Typical of the highly reverberant acoustic presented by church interiors, the Bürgermeister-Smidt-Gedächtniskirche in Bremerhaven, Germany, is filled with surfaces that make it difficult to deliver speech with clarity. With its sound system unable to cope, the church called on Blue Sound to determine the best way to improve on the set-up. Blue sound turned to Tannoy passive column loudspeakers.
‘The prior system had to be removed due to the poor sound,’ says Blue Sound MD, Herbert Heinze. ‘The solution we installed is is six, carefully positioned VLS 15s, powered with three Lab.gruppen E 8:2 amplifiers. They are controlled by an EAW DSP, and using Sennheiser ME 36 microphones.’
With transducer technology adapted from Tannoy’s QFlex, the company’s self-powered steerable array system coupled with an innovative new passive crossover network design, VLS Series is the first Tannoy product to incorporate FAST (Focussed Asymmetrical Shaping Technology), delivering unique acoustic performance benefits not previously seen across a full range of passive column loudspeakers.
Central to this is its asymmetrical vertical dispersion, gently shaping the acoustic coverage towards the lower quadrant of the vertical axis. By the nature of a typical application, an ideal column loudspeaker should be biased in the vertical plane, towards the audience and away from reflective surfaces above (like ceilings) which are detrimental to intelligibility. FAST also facilitates quicker, easier installation with less need for tilting or specific concern for optimal mounting height.
Lab.gruppen’s E Series amplifiers provide ample power reserves with amazingly low power consumption, therefore reducing the total cost of ownership below that of conventional designs. The units are built around the IDEEA (IntelliDrive Energy Efficient Amplifier) platform, which exceeds the rigorous efficiency requirements of Energy Star 2.1 certification.
‘At last, the holy father can be understood,’ says Heinze says. ‘The intelligibility is amazing, compared to the pricing of the system. You only have to choose the right components to achieve good results. This installation proves that with the VLS columns, you don`t have to spend a fortune to get impeccable clarity and definition, even in a space like this.’
‘I was really surprised when I heard the results for the first time,’ says church sexton, Stefan Tafel. ‘We were almost sceptical of the low cost of the installation, as we didn’t believe just six loudspeakers could fill this church with music. But our congregation can now hear the word of God much clearer thanks to this new system.’
More: www.tannoy.com
More: www.labgruppen.com
