Gloucester Cathedral improves its sound efficiency with Dante network

The historic cathedral in the English city of Gloucester has upgraded the capacity and flexibility of its audio system with Dante's Dante AV over IP platform. Audinate, composed of specialist DM Music Ltd.

One of the challenges of this renovation project has been precisely the historical and heritage architecture of the building of the Gloucester Cathedral, which dates from 1089, considered Grade One, in addition to being one of the best preserved in Europe and whose cloisters are famous for appearing in some scenes that recreate Hogwarts in the saga Harry Potter.

Maintaining a Grade One listed building is a challenge, and technology upgrades must be carefully considered and planned to avoid damage. This is what happened when it was decided to update the temple's audio capacity with the flexible solution, scalable and low impact Dante of Audinate.

The Dante platform is a solution OFF over IP complete that allows transporting audio data, video and control over standard Ethernet networks 1 GB, which is compatible with more than 3.000 products enabled for this systems from more than five hundred manufacturers.

The big benefit of Dante is that it replaces analog and digital point-to-point connections with software-based routing, and effortlessly send AV channels anywhere on the network with perfect digital fidelity.

When the restoration project began in the so-called Chapel of the Virgin (Lady Chapel), the newest section of the church, built in the 15th century, The floor was removed for refurbishment and this provided the opportunity to install a new sound system by running cables under the floor..

The audiovisual systems integrator DM Music Ltd, one of the UK's specialists for listed churches and historic buildings, was selected to carry out this project.

This is how he explains it Graham Bennewith, DM Music installation manager: “when they were raising the ground we had the opportunity to install a new public address system and, as is my custom in all large buildings with multiple areas, I put in a Dante compatible equipment kit, including a mixer Yamaha MTX5D, because it allows excellent flexibility. Even with the floor raised, we still had very limited options for running cables; “So we installed the Dante equipment and then a network cable to the main ship.”.

The Dante network allowed the Bennewith team to install the new audio system in this chapel, that although it can function independently, It also makes it easier for this space to connect with other areas of the cathedral, including the main nave.

This chapel, that can accommodate some 250 personas, often used as an additional room for large events taking place in the main nave, with capacity for 2.500 personas, and it was recently updated with a mixer Allen & Heath AHM-64 with Dante card.

The system installed in the main warehouse is controlled by a touch screen Crestron and a custom iPad app used by this manufacturer to provide mobile and wireless connectivity.

“As Gloucester Cathedral continues to upgrade its systems, Each area will be enabled for Dante - Bennewith points out -. My team at DM Music is adding some microphones, all connected to a Dante preamp interface, since it gives us a lot of flexibility so that these devices can move with just a network connection. When using PoE, Users can carry these microphones wherever they want. The main thing is that Dante is clean, efficient and easy to use; It just works”.

As this expert remembers, “in the old analog days, we needed multiple bays and connection lines around the buildings; many processors and matrix systems, and the systems were complex and not easy to use. Thanks to Dante, “The church is happy with its new systems and has absolutely no problems.”.