MOUNT ANGEL, OR – St. Mary Catholic Church here, one of the oldest parishes in the Archdiocese of Portland, was built from 1910 to 1912 with vaulted ceilings, a 200-foot bell tower, ornate stained glass windows, stenciled walls and Gothic Revival architectural details. But it had never been known for impeccable spoken-word acoustics.
Delta AV recently addressed the church's challenges to spoken-word intelligibility with a distributed system of 10 of Community Professional Loudspeakers' Entasys column line array systems.
"As with most cathedral-type spaces, the acoustics are wonderful for choir and pipe organ, but spoken-word intelligibility is problematic throughout most of the nave," said Delta AV's Steve Jellerson. "It's a beautiful space but an extreme challenge, acoustically speaking. They've tried a number of loudspeaker systems over the years, without success."
Two pairs of Entasys cabinets cover the front and side wings, with three more pairs mounted further back and delayed via Biamp DSP. A pair of VLF208W subwoofers provides low end reinforcement, and QSC amplifiers power the system.
"As you might imagine, aesthetics was a prime consideration in designing the system," said Jellerson. "The church had not been happy with the look or the performance of their previous system, and they were really impressed with the way the Entasys speakers pretty much completely disappeared into the columns. It changed the entire look of the church."
Of course, equally important was system performance, and Entasys delivered. "The high bandwidth and vertical coverage of the Entasys systems really focuses the sound," noted Jellerson. "Intelligibility is extremely high. Pretty much any row you're sitting in, it sounds like you're no more than two rows from the priest or the pulpit microphone. You hear very little echo from the room itself. The sound quality and performance of the Entasys really exceeded our expectations."
Pastor Philip Waibel echoed Jellerson's sentiments. "Our parishioners are not shy about speaking their minds," he said. "They have told me this is the best system we have had in living memory. When you get an evaluation like that from a demanding congregation in a demanding space, you know the system has to be good."
For more information, please visit www.communitypro.com.
