The 400-capacity auditorium at Maris Stella, a senior care facility established in 2013 in Incheon, South Korea by the Catholic Foundation, has been outfitted with a new sound reinforcement system to support the daily celebration of Mass as well as lectures, film screenings and live performances that incorporates a pair of KV2 Audio ESR106 active column loudspeakers.
The new system was implemented by KV2 distributor Daon SD in collaboration with audio consultants Audio Control. The previous iteration relied on multiple full-range loudspeakers distributed throughout the space. In addition to being visually intrusive, both coverage and sound quality left much to be desired, particularly in terms of vocal intelligibility.
Having had several demos of KV2 systems from Daon SD, Audio Control CEO Mr Noh knew the brand would be well-suited for the auditorium. A demo of the EX Series furthered that process, even though ultimately, Mr Noh proposed the ESR106 active columns instead. It incorporates multiple 6-inch woofers and a single 1-inch high frequency driver mounted on a wide dispersion horn in a design for challenging acoustical spaces and ambient environments. Mounted to the left and right of the stage, they proved to be the right fit for the auditorium, where the relatively low ceiling height compared to the depth of the room was something of a challenge.
“In order to secure the loudspeakers to the wall we customised the wall mounting hardware so that we could mount the cabinets safely on the striated wooden wall cladding,” says John Park of Daon SD. “In an ideal world we’d have raised the installation height slightly to ensure optimum coverage for both the front and back rows, but the configuration of the room didn’t allow us to do that.
“However, once we turned the loudspeakers on, all our concerns were forgotten. Crystal clear sound filled the room from front to back – in fact the coverage and throw of the ESR106s defies common sense! The clarity and intelligibility — even from the back seats which are 25 meters away from the stage — are simply in a different league to the previous system. It’s hard to believe that this is possible from just two enclosures.”
