SUMTER, SC – Built from 1850 to 1852 on land donated by American Revolutionary War General Thomas Sumter, the Church of the Holy Cross is a National Historic Landmark, and "the speaker system needed to be ‘invisible,'" noted design consultant Adam Dox of Advanced Video Inc., Columbia, SC. To meet both aesthetic and audio requirements, Dox opted for eight Renkus-Heinz TRX 81/9 loudspeakers.
"They wanted both wired and wireless microphone systems and an amplification system that blended in seamlessly with the venue," Dox noted. Additionally, the church wanted minimal controls available, with only an "on" or "off" setting.
High ceilings, hard surfaces and weight limitations on the ceiling trussing further complicated the design, limiting speaker placement within the room's exceptionally live acoustics.
As it turned out, the Renkus-Heinz TRX 81/9 loudspeakers met the needs of the project better than any other solution.
"The speakers had to be relatively small in size, yet powerful enough to fill the sanctuary," said Dox. "They also had to have the ability to be stained to blend in with the existing wooden ceilings," he added. "The TRX 81/9 provided outstanding full range performance in an extremely compact size, and allowed us to mount the speakers in a variety of ways."
Crown XLS402 amplifiers power the system, and a Biamp Nexia CS provides mixing and system DSP.
Once the installation was complete, the site then had to be reviewed and approved by the South Carolina State Historic Preservation.
"Two of the eight speakers had to be moved and re-oriented from a horizontal mounting position to a vertical position," Dox noted. "The drivers in the speakers had to then be re-oriented and the DSP had to be adjusted. The enclosures had to re-stained to match the wood ceiling color as close to an exact match as possible."
All the work and attention to detail ultimately paid off, however. "In November, 2010 the architects on the project, Cummings & McCrady, Inc., received the Honor Award for the restoration of the church. We were only a small part of this award, but our solution certainly assisted in the overall project."
The unique design touches at the church include Bavarian-made stained glass windows and one of the few original Henry Erben pipe organs in existence in the U.S.
The church is the burial site of former U.S. Ambassador Joel Roberts Poinsett, botanist and namesake of the poinsettia. The church walls were constructed by a technique known as "rammed earth," which creates a structure that is durable and holds excellent thermal characteristics.
Although the building had survived an earthquake, tornados, and hurricanes, termite damage to the wooden parts of the building ultimately led to the need for the restoration of the church.
For more information, please visit www.renkus-heinz.com.
