The audio installation market has long been crying out for a cost-effective aesthetic column speaker solution which provides high quality sound for both speech and music.
Leading speaker manufacturer Electrovoice have certainly met this brief with their new LRC range of speakers. They are passive line-radiator column speakers which are available in three size variants and two colours (black and white) – covering all possible applications within traditional Houses of Worship.
Uniquely, they feature narrow vertical dispersion to avoid projecting sound into ceiling voids and focussing audio to the congregation, with wide horizontal dispersion for exceptional coverage.
As long-term Electrovoice integrators, Creative Audio-Visual Solutions (CAVS) have already installed the LRC speakers into a number of churches to great success:
At All Saints Church in Marlow, Buckingham (pictured right) the brief was to provide a concert quality audio system capable of full range worship and video amplification along with crystal clear and uniform speech amplification throughout the church.
In addition, the speakers had to be custom paint matched closely to the pillar stonework. An Allen & Heath AHM-32 processor manages the individual speaker feeds, allowing the speakers to be acoustically tuned to the building, thus maximising intelligibility whilst reducing the likelihood of feedback and also providing delay to reduce ‘audio-doubling’ as sound travels the length of the church.
The largest LRC-2100 columns were utilised as the front/main speakers with two 6.5” woofers and twelve 2.5” mid-high drivers. The smallest LRC-1060 columns, with six 2.5” mid-high drivers, were used on the two further rows of pillars as delay speakers – ensuring smooth and uniform coverage especially for speech to the rear of the church.
Two Electrovoice EKX-15SP active 15” subwoofers enhance low frequencies for the live worship band – adding dynamics and energy to all music.
At St Mary the Virgin, Potters Bar in Hertfordshire, a long-term customer of CAVS (pictured below), the emphasis was on high-quality speech and light music reproduction but with the same uniform audio quality throughout the church.
Ten LRC-1060 column speakers were installed on the main pillars providing the highest quality coverage for the spoken word. A single compact Electrovoice ELX-200-12SP 12” active subwoofer enhances lower frequencies for music playback and was installed discreetly under the pulpit.
Again, the system utilises an Allen & Heath AHM-32 matrix processor but this was also used as the main mixing front end with both static tactile controls and presets along with wireless iPAD operation from anywhere within the church.
The latest amplifier for Dynacord, Electrovoice’s sister company, with digital speaker processing, perfectly matches the speakers to the building’s acoustics. The IX30:8 amplifier (3,000 watts shared over eight outputs) intelligently monitors every speaker to provide optimum power and protection at any time. This includes Dante audio networking – all within a 1U chassis.
Supplementary Electrovoice S-series speakers were used for chancel and chapel coverage. The system at St Mary’s also features new Sennheiser DX radio microphones with charging stations and a streaming system based on the ATEM Extreme mixer with three PTZoptics high-definition motorised cameras – providing high-quality online broadcast and coverage of all areas of the church.
These two projects prove the flexibility and quality of this new speaker – marrying discreet design with modern speaker quality – and along with Creative Audio-Visual Solutions’ expertise and experience provide the ideal solution for traditional churches needing the ultimate aesthetic audio solution.
For an on-site installation consultation, or advice on the best systems for your church, call or email CAVS. Local references are available upon request. You can also ‘Like’ them on Facebook (Cavsolutions) for the latest installation case studies and product news.
For further information visit cavsolutions.co.uk
