St. Helen's Parish Church, a well established and burgeoning place of worship, were in need of a new sound system to meet the scale of events and services.  The church required a range of audio features unique to different parts of the church, which required a system with processing and, more importantly, networking functions.  Sound was required in a range of different locations, including main chapel, side chapel, vestries, entrance and organ loft.

The install was a demanding task, with unique acoustics and architecture to deal with.  Audio had to be dealt with in a range of ways including the amplification of the church organ, music group, choir as well as additional background audio for entrance welcoming, church services, meetings and events.

The typical system would only have necessity for audio playback and very light sound reinforcement, however, this project was on a larger scale, requiring up to 40 inputs and 8 outputs, for larger sound productions, along with sound recording and independant induction loops.

The church offered an interesting problem as the main brief of the installation was ensuring the system complimented the existing architecture, was discreet and adhered to all BSI standards.  Given the scale and length of the building, a unique specification and finish was needed to ensure the right coverage was acheived. The main components of the system were based around the the main FOH speaker system with additional fills and relays.  Independant induction loops were fitted in both the main and side chapels to satisfy all disability requirements. 

The main Front of House system and the majority of all peripherial speakers were handled by Adlib's own series of custom finished loudspeakers.  Adlib's in house manfacturing department were able to customise all in house speakers to compliment the existing interiors.  Two AA1214 full range loudspeakers and two 15HLs sub bass enclosures were installed as the main FOH speakers.  The flat frequency response, power and coverage capabilities of the system were an ideal way reinforcing the complimenting the strongly defined acoustics of the space.

To provide additional coverage, AA51 and a series of custom specification AA281 loudspeakers were built.  This additional customisation also allowed for a reduction in bracketry, keeping a clean and streamlined appearance.

At front of house, the console of choice was a digital Yamaha LS9 32, offering 32 in / 16 out which was extended to 40 to handle the scale of larger shows.  This provided enough inputs for more complex mixes as well as offering plenty of outputs for PA playback, monitor feeds and induction loops. As part of the control system a CD burner was provided to make services and performances readily available for distribution to house bound parishoners.

With a speaker range and hall of this size, plenty of power was required to ensure accurate projection and clean singnalling.  The RMX series of amplifiers from QSC offers an incredibly rugged power supply, which is an absolute must with any potential audio equipment.  The RMX1850 and 2450 have proved to be a dependable and flattering accompaniment to the Adlib loudspeaker range as well as a better option for use in tight or enclosed spaces. An additional QSC 100V line amplifer was included to handle amplification of entrance speakers.

No system is complete without a processing unit and no large system is complete without a network and processing unit.  Most PA systems work well as a standalone unit, however this is not always possible when used in a range of environments.  The BSS Soundweb BLU160 married the processing and networking tasks into one box.  WIth the use of a software program, the system could be treated and synchronised with the help of compression, E.Q. and delay.  

The soundweb also offers the ability to assign a range of source signals to a number of outputs.  This was a particularly useful solution when required to send feeds to a number of different locations including the stage, foyer and organ booth,  To ensure that the building had a range of output options, access points were created for input and monitor feeds. 

Adlib also provided the church with a full range of microphones and accesories from Shure, Sennheiser, AKG, DPA and Konig Meyer.