Belfast, Ireland (July 27, 2020)—Belfast’s St Mark’s Church was built in 1876, long before sound systems existed. Now it has a brand-new Martin Audio O-Line system provided by Rea Sound under the project management of Roger McMullan.
The church first approached Rea Sound back in 2018, responding to an advertisement in a church magazine. “The previous PA was an old 100V line system and people in the center and rear of the church couldn’t hear,” noted McMullan. “They had spoken to other sound companies, who had wanted to put speakers on pillars, which they didn’t approve of.”
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Rea Sound duly arranged a visit to the facility before setting up a demo of an eight-element O-Line hang on site. “We wanted to let the choir master, minister and organist hear the quality over the area they wanted to cover, and they were all blown away,” he reports. And this won Rea Sound the contract.
Rea Sound had noted the 28m distance from front to back of the church (along with the Heritage restrictions placed on them). Dividing the building into five sound zones (including three O-Line zones), their solution was to have two hangs of eight O-Line elements left and right and two hangs of 12 in the center to provide even coverage along the length of the rectangle, with a 6m trim height.
In addition, a pair of Martin Audio CDD5’s provides choir stall coverage behind the pulpit, via an Allen & Heath Qu-16 digital mixer. A third CDD5 takes the feed into the newly built creche.
McMullan’s theory for the low reflection value is that the ceiling is covered in Belfast Linen. “And that fabric probably helps considerably. We have delivered exactly what was requested, including a digital wireless system.”
Dr. Sarah Bass, from the Vestry committee, added: “We are very pleased with the end result and the delivered audio package from Rea Sound. The audio quality in every seat is exactly what we wanted.”
Martin Audio • www.martin-audio.com
