Community converges at Fo Guang Shan

NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand’s largest Buddhist temple, Fo Guang Shan North Island, serves the dual role of temple and community centre for the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist movement. Located in Auckland, it was built over the course of seven years, opening in late 2007 with a design based on that of the Tang Dynasty, including green glazed roof tiles, maroon stone pillars, slat window frames and a courtyard adorned with stone lanterns, pine trees, bamboo, cherry blossoms and willows.

The temple’s original PA system was recently deemed no longer fit for purpose, having aged significantly in the decade since the temple and community centre was constructed. Auckland-based systems integrator, AV Expression, was contracted by Fo Guang Shan to design and install new sound solutions to cover both the temple and the outside areas. Opting for a solution comprising Community Professional loudspeakers, AV Expression collaborated with the manufacturer’s ANZ distributor, Hills, for the system design.

‘The internal temple is a prayer and worship space with high ceilings and reverberant décor and fittings,’ explains Blake Kirby from Hills. ‘For this we chose Community’s ENT-FR column line source systems. With wide horizontal and narrow vertical dispersion they are ideal for high intelligibility coverage in reverberant spaces. A lower ceiling section of the room is complemented with C6 ceiling loudspeakers.’

The outside areas are covered by R.5 loudspeakers, which were chosen for their weather resistance as well as the quality of their speech and music reinforcement. ‘Throughout the day they play gentle background music while, for larger gatherings, their outstanding intelligibility and power provides the main PA for microphone presentation,’ notes Mr Kirby.

AV Expression verified the design ahead of installation using EASE models and also provided four wireless microphone systems as well as a networked combination CD and media player.

‘Using Community, AV Expression has provided the Fo Guang Shan North Island temple with modern solutions,’ Mr Kirby concludes ‘Meeting the multi-purpose use and acoustic and environmental challenges, the temple now has great sounding systems throughout.’

www.avexpression.co.nz
www.communitypro.com
www.fgs.org.nz
www.hills.com.au