The building of Christ King Parish church in the West Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa has seen more than 50 years of construction, reconstruction, renovation and updates, most recently installing L-Acoustics A10i array and Syva loudspeaker enclosures over the summer with support from Clearwing Systems Integration.
The building opened in January of 1957, and was designed to seat 1,200 parishioners. However, like many older Catholic house of worship designs, its marble, glass and hardwood offered highly reflective surfaces to the amplification of music, and especially speech. As is often the case in these types of spaces, speech is sourced at the altar in the front while music emanates from the rear choir and organ loft, so addressing Christ King Parish’s needs has come from both directions.
Using L-Acoustics Soundvision design software, Clearwing Systems Integration created a solution that featured a single central array comprising a five A10i – four Focus enclosures over one Wide – flown at the front of the room, and a pair of Syva and Syva Low speakers mounted on either side of the doors to the building’s narthex underneath the loft at the room’s rear. Four 5XT coaxial speakers are mounted two per side under the acoustically shadowed left and right transept areas, while four portable X12 monitor wedges enable the musicians upstairs to hear themselves and the altar audio. Four LA2Xi amplified controllers power the system.
Clearwing Systems Integration Operations Manager Mike Jonas says the difference in sound quality since the installation was dramatic: ‘The previous system consisted of a custom horn array, which can be typical of older churches, producing inconsistent coverage and a poor aesthetic,’ he says. ‘The trick to making sound work in an environment like this with a lot of hard, reflective surfaces is good pattern control and that’s what the A10i and its Panflex technology offers.’
In this case, Panflex steering technology – which uses mechanically adjustable fins with DSP algorithms effective from 300Hz – enabled Jonas to choose the symmetric 70° setting for the top four speakers, which kept the sonic energy squarely on the seating areas and away from reflective surfaces. ‘The A10i gave us plenty of output but not a lot of extra low end, which in a space like this could build up quickly,’ he says.
At the opposite end of the church, the Syva loudspeakers provide the full range for music to accompany the new 41-stop organ the church has installed in its loft. ‘The Syva are amazing for piano and voice,’ Jonas says. ‘And thanks to the 5XT fill speakers, other areas like the baptismal font, which never had any direct coverage before, now have good, direct sound.’
‘What’s also great is that you can hear the difference but cannot easily see the systems,’ he adds, referring to how L-Acoustics was able to closely match the colour of the A10i enclosures and grilles, as well as the Syva, Syva Low and 5XT, to the beige of the church itself. ‘It is important that the sound reinforcement system does not distract from the architecture of the church. The form factor of the various speaker options, along with the custom colour, allowed us to meet that objective.’
Bill Lieven, Director of Liturgical Music at Christ King Parish, says the difference between the new sound system and what was there previously is like night and day. ‘There were places in the church that the old system didn’t reach clearly or at all,’ he says. ‘But now the coverage is very consistent everywhere. It sounds great – very clear and even.’
In fact, adds Lieven, many parishioners never realised that there was a piano in the choir loft – a 7.5ft Steinway grand. ‘Before, some people thought we had an electronic keyboard up there. Now, we can hear the piano from the front of the room to the back, and the Syva Low sub really brings out its rich bass tones,’ he says. ‘Our parishioners can really hear the difference. They tell me it’s wonderful, just wonderful.’
