Nestled in Greenville, Mississippi’s historic downtown, St Joseph Catholic Church welcomes parishioners to gather under its high ceilings and the stately archways of its nave, where light from stained-glass windows floods into the sanctuary, each week. But while the architecture suits the music of the parish choir, it challenges the intelligibility of the spoken word.

The church leadership consulted Allen Cotton, solutions architect with Mississippi-based integrator Sound & Communications, to design a replacement sound system that would cover the sanctuary – without compromising its architectural beauty. With a history of collaborating on several similar projects, Sound & Communications looked to independent manufacturer’s representative Richard Hembree of Griffith Sales Associates to assist.

‘St Joseph Catholic is a beautiful and historic space, and I knew that delivering on audio quality along with aesthetics was of utmost importance,’ Cotton says. ‘Renkus-Heinz has served us well in similar spaces previously, and we chose the Iconyx loudspeakers because they look great and sound superb even in the most challenging spaces.’

The church’s previous sound system comprised small loudspeakers mounted high and out of sight. ‘The “waterfall effect” of sound coming from high above placed sound in the room but offered very little intelligibility,’ Hembree explains. ‘A pair of Iconyx Gen5 IC24-RN loudspeaker arrays proved to be the perfect solution – not only do they match the soaring lines of the architecture, their height also provides the needed control to keep full-range, reinforced sound away from walls and ceilings and focused right where it’s needed: on the congregation.’

Sound & Communications, Griffith Sales Associates and Renkus-Heinz worked together on the project, from the initial design through system commissioning, to ensure the system met the expectations of the church community. ‘We were able to pinpoint exactly what was needed through open communication with Renkus-Heinz throughout this project,’ says Lead Technician. Stephen Edmonds. ‘It always adds a layer of confidence during the process to have someone who can answer any questions that might arise, and Brandon Heinz, product manager at Renkus-Heinz, was that person, in this case providing remote technical support during the system commissioning.’

Thanks to a generous donor, who caused a chain reaction of good deeds within the Greenville community, the congregation can now assemble in the warm light and open spaces of St Joseph Catholic and enjoy every word and hymn of the Mass.

‘We are beyond thrilled with the reception the Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers have received; now, every member of the congregation can feel included in every moment of a service,’ reports Jack Duthu at St Joseph Catholic. ‘This upgrade has already promoted a stronger sense of community, and we could not be more grateful.’