Installations

DSAs are Improving Intelligibility at Europe's Landmark Churches

They were built centuries ago for a higher purpose, and their beauty has endured. The challenge for today's audio system designers and installers is to preserve the aesthetics of the past while helping speech and song to be heard and understood better than ever before in these venerable spaces. Digital tools – including digitally steerable arrays (DSAs) from RCF and Renkus-Heinz – are succeeding in raising intelligibility to new heights. 

In case you hadn't heard, there was a big, fancy wedding at centuries-old Westminster Abbey on April 29. But the Royal Nuptials were actually just the latest in a succession of high-profile events that have taken place in the Abbey, formally known as the Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster, within the last year or so.

Dreams and divas, music and madmen, cirque and sensuality – this is Teatro ZinZanni. Originating in Seattle by Pacific Northwest nonprofit arts and events producer One Reel in 1998, Teatro ZinZanni is now also set along San Francisco's historic waterfront on Pier 29 at the Embarcadero.

The Feb. 2004 issue of FOH had an article that featured Trinity on the Hill United Methodist Church in Augusta, GA. The church had just hired a new Minister of Music and installed a sound system that was state-of-the-art (in 2004). That sound system functioned flawlessly for six years, but it's being retired and replaced as part of a major renovation called the Nehemiah Project.

When the time came to design its new worship facility, church management for White Oak Worship Center (formerly known as Full Gospel Fellowship Church of Danville, VA) knew that a well-implemented audio-visual system could do wonders toward making services more relevant.

St. Elias Maronite Church in Birmingham, AL follows in a tradition that dates back to Maron, a hermit monk whose life of prayer and meditation in the mountains near Antioch, Syria, inspired others to also make sacrifices in support of their faith.

Stepping into the octagon-shaped First Nazareth Baptist Church in Columbia, S.C. may not have been as intimidating as stepping into a similarly-shaped cage for mixed martial arts. But the church's layout still posed an interesting challenge for Frank Ward, owner of Acoustical Design: to install an AV system that would optimize the experience of worshippers listening to sermons, the choir and to video presentations.

"This is a state-of-the-art facility with features you would normally only find in a building that was built from the ground up," Brad Garven says. "It was an unusual renovation."

Make that an extensive renovation.

Mickey Gilley's legacy as an icon of country music was already secure when he opened his original namesake bar and honky tonk in Pasadena, Texas in 1971. With its mechanical broncos and classy roadhouse vibe, the club was further immortalized as the centerpiece of the 1980 hit movie Urban Cowboy, setting the benchmark for hip country music bars from coast to coast.

The Palace Theater originally opened in 1922 and is part of the Playhouse Square complex, an integral part of the Cleveland Theater District. The venue, which seats 2,700, is used for an eclectic mix of shows, from touring productions to concerts.

Lots of edgy stuff happens on a daily basis at the Penn & Teller Theater in the Las Vegas Rio Hotel. To make sure things don't go absolutely haywire, the sound crew relies heavily upon its wireless communications system.

The word "metropolis" doesn't easily roll off the tongue, unless of course, you're a superhero and you're talking about protecting your hometown. Just about the only other place in the "real world" where the term seems appropriate is Las Vegas – land of skyscrapers, megaplexes and roller coasters on top of skyscraper megaplexes.