St Clement equipped with Ashly Audio
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: Tech Electronics recently installed an Ashly Audio ne24.24M modular processor, three KLR 3200 amplifiers, and an FR-16 network fader remote control into the St Clement of Rome Catholic Church in Missouri. Over 5,000 parishioners call St Clement home and over 500 students attend its schools, and the impact of its services relies on a well-functioning sound reinforcement system.
‘The church had last updated its equipment over a dozen years ago,’ explained Tony Badamo, systems specialist at Tech Electronics. ‘They don’t modify their setup very often, so when they do, they want to choose an integrator and equipment that will provide a stable system to carry them far into the future. The auto-mixers in the old system were starting to fail, as were some of the amplifiers.
‘The power you get per dollar with Ashly amplifiers is very efficient,’ he added. ‘If you compare it with the other leading amplifier manufacturers out there, you’ll see it’s a big difference.’
All of the loudspeakers – which are arranged as a centre cluster with a left-right complement – were still effective, so Mr Badamo left them in place, replacing only the rack equipment. To accommodate the church’s CD player input and its many microphone inputs, he outfitted the modular Ashly ne24.24M processor with 12 analogue inputs. Eight outputs handle all of the existing loudspeakers, including a 70V system for hallways and other areas outside the sanctuary, as well as a listening assistance system. Mr Badamo configured one of the Ashly KLR 3200 amplifier channels to power the 70V system, and the remaining channels power the house system.
The Ashly FR-16 is a bank of 16 faders plus a master that communicates with any Ashly processor via a network connection. As each fader’s effect is fully customisable, Mr Badamo gave the church simple volume control of each input, along with master volume control.
‘Because the church was hoping for a “set it and forget it” setup, the Ashly FR-16 resides in the rack,’ explained Mr Badamo. ‘Everything else is off limits. I love that the volume knobs on the Ashly KLR amplifiers can be locked out. Especially in systems like this with multiple outputs, giving the user access to the volume knobs is a recipe for blown-up speakers!’