Renkus-Heinz brings clarity to St. Mark’s
- Details
The Decorated Gothic style of the church, with vaulted ceilings, solid wood pews and stone masonry throughout, contributed to an unsatisfactory reverberation time of three seconds. Beam steering arrays from Renkus-Heinz are designed for installations requiring highly targeted audio solutions.
Church staff reached out to Joe DiSabatino, lead design engineer at JD Sound & Video, to design a new audio system for the sanctuary. DiSabatino partnered with local acoustical engineer Hadi Sumoro of HX Audio Lab to model the acoustics using EASE to design the system and SysTune to tune and optimise. Additionally, JD Sound & Video contacted Renkus Heinz’s regional manufacturer representatives at Audio Associates, a leading manufacturer’s rep firm in the professional audio system integration market, to assist with the installation.
“We have an extensive history working with Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers, and the EASE model showed great performance in the nave,” said DiSabatino. “Their beam steering arrays eliminated the need for delay speakers which would have required mounting to columns, something the church would not approve.”
JD Sound & Video installed IC Live Gen5 ICL-F-DUAL-RN arrays in the nave to improve speech intelligibility and provide even front-to-back coverage. IC Live Gen5 arrays use advanced digital beam steering technology to deliver quality sound while blending into the background visually. Renkus-Heinz’s RHAON II System Manager software lets the installer define the opening angles for as many as eight sonic beams from each ICL-F-DUAL-RN array module and aim them up or down. Meanwhile, the slim enclosure remains inconspicuous. For St. Mark’s installation, an artist custom-painted the cabinets in a complimentary stone motif to help them further blend into the space.
Six compact CX41s were “tucked away” near the pulpit and choir areas, acting as monitors for liturgical services. The compact four-inch loudspeakers deliver full-range performance in a miniaturised, space-saving design.
The church staff are thrilled with the audio improvements. Masses are intelligible for the entire nave - even parishioners sitting in the back of the large sanctuary can still understand the liturgy.
