QSC sound system installed as part of 3.5 million renovation of St. Malachy’s Church in Belfast

A pair of white polystyrene AcousticDesign AD-S282H’s, yoke-mounted vertically onto the sanctuary walls on either side of the altar, provide the dispersion for both the gallery and ground floor seating tiers, while a pair of outfacing high-output AD-S82H’s (using the IntelliDock intelligent mounting system) extend coverage to the wrap-around side pews.

Installation contractor Gary McElveen, who runs local PA specialists Communication Systems, had been introduced to the project by electrical consultants Williams & Shaw. The unusual shape of the building persuaded McElveen to seek further advice, and he in turn contacted Jim Hooks at local dealers DJ Kilpatrick. ‘The church is extremely wide and narrow, with a gallery that virtually overlooks the altar,’ said Gary. ‘In the 23 years I have been in the business I have never fitted out a church shaped like this – it was far from being the usual rectangle.’

The AD-S282H’s enclosure incorporates two 8in weather-resistant, LF transducers with double roll cloth surrounds. These loudspeakers also employ a 1in exit compression HF driver. The usual reverberation associated with Houses of Worship barely manifested itself – fortunately for the installers, since the lack of available time prevented them from commissioning an EASE model of the building. They went purely on experience and McElveen installed the system with a fairly flat EQ and detect no hotspots wherever they positioned themselves among the 1,200 seats.

The low impedance system is backed up by a 100V line recessed ceiling speaker system which also ensures even coverage at the back and out in the entrance foyer.

The QSC equipment was provided by Shure Distribution (UK) who also supplied a Shure SLX wireless system (lapel and handheld for the officiating clergy and soloist in the gallery) as well as boundary mic and gooseneck for the lectern.

All presets are stored in a rack-mount mixer in the vestry so that all the officiating clergy need to do is adjust the levels.

At the test stage liturgical music was supplied by the incumbent priest, Rev. Fr. Martin Graham on his iPod.  A line input has been provided into the system for this.