The St Peters Free Church in Dundee, Scotland has overhauled sound with ten RCF Acustica C3108W’s and a pair of floor-mounted S4012 compact 12†subwoofers. D3 Audio and Visual handled the refit mounting some of the C3108W’s in pairs on columns and flying others above the ceiling void.
D3 Audio and Visual had to opt for an original mounting solution, dropping the loudspeakers down on chrome poles.
Control is via an Allen & Heath iDR8, carrying the sound up to the raked balcony, while a Soundcraft GB2 mixer, Audio Technica and Shure radio mics and QSC 4-channel amps complete the audio package.
“The requirement for the system was to deliver great acoustic reproduction of speech and music for regular Sunday services — at the same time making sure the system had a wide dynamic range to cover almost any eventuality,” said Phil Lidstone, director of d3. “The Acusticas provide impressive HF and accurate response with subs delivering the extended frequency range when required.”
Essentially the company has provided the church with a system with a wide dynamic range, which can achieve higher SPL’s when required. “This enables them to follow their tradition of singing unaccompanied psalms, and at the same time stage music events which demand much more from the system.”
In addition to its work at Dundee, d3 Audio and Visual has recently completed two other projects at Scottish churches.
In the parish of Wardie, Edinburgh, the old Episcopal Church of Scotland had been operating an ancient 100V line system when d3 was called in. The integrator opted for RCF’s L2406 full range high intelligibility discreet two-way speaker column array. With its vertical controlled directivity, it provided precisely the dispersion pattern required.
Eight of the L2406’s are mounted on pillars around the peripheral windows. “The speakers are low profile and can be colour-matched — although we opted for the [factory] white so they would blend in,” said installation director Andrew McCully.
Optimised for speech reproduction, these are complemented by four RCF MQ50 two-way monitor speakers, with 5” woofer and waveguide-loaded dome tweeter to maintain intelligibility and wide angle coverage up in the balcony area of the 700-seat church. Driven by QSC CX series four-channel amps, delay settings are programmed into an Allen & Heath iDR8, with a PL6 fader remote panel providing the front end.
The clergy are fitted with wireless mics, and other sources feeding the speakers include compact discs.
“Sonically the L2406’s are ideal for this application — with excellent voice reproduction and accurate dispersion, which allows us to direct the sound straight at the congregation,” summarises Lidstone.
Finally, Destiny is a growing contemporary church in Edinburgh, which began 11 years ago. In August 2008, they opened their second worship centre in the city in a converted 700-seat 1930s cinema.
Given the room’s abundance of hard surfaces, the sound system upgrade proved extremely challenging for d3. Having considered its options the company specified four elements of RCF TT Series line array flown either side of the high stage — one of the first in the UK.
The system comprises two ground-stacked TTL-31A’s per side, with four TTL12-AS subs (floor mounted). Completing the complement of speakers are a pair each of TTS 18A (18” subs), a pair of TT22-A (for balcony fills) and TT08-A (mezzanine level).