Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon has replaced its aging sound system with a new solution from Electro-Voice and Dynacord that delivers quality sound in an easy-to-use format. With a history dating back over 800 years and a claim to be the most visited parish church in the UK, the church is best known as the place where William Shakespeare was baptised and is buried.
Alongside being a historic location, it is also an active house of worship that needs reliable, high-quality sound for services, spoken word, contemporary worship with a full band, and special events. To meet this challenge, the church brought in NoiseBoys Technologies.
“Their old 100 V system was coming to the end of its life,” recalls Phill Beynon, director of NoiseBoys Technologies. “They wanted a solution that could handle both speech and music, and extend the coverage into different spaces to create a multi-zone system. Dynacord’s IX series networked DSP amps together with Electro-Voice’s EVC series speakers and LRC columns seemed like a really good fit for the project.”
EVC-1082 loudspeakers cover the main body of the church. Models with the narrow 90°x60° dispersion angle and rotatable horn for longer throw were selected for the nave, while the wider 100°x100° variants evenly cover the side aisles, delivering excellent clarity of speech and the full audio range required for mixing a live band. “Having the EVC is really good because you can choose the dispersion on it,” explains Beynon. “It allows you to tailor the coverage a little bit more to these super reverberant spaces that were not designed for electronic reproduction.” An ELX200 subwoofer that can be plugged in when required and removed when not enhances the full range coverage.
The LRC-1100 Line Radiator Column loudspeakers were selected as fills and delays for areas of the church such as the choir stalls and chancel. In architecturally sensitive areas the sleek enclosures and the SwifTilt mounting system of the LRCs keep the column speakers discreet and as close as possible to the wall, respecting the church's architecture. “For historically significant areas like the chancel where Shakespeare's grave actually is, being able to use just use LRCs in that room was really good because they blend in with all the old dark woodwork in there,” says Beynon. “They're generally used for music playback during the week and then just largely speech reproduction. They’re good for filling in those areas where you need something discreet to do that job.”
A pair of Dynacord IX30:8 and a further IX15:4 amplifier power the system, with their line inputs used as Dante break-ins. Control is split via the amps’ built-in mixer and an external sound desk, the former providing simple control for day-to-day use, and the latter more hands-on mixing for services and events. “What it allowed us to do is use Dante both ways instead of just one way,” furthers Beynon.
“So instead of just pushing it from the mixing desk to the amps, we can take inputs on the amps through their Dante card and then feed them into the desk. And with the IX amps you can bring inputs and a mix in and split it on Dante between the amps as well, so you retain all the zoning control. No matter which control system they're using, they've got whatever they need, wherever they need it, which is really handy.”