One of the largest and most beautiful of Stockholm’s churches, the Gustav Vasa Kyrka has received a major refurbishment and technical upgrade from Soundcop.
With a capacity of up to 1,200 worshippers, the church has lavishly decorated marble surfaces and soaring arches that contribute to its remarkable reverberation time. ‘The acoustics was the biggest challenge,’ confirms Soundcop’s Jacob Julin. ‘When we started, the hall had an acoustic reverberation of 6s, so that was of course an issue.’
The building’s refurbishment included acoustic treatments to the floor and walls, pushing the reverb time up to 7.5s. ‘The worst of the reverberation is between 300-500Hz, so it is possible to improve it with a little bit of system trim, but the reverberation is very long in full frequency as well,’ Julin reports.
SoundCop had used d&b audiotechnik’s xC-Series column loudspeakers successfully in Stockholm’s Maria Magdalena church the year before. Purchased via distributor Arva Trading, the cardioid dispersion of the loudspeaker is key to reducing unwanted reflections and maximising intelligibility. ‘The 24C was the obvious choice,’ Julin says. ‘I was worried that they wouldn’t cover the 19m throw distance to the delays, so that was a nervous point, but it worked. It worked straight away.’
‘I listen through a lot of column speakers, and there’s nothing good, absolutely nothing,’ he continues. ‘Some use beam steering and things like that, but most only give me a headache because they’re not phase coherent at all. I’ve chosen xC-Series for a while now because it’s the only column speaker that actually sounds like a small PA for real. And it works.’
The finished installation uses one 24C cabinet per side, plus two tiny d&b 4S cabinets aimed inwards to the altar. Then there are 24Cs pointing the same way as the PA, and two 16C point back to the presenter’s position for foldback. ‘On one of the pillars there is an organ that is totally in the way of everything,’ says Julin. ‘If we put a speaker there, no-one behind it would hear anything. So we made 80cm wall-mount arms to hold the speakers out on each side of the organ.’
Around the pillars 24C, 24C-E plus 4S cabinets from the xS-Series, cover from the balconies, with further 4S cabinets providing under-balcony fill, and further 16Cs for delays on the pillars further down the room. In addition, a separate system of 16Cs is installed in one of the side-chapels.
The system is powered by eight d&b 10D amplifiers, with two DS10 network bridges providing the digital networking via a Yamaha Rio3224 I/O unit. ‘Every speaker is on its own channel to allow us to time align everything. There are two DS10s to get the audio from Yamaha and Q-Sys via Dante and distribute it via AES to the amps.’
The project’s aesthetic demands also made for a complex cabling installation, with Julin and his team running everything through precisely cut steel conduit, carefully tracing the ornate architectural features. ‘As there were a great deal of small angles needed for this, we had to more or less become plumbers to do it.’ he says.
A QSC Q-Sys Core 500i processor gives connection to two touch screens - one by the priest’s position, allowing them to select their own microphone, and another at front-of-house. ‘Here we have made very good use of the d&b plug-in for Q-Sys,’ says Julin. ‘It gives the user easy control of zones, by selecting areas of the room on a plan view map on the touchscreen. This mutes or unmutes the different areas.’
In total, around 30 loudspeakers have been installed, most mounted on or near the two foremost pillars. Two Q-Sys Page Stations are included for use in emergency evacuations, while a Yamaha QL1 digital console presides over the system at the front-of-house control position. ‘All EQ and delay is done with d&b R1 remote control software,’ says Julin. ‘The user has a choice of controlling events either via the programmed touchscreen connected to the Q-Sys Core, or via the QL1.’
‘It’s a very good system – the sound is much, much better than before,’ comments Facilities Manager Urban Paulander of the Svenska Kyrkan (Church of Sweden). The control interface is both advanced and simple, which is great because we have people in the staff with different levels of knowledge and interest in sound and mixing.’
‘Quality-wise, the xC-Series loudspeakers were everything to this project. I don’t think it could have had that quality without that product, at least not with the visual demands,’ Julin concludes. ‘There was no way we could have used anything else - not that stays coherent, anyway. In my next church project, I’m pretty sure I will do the same thing again, and again, because it really works.’
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