Among Holland’s oldest churches, Petruskerk van Leens is home to its famous – and recently restored –organ, which has been treasured by parishioners for generations. Faced with stay-at-home orders under Covid-19, the church introduced live streaming services to bring mass, and the beloved organ’s music, into the homes of the parish. To help the church design its A/V set-up, it called on Bart Hof, owner of HOF AV, who recommended DPA Microphones to support the audio needs of the church.

‘In my opinion, when it comes to the equipment, the simpler and more straightforward way that you approach music is actually the best way to handle audio in a natural way,’ he explains. ‘With DPA mics, it’s just a matter of connecting it, and you get this natural sound with no compromise at all.’

For Petruskerk, HOF installed a stereo pair of DPA’s 4060 Series Miniature Omnidirectional Microphones with extension cables as overheads, approximately 10m to 15m above the organ. This approach was chosen after listening to the organ and testing how the mics reacted to certain levels. Rounding out the install was a Roland audio mixing console, which the DPA 4060 mics are plugged into, and a variety of Panasonic 2K cameras running on SDI.

‘Through our testing, we found that we didn’t have to put the mics too close to the organ, since the sound of this organ is so huge,’ Bart says. ‘You have to balance the audio for broadcast or streaming, so we run the mics directly into the mixing console. With the paired mics, we were able to acoustically and electronically match them together, so there is no EQ needed at all, just panning left right, and that’s it.’

Since the microphones are diminutive and barely visible in the setting, Bart says they further proved to be the best option for streaming, as they are not seen, just heard. In addition, ease-of-use was also a big factor... ‘The majority of the people running the A/V equipment are volunteers,’  says. ‘To have the equipment run and sound smooth for them is a huge priority. The church and its volunteers are all so positive and enthusiastic about the result of the live stream and how it sounds. Their parishioners, both local and around the world, have truly enjoyed the weekly services that Petruskerk provides to them.’