Commonly known as Derby Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of All Saints is an spiritual and cultural hub for the city and surrounding areas, hosting 18 services per week plus special and seasonal services to celebrate important events in the religious calendar. The cathedral recently turned to specialist consultant and integrator Charles Brown of Acoustic Solutions to bring it’s installed sound system into line with modern requirements. Brown specified and delivered a comprehensive point source system from KV2 Audio.
Brown is often the first port of call for houses of worship looking to upgrade or renew their systems. ‘The pandemic was a catalyst for change for many churches as they were forced into live streaming in order to continue to connect with their congregations,’ he says. ‘I’ve installed over 40 live streaming systems in churches across the UK as a result, and it was while advising Derby Cathedral on this topic that it became apparent that their current loudspeaker system was less than adequate for the job.’
Founded in 1943, the cathedral needed clarity of the spoken word and detailed, low-level playback that could be heard without over-exciting the acoustic of the building. Brown demonstrated several products from a number of brands, but it was the KV2 Audio ESD25 and ESD5 from KV2 that the cathedral (and Brown) preferred over anything else.
‘I generally find that once clients have been exposed to KV2, they don’t want anything else and, if it were up to me, I’d use KV2 on every job if I could get it into the budget,’ Brown says. ‘In this case, ESD5 and ESD25 were an ideal choice – sufficiently compact that they fit in architecturally yet loud enough without being intrusive and with a clarity and detail that is second to none, all of which is perfect for a cathedral environment.’
Brown replaced around 30 100V line loudspeakers with 16 ESD cabinets in white to blend with the architecture, and four more powerful ESD25s at the front of the space near the altar to add bottom end. The rest of the cathedral is served by 12 compact ESD5s. An Allen & Heath AHM matrix mixer defines eight loudspeaker zones, allowing areas to be isolated when not in use and the levels of each zone to be adjusted for coverage free from hotspots or dead zones.
‘We’ve had nothing but praise for the system since it’s been in, both from users and those who have experienced the sound it delivers,’ reports Brown. Derby Cathedral Operations Manager, Jessica Kilmurray. ‘We’ve had a huge number of positive comments about how the new system looks and sounds from members of the cathedral community. It just goes to show that it’s already making a significant impact on the quality of our services, which is marvellous.
More: www.kv2audio.com
