Mounted snugly in niches flanking the altar, the custom colour-matched CAL 96 loudspeakers virtually disappear within 19th century Italian Renaissance Revival architecture of Mother of God Catholic Church in Covington, Kentucky providing a boost to the sound quality for the contemporary music.
At Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington D.C., what formerly was an unremarkable meeting and exhibit space has been exquisitely transformed - visually and aurally - into the Redemptor Hominis Chapel. Direct reinforcement of speech and occasional music is supplied by a pair of CAL 64 column array loudspeakers. To create an acoustic that is suitable for traditional Catholic worship, the Jaffe Holden team also specified a Meyer Sound Constellation® acoustic system.
"We are so thrilled with what we are hearing now," says Cindy Duesing, director of Mother of God Catholic Church's 14-member contemporary music ensemble. "For the first time we can really hear each other. Now we can distinguish individual voices and instruments - instead of hearing mush."
Regarding the Redemptor Hominis Chapel installation, Andrew Nagel of the Norwalk, Connecticut consulting firm Jaffe Holden, comments, "Of all the beam-steering columns out there, Meyer Sound CALs are exceptional in both their sound quality and controllability," says.
In this application, the beam angle and vertical spread of the CAL loudspeakers are calibrated to carry highly intelligible speech to the rear pews - a distance of about 90 feet - without overexciting what are effectively the "live" acoustics of a large church.
(Jim Evans)
