When specifying the new system, the Klartext sound reinforcement engineers faced a number of challenges, in that the system had to be able to cope with all of the requirements of a modern and forward thinking house of worship. The services held here are beyond the 'conservative' type, and include many types of live music, even gospel, alongside spoken word sermons.
Due to its wooden construction, the room itself has good natural acoustics, with a warm reverb that sounds neutral over the acoustic spectrum. Because of this, the installation didn't require beam-steering or line-array speakers to achieve a clear speech reproduction, but it still required something that would allow for an impressive music performance. Needing a solution that would take all of this into consideration, the Klartext engineers turned to Tannoy's V Series range.
In February 2011, Klartext travelled to Wahrenholz to set up a testing system for a Sunday service, using Tannoy V 12s as the main speakers, supported by V 6 delay speakers and finished off with a VS 15 BP woofer placed near the altar. The test system was controlled by a TDX1 digital controller, the V 12 in stereo operation and the V 6 delay in mono setup. Klartext used both AKG and Audio-Technica condenser microphones for different locations, to test their aptitude for the room, and they all worked well.
Before and after the service there was a thorough testing by the customer using different types of music played from CD, and with "exceptional results" achieved using the Tannoy loudspeakers, even the musicians among the testing crew were highly impressed with the system. The different sounds were clearly audible, even in the most remote places of the room, and there and then the customer decided that Tannoy was the answer to their system requirements.
In the August of 2011 the order was placed with Klartext for the V system installation 'as tested in February' - however, by that time Tannoy had launched its new VX Series, successor to the V Series range. But since the customer didn't want to switch to different speaker types that had not been tested with the room, Klartext and Tannoy located two V 12 and two V6 for the lower nave, and recommended the use of the new VX 6 for the galleries.
Thus, the look of the new system was not spoilt by different speaker generations on the same floor. Not wishing to ruin the aesthetics of the church, Klartext painted the (originally black) V6 and VX 6 speakers so they would fit perfectly to the wooden columns they are mounted to.
Volker Gringmuth of Klartext commented, "We completed the installation within two days in late 2011, and since then, many sermons, music performances and gospel services have been held at The Evangelische Kirche, with the combination of both VX and V Series always performing perfectly to the customer's fullest satisfaction. We fully expect more orders from that region, once the Tannoy's show what an up-to-date system can sound like."
(Jim Evans)
