The Romanesque Revival-style Ris Church in Oslo seats 500 and features a high wooden ceiling, stone walls and rear balcony. ‘The acoustics are challenging because of the volume and hard surfaces,’ explains Sverre Jøssund of Norway distributor, Benum, after updating the church sound with a Renkus-Heinz Iconyx digitally steerable loudspeaker system ‘The main sanctuary is about 40m deep. We also encountered issues with standing waves in the lower frequencies.’

Unlike most such churches, Ris Church is orientated north-south because of the shape of its plot. Services are traditional in this landmark historic building, featuring a large French Romantic-style organ and a choir that performs from the steps in front of the apse.

Designed by Per Amundsen and installed by ABC Teknikk, the new sound system system is primarily used for speech reinforcement, and uses a BSS Soundweb London Blu-series signal processor to manage the Renkus-Heinz system. Amundsen chose an LR pair of IC16-RN digitally steered line arrays for main FOH.

The IC16-RN features 16 4-inch coaxial transducers, each with three high-frequency tweeters, along with 16 amplifier and DSP channels. Each column can deliver up to eight steerable beams, which can be individually shaped and aimed using, software-controlled DSP. Beam control is effective down to 400Hz. At Ris Church, this enables sound to be precisely aimed at the congregation and away from the church’s reflective surfaces. The result is clear, intelligible sound throughout the space.

‘Renkus-Heinz’ Iconyx series is very well known as an acoustic problem-solver in Norwegian churches and city halls,’ Jøssund says. ‘Together with subs or full-range loudspeakers like the CF151-5R, it makes great sound for almost any application. In a church where you need higher SPLs for loud gospel music, we would suggest the IC Live series. But for Ris Church, with its more traditional services, the Iconyx Gen5 was the right choice.’

More: www.renkus-heinz.com