WAYNE, PA – Nearly 300 years old, St. David's Episcopal Church has gained new intelligibility with a Martin Audio OmniLine array, specified by HOW design/installation specialists Spinnaker Multimedia Solutions.
Today, St. David's is the largest of the 157 Episcopal parishes in the Diocese of Pennsylvania and it continues to grow, having added a new chapel to its 40-acre campus in 2006.
The previous sound system included 32 speakers mounted around the upper tier of the long, rectangular worship area. The idea was to amplify sermons and choral voices in the large, reverberant space dominated by a three-manual, 47-rank custom Dobson organ.
The existing sound system, however, fell short of achieving coherent intelligible audio for the voices. As John Schofield, Parish Administrator, noted, "When the chapel opened, the announcing system was impossible. You couldn't hear a word anyone was saying, or understand it, for that matter."
The church then sought the services of Spinnaker Multimedia Solutions. Fenicia Redman, VP Project Development, noted that "St. David's wasn't happy with their audio so we performed an acoustic study and 3D modeled the room using EASE acoustic prediction software. Additionally we field tested three brands of speakers for them because we didn't want manufacturers biasing the presentation.
"It came down to two brands, one of which was the new Martin Audio OmniLine array, and we installed each system on two successive Sunday services for everyone to judge," Redman added. "The reaction was like night and day."
All 32 of the previous speakers were replaced. "We worked with Rob Hofkamp and Martin Audio's engineers to develop a solution consisting of two of the new OmniLine micro-line arrays with six modules each hung left and right in the front of the space facing backwards at an angle," Redman said.
Before the upgrade, SPL deviations were 8 dB. Afterward, they were 3.2 dB. Speech intelligibility also improved, from 17 percent Alcons to 2.5 percent Alcons.
The rest of the system, designed with ease-of-use in mind, consists of Crown amplification, along with Allen & Heath iDR8 rack-mount digital signal processing system and two PL10 control panels.
"OmniLine delivered the best sound distribution for the least investment," Redman noted, adding that "people can finally clearly hear the leaders" no matter where they sit.
"Once we chose the Martin Audio system, we've been thrilled with the sound ever since," Schofield said. "St. David's is now attracting really big musical events, such as the Philadelphia Boy's Choir Christmas Concert. It was fantastic. We had the City choir the week before, and they loved it too. This has become a popular venue for choral concerts and presentations."
For more information, please visit www.martin-audio.com.
