coming from their mouth and not from above their head - so it works well in terms of a psycho-acoustic location."
(Jim Evans)
