But Hollywood UMC's outdated and underpowered sound system could not survive the transition to more contemporary music. It consisted of a handful of little 6" speakers mounted near the bottom of the cathedral's awe-inspiring support columns and was barely sufficient for the choral reinforcement for which it was originally designed.
Eventually the church's A/V tech, Dave Whittaker, requested meetings from area integrators for a Renkus-Heinz-centered system. One of the firms he contacted was Platt Design. Their president and senior designer, Bill Platt, is a two-time Emmy winner and spent 15 years as director of audio and show development for all of Walt Disney's theme parks.
As fate would have it, the staff at Platt Design had recently been introduced to the uniquely affordable and functional Symetrix Automix Matrix 780 when Whittaker contacted them.
"The Automix Matrix 780 is one of the latest in Symetrix' Integrator series of cost effective solutions for small to medium-sized installations in churches, hotels, restaurants, and the like. It includes 12 input channels, each with comprehensive filters, EQ, feedback elimination, dynamics, delay, automatic gain control, and either gating or gain-sharing auto mixing. Up to eight submixes are sent to the rest of the system through as many outputs," says the company.
"We almost always use SymNet DSP in our larger installations," said Phillip Kim, director of client relations for Platt Design. "We knew that Dave had his heart set on Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers, so the important differences between our proposal and our competitors' came in the system we built around the speakers, price, and our reputation as a company.
"The Automix Matrix 780 came along at the right time. It has the comprehensive DSP tools that Bill needs to build a perfectly-tuned system at a price that would be hard to beat." Cost was definitely a factor in Hollywood UMC's decision, and Platt was awarded the contract on reputation and assurance that the system would have the utmost fidelity and functionality without a tremendous price tag.
A far cry from the mini speakers they replaced, Hollywood UMC's benefits from eight authoritative Renkus-Heinz IC-series full-range loudspeakers mounted in such a way that there is almost no compromise between fidelity and preservation of the historic church's stunning aesthetic. A new Mackie console that was donated to the church, and Yamaha choir and stage monitors, let the musicians benefit from the dramatic renovation as well.
With the new system in place, Hollywood UMC is now truly ready to move forward with expanding musical styles. And despite an improvement in fidelity and power for which no superlative is adequate, the church budget is still intact, the company adds.
(Claire Beeson)
