Luther College in Croydon, Australia recently undertook a major audio upgrade of their school chapel, appointing South Melbourne-based Factory Sound to install a new sound reinforcement system based on Adamson Systems loudspeakers.
The most dominant visual feature in Luther College’s Chapel is the floor-to-ceiling leadlight window behind the altar, which drove the topology and layout of the speaker system. The sanctuary is horseshoe shaped with a two-tiered seating plan that seats 400.
“The school’s leadership team were very specific in keeping sight lines to the leadlight absolutely clear from any seat in the house” commented Daniel Thomas, Factory Sound’s head of installation. “This meant that conventional arrays were out of the question, and we had to strike a compromise between keeping the loudspeakers out-of-sight and maximizing the direct-to-reverberant ratio.”
“There was up to 4 seconds RT60 at low frequencies and limited hanging points, so it was definitely a challenge. The final design was settled after detailed EASE acoustic modelling, and several discussions with Luther College’s Music, Finance and IT staff about ways to maximize their budget for the project.”
A mono pair of Adamson Point 12 cabinets fit just out-of-sight above the timber cloud above the altar, and serve as the acoustic focus of the system. Directly above hangs a single Adamson Metrix Sub for LF reinforcement – again, virtually invisible from below. A ring of seven pairs of Adamson Point 8 loudspeakers hangs from the ceiling grid, serving the two seating tiers.
The Point 12 is recommended where high SPL is needed with a moderate amount of low frequency energy. The 12” ND12-L 8Ω Neodymium Kevlar driver and 1.4” exit HF driver mounted on an Adamson fiberglass waveguide give the Point 12 remarkable power.
Similar to the Point 12, the Point 8 is loaded with a single Adamson 8” ND8-LM 16Ω Neodymium Kevlar driver and 1” Exit HF driver mounted on an Adamson fiberglass waveguide. The point 8’s rotatable 90° x 60° waveguide offers a defined coverage pattern which was exactly what the chapel system required.
“The school is very happy with the result,” says Thomas. “The venue now caters to everything from sermons and musical theatre to concert bands and rock ensemble performances and everything in between.”
