Nestled in the rolling canyons of Pacific Palisades, Saint Matthew's Episcopal Church is one of California's oldest and largest parishes. A visual wonder, the sanctuary's stunning architecture, has long suffered from problematic acoustics. Daniel Bae, project manager for Sierra Madre, Calif.-based Platt Design Group, says, "A lot of the complaints about the previous systems had to do with speech intelligibility and coverage. The room isn't very deep, but it is very wide, so time alignment was a major problem."
"It's my understanding that the sanctuary's architecture was designed to make the most of the choir and organ, and not the sermons," says Jim Dutka, the church's project leader.
"When the sanctuary was first built, we had two speakers on the ceiling," says Jeremias Mendez, the church's plant manager for more than 30 years. "One side of the room was completely dead --- people were only able to hear the sermon from a few seats."
Dutka and company contacted Platt Design Group, who recommended a pair of Renkus-Heinz Iconyx IC-Live steerable arrays, one on either side of the proscenium. "The IC-Live enabled us to steer the sound where it needed to go --- away from the walls and reflective surfaces and into the seats."
"We have a number of older parishioners who have traditionally relied on hearing-assisted technology systems every week," says Dutka. "Since we've installed the new system, many of them have come to us and informed us that they no longer need the assisted listening."
"Platt Designs and Renkus-Heinz have provided us with a tremendous improvement," agrees Mendez.
"I'm proud to say we now have one of the finest audio systems in the area," Dutka concludes.
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