Symetrix Solus system for Eagles Loft
Published: WORSHIP
US: A part of a US$4 million restoration project, a multi-function gathering space at St John’s Episcopal Church named Eagles’ Loft has been equipped with a complete sound reinforcement system, including a Symetrix Solus 8 open-architecture signal processor. Said to form ‘the core’ of Stamford-based St John’s new audio system, the church’s complete A/V system was designed by Pascom.
The church’s current Rector, Reverend Dr James Wheeler, and special projects coordinator, Bruce Kittredge approved Pascom’s system design for the 200-seat Eagles’ Loft.
‘The acoustics of the Eagles’ Loft presented a serious challenge,’ confessed Pascom president Peter Scandone. ‘Its hardwood flooring on both the stage and the gathering area, together with plaster ceiling and walls, while excellent for music, are a detriment to the naturalness and articulation the owners sought for their lecture series,’ he explained.
With this in mind, Mr Scandone and his team designed and installed a Duran Audio DSX-180 stereo line array system together with a Bose 502B subwoofer powered by a QSC amplifier. He described the loudspeaker system to have ‘more than enough sonic muscle’ to match the Eiki HD video projection system.
The Symetrix Solus 8 was custom programmed to handle all of the input conditioning, logic routing, and loudspeaker management, relying on its fixed eight-in by eight-out topography to interconnect to the rest of the gear. A Symetrix ARC-K1 wall panel remote provides volume control. ‘The rest of processing – precisely controlled mixing, dynamics processing, equalisation, routing, and signal-alignment – all happen inside the single chassis,’ explained Mr Scandone.
‘I am impressed by the Solus 8’s ability to seamlessly manage multi-microphone speech and vocal reinforcement with true clarity and transparency,’ he enthused. ‘At the same time, it provides the high-fidelity reproduction of prerecorded sources that include the demanding soundtracks of HD-Blu-ray discs.’
‘Most importantly, the Symetrix Solus 8’s stability, reliability, and tamperproof interface allow the officials at St John’s to rest comfortably knowing that their system will sound perfect, week after week,’ he concluded.