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Bose RoomMatch Arrays Deliver Intelligibility, Music Quality At Oakland LDS Temple

A new sound reinforcement system serving the 1,800-seat Interstake Auditorium at the LDS (Mormon) Temple in Oakland, CA, incorporates technologies from the
Bose Professional Systems Division.

The worship facility had presented significant challenges to sound system designers ever since it first opened in 1964, including strong, focused echoes, somewhat heightened ambient noise levels, and a ceiling built too low for that type of room.

These difficulties needed to be addressed once and for all, and as cost-effectively and efficiently as possible. The answers were found in the Bose RoomMatch array module loudspeakers and PowerMatch amplifiers, which not only overcame all of those challenges but also proved to be both a cost and time-saver.

A new Bose RoomMatch array module system was recently installed, consisting of 27 RoomMatch modules plus six RMS215 subwoofers, powered by ten PowerMatch 8500 amplifiers. The RoomMatch progressive directivity arrays are available with a wide range of horizontal and vertical dispersion characteristics.

The Oakland Temple installation includes RoomMatch modules offering 90×60-degree coverage, referred to by the model number RM9060, as well as the RM9020, RM9010, RM7040, RM7020, RM7010 and RM5520 models.

The system was specified by Ken Dickensheets, CTO/Principal Consultant, Dickensheets Design Associates, Austin, TX, and installed by Marshall Industries of Salt Lake City, in collaboration with Poll Sound, based in Murray, UT, integrating it with an existing Yamaha mixing console and under-balcony ceiling loudspeakers.

There are two RoomMatch hangs at the proscenium and two halfway back in the room, and five more for the balcony. An additional module provides stage foldback.

The system operates in two modes: unattended, for conferences; and for theatrical events using the Yamaha console. A Biamp AudiaFLEX processor handles room tuning, routing and control up to the Bose amps, which are loaded with the speaker parameters, while an Ivie Technologies iFlex 1280 supports automatic operation.

Dickensheets, who was familiar with the RoomMatch system, having specified it for previous projects, says he was confident in the performance of the system.

“The overriding consideration was speech intelligibility with the added need for excellent musical quality,” he states. “When we looked at other speaker systems we could address some of the issues but not all of them; this one addressed all of the issues. We were able to keep most of the direct energy off the rear and side walls. It enabled us to get very even sound coverage in the room, better than plus or minus 1 dB at 2 kHz with very high intelligibility.”

The sound team also availed themselves of one unique technology in the Bose arrays. The Continuous-Arc Diffraction-Slot (CADS) manifold has eliminated throat distortion, obviating the need for corrective finite impulse response (FIR) filtering.

“On most conventional systems, when we get the speakers aimed and the crossovers put in, we’re about 20 percent along in the tuning process,” observes Dickensheets. “What we found with this system is that by the time that we’ve put the crossovers in the amplifiers and turned the system on we’re 90 percent of the way along.”

In the end, the Bose technologies successfully addressed every issue on the agenda, and did so better than any other solution on the market. “Not only was it more time-efficient, but it saved money, too,” Dickensheets concludes. “The estimates for this system came in below comparable systems, so we had a lower cost and higher performance.”

Bose Professional Systems Division

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