St Josephs Cathedral turns to Iconyx
Published: WORSHIP
US: Originally constructed in 1919, St Joseph’s Cathedral in Sioux Falls, South Dakota recently put the finishing touches on a decade-long restoration project. Totalling more than US$16 million, the extensive renovation and restoration process of the majestic church was overseen by acclaimed architect Duncan G. Stroik.
Intrinsic to the project was replacing the cathedral’s 25 year-old sound system. Serving as Mother Church to the Diocese, as well as parish church for Sioux Falls and other surrounding parishes, St. Joseph's services are attended by hundreds of parishioners. The new sound system had to provide high speech intelligibility and clear sound to every seat in the house.
The project proved quite challenging, according to Peter Borchard of MuSonics Audio. ‘The church has a lot of reflective surfaces that resulted in a six second reverberation time, making it one of the more reverberant in the US and creating significant intelligibility issues.’
It was vital to St Joseph’s that the new audio system blended aesthetically so as not to diminish the visual impact of the church’s stunning architecture. An Iconyx digitally steerable array system by Renkus-Heinz was the audio solution selected for the cathedral.
The system, installed by Audio Connections, includes two IC-32, two IC-24 and six IC-8 loudspeakers which have been custom painted and wall-mounted throughout the cathedral. Renkus-Heinz’s steerable multiple beam technology was used to ensure coverage throughout the venue.
The loudspeakers are controlled by Rhaon DSP. ‘Rhaon is great because you plug into the network in one place and you can control and monitor all the speakers. You don’t have the normal hassle of running around plugging in to various pieces of equipment,’ explained Mr Borchard.
‘The sound quality of the Iconyx loudspeakers is superb, and the colour matching and mounting is exemplary,’ he concluded. ‘The cathedral is a showcase.’