Traverse City, MI (January 6, 2012)—Immaculate Conception Church in Traverse City, MI recently upgraded its sound system with a Tannoy QFlex speaker system designed and installed by Perfect World Studios.
The cathedral, built in the 1950s, is highly reverberant with vaulted ceilings that are over 30 feet high, stucco walls, stained glass, tile and natural wood. Jack Conners of Perfect World says, “We needed to provide high quality, even coverage to the seating area. While that didn’t require a lot of sound pressure level, it’s still a challenge in a 300 capacity, two-story room with reverberation time in excess of three seconds and no acoustic treatment.”
The previously installed speakers were in a central cluster mounted at the ceiling, and while the system worked reasonably well for many years, intelligibility was always an issue, which led to the need for a new system. The two QFlex speakers are placed to the left and right of the altar and mounted approximately eight feet off the floor. Conners explained his choice, noting, “QFlex uses a highly advanced beam-steering algorithm that allows precise control over the throw of the loudspeaker. You can literally focus the sound on the pews and away from the ceiling and back wall. The result is that no matter where you sit you hear the direct sound from the loudspeakers with much higher speech intelligibility.”
“The most difficult part of the installation was running the cabling for the arrays. The walls are stucco, but with cement block and steel beams behind them. Randy O’Connor, maintenance director at the church, found a route through the walls, and once the cabling and brackets were installed, the speakers went up easily.”
The church purchased new head-worn wireless microphones and new microphones for the ambo and podium. Some pre-existing components were reused including the audio mixer and the amplifier used to drive additional loudspeakers in the vestibule, cry room and under the choir loft. Choir reinforcement is handled with a separate system from the rear loft to maintain source localization.
Tannoy
www.tannoy.com
Perfect World Studios
www.perfectworldstudios.com
