There are architectural structures that present particularly demanding challenges to those involved in installing and optimizing sound systems.
This complexity is certainly found in churches and other places of worship.The team has to avoid difficult acoustic reverberations, preventing the incorrect propagation of sounds while ensuring maximum intelligibility of music and speech and still respecting precise architectural constraints, especially when it comes to historic buildings of value.
A challenge recently completed by the Piacenza IT and system integration company Inside Srl for the Church of Sant’Erasmo in Castel Goffredo, in the province of Mantua.
The parish priest of the Church, Don Giuseppe Bergamaschi, tells us:
“The idea of changing the audio system of our church was much needed for many years by all users, from the faithful to readers, from singers to instrumentalists, as well as priests. Hence we decided to entrust the renovation of the acoustic system of our church to the company Inside of Piacenza. And we are very happy because right from the start, when the rehearsals and studies were done, we went to see other systems, we realized the remarkable improvement on the performative solution we had chosen.”
From listening test to acoustic simulation
The initial need was to completely replace a dated and no longer performing audio system with a system capable of guaranteeing clear and intelligible speech, even in a very reverberant environment such as that of the Church of Sant’Erasmo.
The client – the Parish of Castel Goffredo – request to have a sound system capable of enhancing the choir, which not only animates the celebrations, but also performs in concerts inside the Church, which also hosts musical performances by other groups.
The solution proposed to the customer by the Technical Manager of Inside Cristian Sartori and his colleague Gianluca Pighi was the O-Line by Martin Audio, a micro-line array for installation in the white version made up of 2-way loudspeakers.
Manage the system remotely with LEA Professional
To manage the 8 micro line arrays installed, Inside relied on LEA Professional installation amplifiers. After discussions with the Audiosales Product Specialists, Gianluca Pighi, the team identified the appropriate solutions for the project in the 8-channel CONNECT 168D and 4-channel CONNECT 164D models, both equipped with analog and Dante inputs. The US company based in Indiana began designing amplifiers in 2019, focusing everything on performance, reliability and connectivity. It was this last aspect in particular that immediately captured the attention of the installers who chose them.
Gianluca Pighi explains it better:
“The truly innovative feature of the Connect amplifiers, of absolute convenience, is the possibility of making all the adjustments and modifications of the parameters remotely at any time. You can imagine the savings in time and money that it brings to be able to manage the amplifiers directly from the web app installed on our devices and intervene immediately if problems arise or if those on the installation site ask to change some settings”.
This is possible because all LEA products connect via Ethernet or WiFi and each one is a WiFi hot spot. LEA provides a Cloud where installers can analyze data to monitor health status and speaker settings can be saved in libraries. Ultimately, LEA Professional amplification platforms are the first true IoT devices for the professional audio installation market.
The challenge of live streaming
The Inside project for the Church of Sant’Erasmo was not limited to sound in the strict sense.
The client also requested that Masses and celebrations be broadcast live via the Castel Goffredo radio station, Radio Alfa. Many people, explains Don Giuseppe Bergamaschi, “follow Holy Mass both on weekdays and on Sundays via radio streaming. We have the church connected directly to our Alfa radio and the audio is excellent as is the video.”
Connecting the audio inside the Church with the radio was possible thanks to the Dante AVIO adapter with an analog output (ADP-DAO-AU-0X1): a need that was fully satisfied and streaming guaranteed using just one more device.
All the sound of the Church passes through the Dante network: in addition to the first one, another Audinate adapter with 2 analog outputs (ADP-DAO-AU-0X2) was used to be able to connect the parts to a small monitor serving the musician, useful during celebrations and concerts.
Tackling complex situations with the right solutions as they are reliable, functional and simple: this is what a reality like Inside srl has always done with projects for its customers and it is the same vocation of Audiosales, not only a distributor but also a consultant for its partner.
