Updated with additional equipment information 7/5/16
An Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing system comprising an S5000 control surface and DM48 MixRack has recently been installed at St George's Church in Leeds, UK.
Dating back to 1838, St George's is a Church of England parish church based in the center of Leeds, West Yorkshire. And with morning and evening Sunday services and a range of other activities taking place each week, the church is a busy venue.
Given its variety of weekly activities, the church's PA system requires a high level of flexibility as well as quality sound to cope with alternating musical and spoken content. The Allen and Heath representative on the job says the mid-sized S5000 control surface allows great versatility and an ability to cater to the church's constantly changing band line-ups and recording needs.
"The church sound guys found their feet really quickly with the dLive, despite coming from an analogue set-up. They found it really easy to use & are extremely happy with the flexibility it offers & the power it delivers in such a small footpriint."
Ben Hammond
Live Sound & Touring Ambassador, Allen & Heath UK.
Live Sound and Touring Ambassador for Allen & Heath UK distributor, Ben Hammond says the dLive system replaced an outdated analogue system, but presented few issues for the PA team at St. George's. He says, “The church sound guys found their feet really quickly with the dLive, despite coming from an analogue set-up. They found it really easy to use and are extremely happy with the flexibility it offers – and the power it delivers in such a small footprint.”
Another recent improvement program (carried out by church audio specialists DM Music) includes an array of Audio-Technica microphones and an Allen & Heath Qu-Pac digital mixer installed in place of an outdated radio mic set-up.
From the outset, the clergy at St Mary's requested a solution that moved towards more fixed, hard-wired microphones for ease of use, with six Audio-Technica ES195S cardioid condenser gooseneck microphones and a pair of U891RX cardioid condenser boundary mics employed to enable the clergy to conduct services from a number of different locations, with each microphone having a simple, illuminated on/off switch.
With choral music a big part of weekly life at St Mary's, ensuring the delivery of excellent sound quality from the choir was key to the new installation. Six Audio-Technica AT897 shotgun condenser microphones were specified to provide reinforcement and balance against the church's powerful pipe organ, and to allow for high-quality recordings of choral events.
The church's new audio complement also includes a four channel Audio-Technica System 10 Pro wireless set-up, operating outside UHF frequencies and delivering simple plug-and play operation for its non-professional users.
At the heart of the new installation is an Allen & Heath Qu-Pac digital mixer and a pair of AB168 portable Audioracks. Upgrading to a digital, programmable mixer brought St Mary's the benefits of a much simpler cabling system and simple one-button operation to recall pre-programmed settings for a variety of services. Members of the clergy and choirmasters can also use their iPads or iPhones to simply and wirelessly control audio levels around the church, with the system also enabling the recording of services to USB stick.
Finally, a trio of Apart Audio Revamp 4240T power amplifiers drive the new system, which includes an Apart PCR3000RMKIII multisource CD/USB/SD card music player with Bluetooth connection. Apart's MASK4T-W two-way loudspeaker also features in the new solution's multi-zone 24 speaker array.
