Upgrading the audio infrastructure at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, RG Jones installed a QSC Q-Sys audio network with product and technical support from the Shure UK Systems Group. Q-Sys is now providing full control of the original audio system, which was installed by RG Jones over 25 years ago.

RG Jones Project Engineer Jake Miller worked with Q-Sys specialists on the development of the bespoke Q-Sys infrastructure, which combines a Core 250i, I/O frame and QSC ISA300Ti amplifiers.

The set-up separates the cathedral into ten zones to individually address the requirements of various and diverse worship services, ceremonial events and meetings held daily throughout the 167m-long cathedral. Q-LAN (the audio-over-IP audio networking component of Q-Sys) is used to combine the elements that handle the audio and control the system separately over a straightforward Layer 3 network using standard network switches.

In addition to providing the cathedral with flexible audio networking, the Q-Sys upgrades have significantly enhanced the performance of the audio infrastructure, bringing the sound in the cathedral to life and eliminating excess noise.

RG Jones designed a custom User Control Interface to control Q-Sys – a touchscreen featuring a graphical representation of the Cathedral provides simple fingertip control and audio presets for each zone. The Cathedral’s staff can turn zones on and off, and activate presets without any technical knowledge of the system.

Miller worked with Shure Applications Engineer Tom Colman to address the finer details of the installation: ‘I have worked with Tom and Shure several times in the past and they have always provided great support. I can ring them anytime with a complicated request and they are always more than happy to help.’

‘To the non-technical person, Q-Sys is both informative and very easy to use,’ says Ely Cathedral Technical Manager, Richard Clover. ‘It provides us with complete control of all microphones and speaker zones in the Cathedral and we are already planning the next phase of the installation, which will allow us to record directly within the system and play pre-recorded visitor messages over the PA system at set times throughout the day. We highly recommend the Q-Sys system.’

‘I love the design element of Q-Sys because it allowed me to upload an image of the cathedral and program Q-Sys so that the members of the church can simply touch and augment the audio in any area,’ Miller says. ‘It is always impressive to provide the customer with a bespoke system that does exactly what they want.’