With its mission to provide ‘the most exceptional organ sound possible for each unique house of worship, filling the church with the stirring music that great organs are designed to deliver, from the altar all the way to the very back of the sanctuary’, Church Organ Works has found a valuable partner in Ashly Audio amplifiers.

CEO Dan Bashor, of the Loveland, Colorado, company, has counted on Ashly Audio’s versatile amplifiers for 15 years. Available in packages of 250W, 500W, 800W, 1.5kW and larger, Bashor says the amplifiers are suited for practically all of the installation challenges he has faced.

‘Ashly Audio is able to provide the flexible technology and high performance for any system we encounter,’ he says. ‘We are able to solve problems immediately after we identify them thanks to the variety of options offered by Ashly.’

Bashor explains that the control offered by Ashly Audio systems allows the company to combine both pipe and digital technologies for a hybrid organ solution where details in every aspect of the sound are required. This immediate real-time control saves installation time and helps take the stress out of large projects in particular, allowing his team to focus on precisely tuning the sound for the sanctuary’s space and acoustics.

‘Being able to wirelessly control large blocks of multichannel amplifiers from anywhere in the venue is a huge advantage when setting and adjusting system parameters,’ Bashor says. ‘For amplifiers, we require a complete and flexible DSP suite for matrix, time alignment, gain control, mixing, crossover and all manner of parametric equalisation. Happily, Ashly is able to provide this.’

As a case in point, Church Organ Works recently completed an installation at St Ignatius Catholic Church in Tarpon Springs, Florida, where the high ceiling, wooden pews and reflective surfaces made an extremely challenging acoustic space – a common problem for many houses of worship. For St Ignatius, Church Organ Works specified and integrated Ashly Audio amplifiers to match the size and potential of the church’s hybrid organ. The result: a more authentic, powerful and detailed sound for everyone.

To meet the requirements for this organ, three Ashly Audio ne8250, one nX4004 and one nX 1.5 were chosen to support the St Ignatius hybrid organ and bring music to the congregation. The amplifiers each have Protea DSP onboard, and are Dante capable. The hybrid organ outputs Dante for the digital audio network path and uses Midi Pipe Output for the voice pipes.

Bashor explains how the pipe organ, described as the King of Instruments, has numerous unique attributes that make it a tonal giant. Understanding these attributes is critical in order to even begin to envision how an audio system might try to deliver pipe sound into a variety of acoustic spaces. ‘As one of the most unique instrument applications, we are basically asking modern technology to compete on-par or in some cases side-by-side with wind-blown pipes. Thank you, Ashly, for helping make the exceptional possible.’