St. Mary’s church Westwood Nottingham is part of the Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham serving the community of the Selston parish. Built in 1899, St. Mary’s is a fine example of original Victorian church architecture with the usual array of exposed beams and wonderful stained glass windows.
The Installation Brief
To supply a sound system for the church that is partially installed sound and partially portable sound to be able to be transported to other smaller venues within the parish. In addition to distributing a clear vocal equally around the church so that the entire congregation can hear the preacher, the church sound system must also be capable of handling the church band including guitars, keyboards & drums. Plus, the church sound system must be able to reproduce with some zest the film soundtrack for the community cinema nights. The film screen, projector, DVD player & stand must also be portable to be used with the portable part of the church sound system to provide film showings at other venues within the parish. Also, the preacher will need a headset or lapel wireless microphone for when he or she moves from the lectern. Finally, for parishioners who are hard of hearing an induction loop will also be required. The installation will need to be sympathetically done and as discreet as possible respecting the fabric of the old building.
The Solution
Following a number of site visits and meetings discussing the various options with the client, Music Gear Installations provided the following solution. Two L2 Audio IM12 speakers, chosen for their sonic reproduction and durability permanently installed at the front of the church. A second pair of self-powered L2 Audio IMP12 speakers with a pair of L2 Audio TSP115 self-powered bass bins were positioned at the rear of the church. The second pair of L2 Audio IM speakers were secured and elevated by a pole fitted to the L2 Audio TSP115 bass bins. This was the portable part of the system. With the additional bass bins the speaker system could easily handle the film sound track and the church band. There were two amplifier racks provided for the church sound system, the first housing the amplifier for the installed speakers and the induction loop control and the second housing the radio mic receivers and the mixing desk. Therefore by unplugging a few cables the second rack could be transported as part of the portable sound system when required. If only sound from the film soundtrack was needed from the portable sound system, the mixer rack did not need to be taken as the DVD player could plug straight into the self-powered speaker system. For the cinema system we supplied a 5meter by 3 meter portable screen and purpose made trolley housing the DVD player & projector. We also supplied a fixed lectern microphone plus a headset and hand held wireless microphone that could be used in fixed and portable applications. Finally an induction loop was fitted so that the whole congregation at St. Mary’s could hear the preacher and also enjoy the church band and the cinema evenings.
”We are all so happy at the amount of options and variations we have with the system. It was quite a wide list of requirements that we had and Music Gear Installations managed to tick every box for us and keep within our budget. The Music Gear team were a pleasure to work with and nothing was too much trouble. Thanks again for a job well done.
Darren MangoldThe Parishioner