Berlin-based pro audio company Holoplot has successfully installed its flagship X1 Matrix Array loudspeaker technology in the newly-built Misr Masjid mosque in Egypt’s New Administrative Capital.

With a capacity of 107,000 worshippers, the Misr Masjid mosque is among the world’s ten largest mosques. The project presented the challenge of delivering clear, intelligible speech to its congregation in a space of more than 10,000sqm, without compromising the building’s architectural integrity.

A conventional sound system may require upwards of 30 positions to achieve sufficient coverage and intelligibility within such a space. Holoplot provided audio coverage with only nine loudspeaker. Each array is mounted as high as 23m above the floor, concealed from view behind painted cloth and metal grilles.

Central to Holoplot’s approach is the ability to control and shape sound in both classic and more complex environments, navigating the acoustics of highly reflective spaces with unprecedented accuracy. In this instance, X1 handled a reverberation time of 6s, caused by both the marble interior and 60m-high dome, managing not to excite the reverberant field by directing energy away from reflective surfaces and preventing the need for large amounts of acoustic treatment.

Speaking on the project, Holoplot’s Emad El-Saghir says: ‘This grand mosque is an exemplar of X1’s technological capability. We introduced several brand new system concepts that are not attainable with any other technology. The X1 Matrix Arrays use advanced optimisation algorithms to generate uniform coverage in tightly defined zones with minimal spill into quieter surrounding areas or onto reverberant surfaces.

‘This way, speech transmission and the direct-to-reverberant ratio were increased to record values. A steerable-line-array-based solution would have required the deployment of far more arrays to achieve anything comparable.’

‘Together with Holoplot, we met the client’s brief of creating a fully integrated system that satisfies all stakeholders,’ says Emad Shenouda, Projects Director at integrator Audio Technology. ‘The project was full of challenges, starting from the size of the mosque, the room acoustics and of course project deadlines. Thanks to X1’s ability to not only control sound in the vertical but also horizontal it achieves unbelievable intelligibility, thought impossible in a space clad in marble and featuring a huge dome at its centre. Holoplot exceeded our expectations in both the quality of sound, and in hiding the equipment in such a way that it blends in seamlessly with the interior.’