Audio is distributed throughout Baitul Ikram Mosque

UK: The Ahmadiyya Muslim community in the East Midlands of the UK has a new home in the recently built Baitul Ikram Mosque. Whereas the majority of UK HOW audio installations and upgrades take place within existing buildings, at the newly built mosque, the opportunity presented itself for a sound solution to be designed as part of its construction.

Located just south of the University of Leicester, Baitul Ikram Mosque required a distributed A/V system to be installed throughout the complex, which comprises the main prayer hall, a multipurpose hall, a meeting room, an office, a children’s crèche, a library and a kitchen as well as the entrance foyer.

Contracted to design and install the audio system for the new mosque was South West London-based RG Jones Sound Engineering, which opted for a solution comprised completely of Yamaha products. ‘We wanted to offer a one-brand installation and chose Yamaha because we knew that the Commercial Installation Solutions (CIS) range would provide the DSP and networking that we needed,’ explains Jeff Woodward, project engineer at RG Jones. ‘The complex mainly required ceiling loudspeakers and the Yamaha CIS models are of excellent quality, suitable for highly-intelligible speech. We knew the Yamaha DSP would be ideal for distributing local and broadcast audio around the complex and that the speakers would match the processing and amplifiers.’

Mr Woodward and the rest of the team installed 22 VXC4W and 18 VXC6W ceiling loudspeakers as well as a pair of VXS5W surface-mounted units. The system has been setup so that audio is distributed around the facility through satellite feeds, while video is fed via a Wyrestorm HDBaseT network to a series of LED screens and projectors.

‘The incoming satellite feeds are from the AMA’s own Sky TV station, MTA International. On Fridays, the main weekly sermon given by their spiritual leader, His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad Khalifatul Masih V, is transmitted from their main mosque in Morden, South London,’ Mr Woodward reveals. ‘There are two audio channels, one for English and one for Urdu. The Urdu feed is played out over the PA system in the mosque, with the English feed broadcast via a wireless translation earpiece system.’

A Yamaha TF1 digital console was also supplied for the mosque’s official inauguration, receiving feeds from table microphones and feeding them to the sound system via its master outputs, while aux feeds were routed to the overflow areas outside.

‘The distribution and sound quality in all areas is very good, with the system providing simple control of volumes and source selection for non-technical users via the DCP series wall controllers,’ concludes Mr Woodward. ‘They are very happy with the audio system.’

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