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Steeped in centuries of UK history, the city of York’s magnificent Minster holds a revered place in the lives of locals and visitors alike. The cathedral has been situated at the heart of Christianity, in the north of England since the seventh century. The Minster’s in-house team recently completed a ground-breaking project by installing over 100 loudspeakers from the d&b xC-Series of cardioid columns, “forming the largest system of its kind in any Minster – and becoming the largest single installation of the xC-Series to date,” according to the d&b press release.
A space designed for reverberating the choral songs of old now hosts a myriad of services and events. The challenge of this project was to deliver a sound system capable of delivering transparency, engagement and spiritual intimacy no matter the expression of worship.
d&b Partner, Wigwam, part of SSE Audio Group and now Solotech, was hired by church leaders to work on a solution that could produce the spoken word without distraction, and reinforce live music for a variety of events at the cathedral.
Wigwam Installation Manager Phil Goldsworthy was familiar with the two-way passive column loudspeakers from the d&b xC-Series, as an effective solution for acoustically challenging environments, while being aesthetically compatible with their surroundings. Inevitably, a RAL color matched system was found to be architecturally complementary to the soaring masonry on display throughout the Minster.
Goldsworthy worked closely with Minster representatives, and as a result, specified d&b 24C cardioid column loudspeakers along with their 24C-E extension companions on each column, with the 24C-E’s providing an additional octave of vertical pattern control down to 190Hz; alleviating the nuisance of commonly problematic low-mid frequencies. Additional d&b xC-Series units in the form of the smaller 16C loudspeakers, were added around the altar and in the choir area. All 108 loudspeakers are powered and individually processed by the d&b audiotechnik 10D amplifiers, with complete control via R1 and Q-SYS integration to ensure the system is harmoniously flexible.
JojoStott Jojo Stott - jojostott.com
“The 24C features mechanically steerable high frequency drivers, which can be adjusted to direct the audio to where it’s needed,” says Goldsworthy. “This allows you to mount the units completely vertically, tight up against the pillar and quite high up, yet still achieve an even audio coverage to the congregation below.
“The units are narrow enough to fit within the grooves of the masonry - helping to reduce the visual impact of the installation, which is vital in a listed building of this type. We further reduced the impact by color matching the speaker to that of the pillar.”
xC-Series products are designed for intelligibility, directivity control, even off-axis frequency response and full bandwidth cardioid dispersion pattern. The incorporated 4” drivers radiate through waveguide elements at the front and via perforated metal, through damped ports at the rear of the cabinet. The resulting cardioid dispersion pattern minimizes interference caused by wall reflections in the low and mid frequency bands by 18dB – minimizing the energy dispersed on to surfaces to the rear of the loudspeaker, thus negating destructive cancellation in the listening plane.
FRICS Director of Works and Precinct at York Minster Alexander McCallion says, “When we went out for tender we were inviting people to put forward solutions which included premium speaker systems. We shortlisted, interviewed and selected Wigwam who had put forward the d&b solution. Before we signed any contracts, we invited them in to let us listen to this product and the clarity just from one speaker, meant that we were positive that we wanted to appoint and proceed with the d&b product.”
He continues, “We’re very happy with how the system looks and of course, how it sounds. York Minster, I believe, has the best sound system on the market.”
Goldsworthy concludes, “The sound quality is second to none in a building of this type and the installation is incredibly sympathetic to the Minster’s architecture. The system provides huge flexibility for a wide range of uses and is simple to operate.”
