Sound quality and speech intelligibility in places of worship

Shure, JBL Professional y Son Press S.L. have combined their audio experience to perform a custom installation with the systems of these manufacturers and the integration of the third party, that offers sound quality and intelligibility in the church of the Company of Jesus in La Coruña.

Since last February, the church of the Company of Jesus in La Coruña (To Coruña) It has a new professional sound system, specifically designed to provide sound quality and speech intelligibility in the religious ceremonies held there, paying special attention to the architecture of the space.

This worship center is located in a modern building of, approximately, 25 meters wide by 15 background, with a height of 8 m. in the center, where is its dome, and of 3,5 m. in the rest of the space, lined inside with wood, stone and stucco; elements all of which contribute to a significant reverberation.

To solve this sound challenge, Local installation company Son Press selected Centraverse microphones and intelligent automatic mixing of Shure, along with Intellivox self-powered acoustic columns JBL Professional, firms distributed in the Spanish market by Earpro.

Specifically, two gooseneck microphones, capacitor type, del modelo Shure CVB 18 B/C are in charge of capturing the voice of the priest when he is placed in the ambo and in the headquarters, respectively, while another pair of microphones of the same reference have been installed in the choir.

The cardioid polar pattern of these microphones helps reduce reflected sound pickup from the start, originally contributing to optimal speech intelligibility. The signals of these four systems (along with those of two other tabletop microphones that were already on the church altar) enter an SCM820 automatic digital mixer from this same manufacturer.

Thanks to the Intellimix intelligent mixing system and digital feedback reduction of this mixer, It is ensured that the microphone signals do not suffer loss of intelligibility or feedback during this process..

Finally, the mix output is routed to two JBL Intellivox DX180 acoustic columns, located on both sides of the audience, since this model is designed for medium-sized spaces and allows the sound to be directed where the audience is.. Its ten speakers 4 inches and the four tweeters of 1 inch are powered through an integrated class D amplifier. This set offers an excellent frequency response that reaches up to 18KHz, with optimal sound quality.

As Antonio Porteiro explains, manager of Son Press, “The church has a lot of reverberation and with the previous sound system feedbacks were created very easily. After knowing the functions of the JBL Intellivox acoustic columns, we carried out a test in the church itself. The priest was totally convinced with the results and the final installation was carried out. Before the sound did not reach the back of the temple, and now it can be heard equally loud and clear in both the back and front rows”.