Yamaha helps improve Moscow church sound
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Khodynka Field, a few kilometres north-west of Moscow city centre, saw the first Russian flight in 1910 and quickly became the city’s first commercial airport. Finally closing to aviation in the early 2000s, since then the site has been redeveloped as housing, offices, sports venues and open spaces for Moscow’s expanding population.
Located at the end of one of the former airport runways, the Church Of Saint Sergius of Radonezh was opened in 2017 to honour one of the Russian Orthodox Church's most highly venerated saints, as well as the many airmen and women who had flown from Khodynka Field.
Russian Orthodox services are conducted entirely in melodic chants or singing, to create a sense of calmness and to express the true nature and purpose of the words. The church originally had no sound reinforcement system, but it quickly became obvious that churchgoers were clustering in the centre to hear services properly, distracting them from their worship.
The monks who run the church looked for a solution to spread the sound more evenly throughout the church and Roman Belyaev, of Moscow-based AV specialists iProjector, suggested four Yamaha VXL1W-16 slim line array speakers. Three PA2120 amplifiers were chosen to power the VXLs, with the system controlled by an MTX3 matrix processor.
The sound reproduction and wide dispersion characteristics of the VXL1s meant that worshippers would be able to be anywhere in the church and hear services clearly. Just as importantly, the slimline profile meant they would be virtually invisible.
“The system delivers a very natural sound without compromising the church’s visual appeal, helping worshippers to concentrate solely on the services, without any distractions,” says Roman.
(Jim Evans)
