The restraint exercised back then by architect W.C. Jones, when he re-drew Sullivan's plans under instruction from the church, meant that two years later Bishop William Quayle was able to dedicate the freshly completed St Paul's. The church building remains true to Sullivan's clean modernist design, sacrificing only his more elaborate ornamentation. In the intervening 97 years just the lightest of touches has been required to keep this building aligned to purpose, not least a new organ in 1946; however the acoustic of the sanctuary had always been problematical.
"The church's acoustic is quite a challenge, the sanctuary is a semi-circle," began Wes Nygren, the man responsible for soliciting technological proposals at this most traditional of churches. The fact of St Paul's Historic listing added a dimension of complexity that many found challenging, as Nygren explained.
"We consulted with different people but found we were not able to get proposals from any of them; not one single person we consulted would submit." Succinctly, the shape of the room produced a confused sound image but due to the historic listing, acoustic modification of the church's interior demanded a very particular sensitivity. Fortunately Nygren and the church elders were made of sterner stuff and spread their research further afield.
Jason Kartak hails from Audio Logic based some 300 miles away in Bloomington Minnesota; he found the conundrum of St Paul's just the sort of challenge he enjoys. "The room is large, it holds a congregation of eight hundred, so some amplification had always been desirable, but their 1980's vintage horn based system produced more problems than it solved. To the front of the pulpit is one huge parabola and reflections from the front edge of the balcony were a disaster."
Audio Logic first submitted plans in late 2009 to apply acoustic treatment to the balcony front and other areas of the sanctuary; these are under consideration and as is the nature of such things, will pass through many revisions before all vested interests are satisfied.
Meanwhile Kartak has turned his attention to the audio system, which has brought immediate benefits. "For the hall itself, again Historic Building restrictions apply; we ended up having to create suspension systems concealed above the ceiling for the three clusters we eventually installed. We drew up a design based on d&b audiotechnik's White range, a new range of loudspeakers that launched when we were maybe 12 months into the project.
"The White loudspeakers, in this instance the xA-Series, provide a really elegant solution for a visually sensitive environment such as this, as well as proving highly economical; fund raising had been underway for sometime and unknown to us hit budget pretty much as we submitted the proposal. The three clusters are identical; each has a 10A-D 110° cabinet at the top, and then beneath a pair of 10A 75° boxes flanks another 10A-D.
"The services here are very much in the traditional fashion, heavily speech-based with choir and organ accompaniment to the hymns. However, there is a discrete nod to contemporary worship, but that's with a small 'c', as such we have installed three 27A-SUBs, an inherently cardioid cabinet, in an array up in the organ loft."
Progress for St Paul's has been almost three years in the making; another three will see its hundredth anniversary which falls in May 2014.
(Jim Evans)
