A US$5m renovation and expansion has seen the church of Saint Bede the Venerable kitted out with a new sound system based around Community Professional Loudspeakers.
‘Unlike some of the more traditional Catholic churches, St Bede offers a mix of traditional and semi-contemporary services, with a choral and live musical accompaniment, as well as traditional organ and choir,’ says Audiobahn’s Tony Hersch. ‘So we had to design a system that offered more than simply spoken word intelligibility – it had to offer good musicality as well.’
Founded nearly half a century ago in the Northampton Township of Pennsylvania, Saint Bede the Venerable has grown to count more than 10,000 parishioners. Its renovation incorporates a classic Italian marble altar, magnificent stained glass – and sound system using Veris 8 two-way full-range systems.
The distributed audio system includes 14 Veris 8 cabinets – seven on each side of the seating area, as well as two additional Veris 8 boxes for platform monitors. A pair of Community CPL27 dual 8-inch systems provide monitoring to the choir loft, and two MVP12M boxes provide additional monitoring. The system is powered by QSC amplification. A Soundcraft LX7II 16-channel console and Shure RF systems complete the signal chain.
One of the biggest challenges in installing the system was coordinating the work around the on-going construction: ‘It was a pretty extensive renovation,’ Hersch says. ‘They brought in the altar from another church in Philadelphia that had closed its doors, with massive marble columns, and gorgeous stained glass windows. They were still holding services during the renovation, with the construction behind a false wall, and we were running cable and installing the speakers within a very tight schedule, alongside the general contractors.’
Hersch reports that the newly redone sanctuary is nothing short of stunning, with sound to match: ‘It sounds fantastic, and the coverage is great,’ he says. ‘There’s not a bad seat in the house. And it looks terrific.’
More: www.communitypro.com
