Tarzana, CA (July 29, 2015)—More than three years ago, a fire destroyed St. Mary’s Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East, located in Tarzana, California. As it began the rebuilding process in the wake of the devastating blaze, the church started working with Bob Ludwig, owner of Audio Techniques Pro in nearby North Hollywood, CA, to design new sound systems for the sanctuary, choir loft/balcony and for a small chapel located off the alter.
The rectangular-shaped sanctuary, which seats up to 500, features a cathedral ceiling, a tiered alter, a dome above the alter and a choir loft/balcony in the back of the room. From the flaxen-color Jerusalem stone floors to the stained glass windows depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments, the space was redundant with hard surfaces making vocal intelligibility a challenge.
Ludwig specified two KF394s mounted to the left and right of the altar for the main system. The KF394 is a passive 3-way, full-range loudspeaker loaded with dual 10-inch LF cones, and a mid/high frequency coaxial component made up of a 1.4-inch MF cone and a 1.4-inch exit HF compression driver.
“We were looking for stand-alone loudspeakers that would reproduce loud, high quality sound,” adds Ludwig. “The KF394 works perfectly and provides excellent intelligibility.”
Delay is provided by two more JF10s installed on the side walls, half way down the church. An additional pair of JF29s are mounted high in the ceiling to cover the balcony area. As an added bonus, the balcony delay speakers can be turned off when the balcony is empty to improve the overall acoustics in the sanctuary.
In order to reinforce the choir, which performs in the rear balcony of the sanctuary, Ludwig installed another pair of JF29 loudspeakers to the left and right of the balcony. This system is separate from the main PA and allows the sound from the choir to come from the source of the audio (ie. speech or choir/music). The “choir-only” system is turned on/off from the AV booth, which is also located in the balcony.
Lastly, the small chapel located off of the altar platform required another sound reinforcement system for smaller events or gatherings that take place in that space in the form of two JF8 loudspeakers y.
“Fortunately the dome located above the altar did not affect the acoustics much,” Ludwig continues. “However, the rest of the hard surfaces did need to be addressed. So we had Auralex panels installed half way up the side walls and again on the top portion of the same walls to tame the room.”
EAW
