Discreet sound for Holy Trinity
Published: WORSHIP
UK: Holy Trinity Church in London’s Chelsea is currently undergoing extensive refurbishment. This has involved a significant upgrade to its audio system, which now features Sennheiser microphones and K-array loudspeakers installed by Hampshire-based Sound Advice, which specialises in installations for listed buildings.
Holy Trinity was built between 1888 and 1890 and is a striking Arts & Crafts design by architect John Dando Sedding. It also houses an important collection of stained glass, its magnificent east window – a reference for many stained glass designers – created by Victorian artists Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. But the church’s main purpose has always been worship and, with that in mind, the design of the audio system had to have the ability to be divided into distinct zones according to the requirements of the services being held.
‘We needed something that is discreet, works with the architecture of the church, is easy for us to use and has excellent audio quality,’ explained Reverend Graham Rainford. ‘We put our trust in Jon Hunnisett at Sound Advice and he has provided us with an excellent solution.’ The church is divided into eight zones covering the Lady Chapel, the choir, the area in front of the altar steps, three separate areas of the nave, the school and the new meeting pods next to the church’s entrance. To achieve this, nine K-array KK50 compact line array loudspeakers are positioned on the church’s columns to provide coverage for the nave, with four KT20 miniature passive loudspeakers for the choir, all powered by KA15 amplifiers. The school is serviced by a separate system.
Sennheiser radio microphones were used throughout, a combination of three ew 512 G3 lapel mic systems and four miniature MZH 3042 flexible gooseneck microphones with ME 34 cardioid capsules, two of which are paired SKP2000 plug on transmitters with an EM 500 G3 rackmount radio receiver for the lectern, choir stalls and pulpit. The whole system is mixed and EQ’d using an Allen & Heath iDR8 digital processor with additional inputs and processing.
‘We allowed for two remote programme selectors, one at the church warden’s position and one at the rack,’ said Mr Hunniset. ‘This enables simple recall of audio presets, with the panel programmed so that a non-technical operator has local control of volume, mute, source select and preset changes, which reconfigure the room for different functions.’ An 8-channel remote mix controller is fitted at the current church warden’s position, along with one of the preset panels. This mixer provides simple operator control over some of the microphones and it can be pre-programmed in conjunction with the preset panel to provide a fine-tuning control over individual microphones according to the day-to-day requirements of the operator.
‘The microphones installed all work within the building without dropout, with the ability for all six units to be used simultaneously,’ continued Mr Hunnisett. ‘We used an A2003 UHF passive wideband directional antennae to cover the space, alongside an AB3 antennae head amplifier and ASA1 active splitter to boost any weak radio signals.’ A final, and extremely important, addition to the installation is the cabling, housed in 2-inch steel trunking fitted in the floor ducts.