Built in 1993, and declared a heritage site by UNESCO, the Sacred Heart Church has recently completed an 18-month restoration that includes a full sound system upgrade and the commissioning of the first Martin Audio BlacklineX loudspeaker system in India.
The audio system work on the Roman Catholic Church, which is set in the Mumbai township of Vashi, was undertaken by local system integrator Zoodio. Having specified Martin Audio solutions for around a decade, Zoodio had been directed to the project by the priest of nearby St John The Baptist Church, following the installation of a Martin Audio O-Line as part of a major renovation project there. This time, however, Zoodio turned to the new BlacklineX range for the first time – ‘a classic suite of passive loudspeakers for the modern era’, which builds on the heritage of the original Blackline installation and portable series.
‘Sacred Heart Church is much wider than St John’s, with its wings extended on one side,’ explains Zoodio Project Manager and co-ordinator, Dylan Hilton. ‘The ceiling heights are also different and the reverberation time much higher than St John’s.’ He therefore reasoned that the church required the loudspeakers to be much lower and closer to the congregation – and in addition to its suitability, BlacklineX also worked within budget.
The installation team assessed the challenges of providing coverage for a congregation that can amount to 2,500 people. ‘There had been a lot of complaints about the old system as the vocals were not very audible and was quite old and outdated,’ says Cleo Pereira, from Zoodio. ‘The task was to not only cover the centre of the church but also every corner with evenly distributed sound, and we felt that BlacklineX offered best solution for meeting this kind of installation requirement.’
Accordingly, the company has installed a pair of X15s for the PA, a pair of X12s for the wings and two pairs of X8 as delay for the PA and the wings. Fed from a series of choir vocal mics, acoustical instruments, lectern mic and further altar mics, the new system also needed to set a benchmark for the future.
‘The response we have received from the community has been excellent, and the priest also confirmed that clergy now really enjoy saying mass, as they can clearly hear themselves speak while doing so,’ Pereira reports.
