Article

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

OmniLine Array Transforms Audio In Landmark Episcopal Church

Martin Audio Arrays chosen for their intelligibility in a challenging space.

St. David’s Episcopal Church, in Philadelphia is a church with a very distinguished history.

First settled at end of 17th Century by Welsh, the church will celebrate its 300th Anniversary in 2015.

Now the largest of 157 parishes in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, St. David’s needs have changed greatly since its founding

The chapel’s original audio system was intended to amplify sermons and choral voices in a large, reverberant space dominated by an impressive 3-manual, 47-rank custom Dobson Organ.

Consisting of 32 speakers mounted around the upper tier of the long rectangular worship area, the system had one major flaw.

It was incapable of producing coherent intelligible vocals throughout the sanctuary.

Said John Schofield, Parish Administrator, “When the chapel opened, the announcing system was impossible.”

“You couldn’t hear a word anyone was saying or understand it, for that matter.”

The church sought the services of design/installation firm Spinnaker Multimedia Solutions.

Fenicia Redman, VP Project Development elaborated on the project, stating, “St. David’s wasn’t happy with their audio so we performed an acoustic study and 3D modeled the room using EASE acoustic prediction software. “

“It came down to two brands, one of which was the new Martin Audio OmniLine array, and we installed each system on two successive Sunday services for everyone to judge. The reaction was like night and day.

“We replaced 32 speakers,” Redman continues, “whose intelligibility was very poor from front to back and across the listening area.

Vocal clarity was key here because there’s a lot of reverberation in the room to enhance the 50-member choir and organ sound.”

The rest of the system, designed for easy operation, consists of Crown amplification, along with Allen & Heath iDR8 rack-mount digital signal processing system and two PL10 control panels.

Bottom line, “OmniLine delivered the best sound distribution for the least investment. People can finally clearly hear the leaders no matter where we sit,” Redman concludes.

“As it turned out, these two small arrays solved the problem one hundred percent.”

“People in the front could hear as well as the ones in the rear and it sounded even from front to back for the first time. And they’re light, really small and easy to rig.”

Schofield, impressed with the system’s intelligibility, adds “once we chose the Martin Audio system, we’ve been thrilled with the sound ever since.”

“To the extent that St. David’s is now attracting really big musical events, such as the Philadelphia Boy’s Choir Christmas Concert.”

“It was fantastic. We had the City choir the week before and they loved it too. This has become a popular venue for choral concerts and presentations.”

Martin Audio Website

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