ORLANDO, FL – St. James Cathedral's recently-completed $10 million renovation was more extensive than most church upgrades. Antonio Aguerrevere, senior director of design and construction services for the diocese of Orlando, suggested that the project might be more accurately describes in terms of being a new build.
"We put in a basement and replaced every single system; mechanical, electrical, plumbing, air conditioning," Aguerrevere said. "We redid every single finish – the doors, the furniture, the landscaping. Everything was refurbished. We had new stained glass windows done. We even replaced the roof."
The church's investment was prompted by more than a need for new systems and a desire for a heightened aesthetic. The church needs to serve a growing congregation. "We enlarged the facility, made it truly cruciform, and increased the seating by 400, to 1,200," Aguerrevere noted. "Basically, it's a new facility."
The diocese also took the opportunity to have the cathedral's pre-existing pipe organ removed, shipped to Illinois and completely refurbished by Wicks Organ Company. "When it came back it showed up in three semis; two full of parts and one full of tools," said John Teer, owner of Teer Engineering, the design/install firm tasked with the creation of an audio system for St. James.
"We had over 5,000 pieces," Aguerrevere added. "When the Wicks trucks arrived they laid out all the pipes and parts where the pews would later go before moving them up to the various chambers and balconies. It was a sight to be seen."
Attention to detail can also be seen in design touches such as the marble finishes imported from Italy; the hand-painted Pentecost scene on the interior dome, created by Rohn and Associates Design Inc.; and the components specified for St. James' new state of the art audio system, including Tannoy loudspeakers and Lab.gruppen amplifiers chosen for highly intelligible reinforcement of speech and live choral music in some of the more challenging areas of the cathedral.
The installation took place in November 2010, just prior to the Cathedral's Nov. 20, 2010 dedication. When Teer Engineering first got involved in the project in May 2010, they were the second firm to offer up a design for the project.
"We stepped in on another consultant's design, which, to be honest, had a few problems," Teer said. "We pointed them out, did some budgets and came in well under the original contract."
One of the key challenges in the project was balancing the need for intelligibility against the client's aesthetic requirements. "That was huge," Teer said. "I'd say probably 80 percent of the conversations we had about design were about how the system was going to look and where we were going to put it."
Whereas the previous contractor's design "had touring grade line array clusters hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the sanctuary," Teer noted, "our design was a complete redo."
In the new, larger space, it was important to provide adequate coverage throughout the main sanctuary, including areas in the narthex and below the cathedral's balconies. To achieve that, Teer specified a system that uses 12 Tannoy CMS 401s and three CMS 801 subs as fill speakers for those areas, along with Lab.gruppen C Series C 48:4s (3), C 28:4s (2) and an NLB 60E NomadLink Bridge & Network Controller.
Additional components include a Yamaha LS9 digital console, Soundweb BSS London DSP and Crestron control.
One of the primary reasons for choosing the CMS 401s was the fact they could be easily aimed in the more challenging areas where detail speakers were required, specifically in the under balcony areas. "Which, by the way, turned out to be the best sounding place in the house," Teer said. "It's crystal clear. You hear every little pin drop. Those ceiling speakers really did a great job."
Along with power and clarity, the Tannoy CMS in ceilings also provided a core benefit in terms of versatility. "Most ceiling speakers are designed primarily for background music, not foreground, which is why this is one of our number one speaker choices when we design systems," Teer noted.
Teer, once a fulltime musician, has appreciated Tannoy gear since he got the chance to listen to the quality of the company's field studio monitors. "That's where I actually got turned on to them. They've always had good intelligibility. They're a fine product and I've used them myself for quite some time in my home system. Their dual concentric drivers are great."
Teer also credited Lab.gruppen and the NLB 60E's ability to let him access the system remotely. "One of the things we like about the NomadLink is that it talks to the amps in a closed loop type network configuration," Teer said. "So even if an amplifier doesn't have power, NomadLink can still tell us what the status of the amps are."
For more information, please visit www.tannoy.com.
