Integration specialist AV Expression has completed the refurbishment of the audio systems at New Zealand’s Fo Guang Shan North Island Temple and Community Centre – the largest Buddhist temple in the country. The new system is based around a selection of Community Professional loudspeakers.

Fo Guang Shan North Island is a large temple and community centre of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist movement. Located in the beautiful city of Auckland – noted for its yachts, and known as the City of Sails – the temple and complex were built over seven years and opened in late 2007. The design of the temple is adapted from the palatial design of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, with greyish-green glazed roof tiles, maroon stone pillars and vertical slat window frames projecting magnificence, grandeur, cultivation and strength. The courtyard is lined with stone lanterns of the Tang Dynasty, with pine trees, bamboo, cherry blossoms and willows.

With the original PA system deemed no longer fit for purpose, AV Expression was appointed to design and install new audio systems for both the temple and outdoor areas. The design was carried out in collaboration with Hills, Community’s distributor for Australia and New Zealand.

‘The outdoor areas are covered by Community’s R.5 loudspeakers, selected for combining speech and music quality with all-weather reliability,’ says Blake Kirby of Hills in the choice and deployment of the loudspeakers. ‘Throughout the day they play gentle background music while, for larger gatherings, their outstanding intelligibility and power provides the main PA for microphone presentation.

‘The internal temple is a prayer and worship space with high ceilings, and reverberant décor and fittings,’ he continues. ‘For this we chose Community’s ENT-FR high-performance column line source systems. With their wide horizontal and narrow vertical dispersion, they are an ideal choice for high intelligibility coverage in these reverberant spaces. A lower ceiling section of the room is complemented with Community C6 ceiling-mounted loudspeakers.’

Ease models were created for both indoor and outdoor spaces to verify the design before installation and AV Expression also provided four wireless microphone systems, along with a networked combination CD/media player.

‘Using Community, AV Expression has provided the Fo Guang Shan North Island temple with modern solutions,’ Kirby concludes. ‘Meeting the multi-purpose use and acoustic and environmental challenges, the temple now has great sounding systems throughout.’