While celebrating a 150-year history, St. Lawrence Martyr in Maryland is also celebrating a new parish complex, with Baltimore Archibishop William Lori recently presiding over a Dedication Mass blessing the new facility.
When facility design was in the planning stages, Michael Klass of Baltimore-based Klassic Sound was referred to provide a solution for the sanctuary sound.
“It wasn’t an easy room to work with,” Klass notes. “It was basically a concrete room with the only sound absorption being the carpeting on the floor. And with high vertical ceilings, we were dealing with a highly reverberant environment.”
As a Catholic church and parish center, the sanctuary serves a multi-functional purpose from services to musical performances. Parish principals worked with Klass’ company, known in the region for event production and sound reinforcement capabilities.
Considering a solution, Klass turned his attention to the RCF VSA vertical steerable arrays. “The church wanted something sleek and low profile,” he explains, “And I needed to provide a solution with the steering capability to control room reverberations while also providing the horsepower for the performance needs of the church.”
Klass recommended the RCF VSA2050, coupled with a Turbosound subwoofer for low-frequency enhancement. “The steering did just what I expected it to do, and what I told the church it would do,” he says, adding that he utilized RCF VSA User Control for tailoring: “Programming was very simple, and we heard the steering ‘pop’ into place very quickly.”
