Saint Pius X (Tenth) Parish church in Rochester, N.Y., was hit hard by fire on New Year's Day 2015. So the church's Father Paul Bonacci and congregation entrusted a veteran AV systems integrator, Joe Barone, to design and install a sound system for its stately new Catholic sanctuary.
Challenges
The new sanctuary's hard reflective surfaces and lack of acoustic treatment presented acoustical challenges. Aesthetic challenges included parameters on loudspeaker placement to avoid detracting from the architecture.
Solutions
"Saint Pius X is the first new church in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester in 40 years, so I knew expectations were running high," recounts Barone. "Pleased with the AV system I'd done for their parish center that housed services during the rebuilding process, the church chose me for the sanctuary system."
"Complicating matters further, acoustical treatment was outside the project budget and the church required a visually unobtrusive sound system that wouldn't interfere with its dramatic architecture and iconography." Joe Barone, AV Systems Integrator
Barone continues, "While the original sanctuary had been acoustically dead, the new sanctuary's highly reflective marble, drywall, glass and wooden surfaces created a very live and reverberant worship space. Complicating matters further, acoustical treatment was outside the project budget and the church required a visually unobtrusive sound system that wouldn't interfere with its dramatic architecture and iconography. In my four decades of working with church sound, I've established a reputation as a trouble-shooter and I was determined to meet this challenge."
Ensuring aural clarity and presence
"Loudspeaker selection, aiming and placement were critical to keep sound off reflective surfaces and focused on the parishioners" Barone explains. "Many loudspeaker brands offer limited driver sizes and horn patterns, and leave it up to system designers to fit them into various projects. I [seek out a] broad range of coaxial loudspeaker models [to] ensure the right tool for any given project."
Since the Bishop of Rochester didn't allow speakers below the archway at the sanctuary's nave, Barone reports that his team had to fly left/right Fulcrum DX1577 dual 15-inch coaxial loudspeakers with 75-degree by 75-degree horns as mains above the arch.
"Four compact DX896 dual 8-inch coaxes with 90-degree by 60-degree horns serve as fills for the sanctuary's side and mezzanine sections. Fulcrum's DX Series 3-way loudspeakers give me the output and pattern control I need from enclosure sizes typical of conventional 2-way systems. Rounding out the system, a pair of compact FX896 8-inch, portable coaxial vocal monitors provide clarity and source separation for the church choir," Barone notes.
And he adds, "The discrete system provides an aural clarity and presence that makes the room breathe like a fine wine. An elderly gentleman who always sits in the back of the church told me he could now hear every single word of the service."
