Holy Trinity Church turns to Electro-Voice and Dynacord for extended coverage

United Kingdom:

NoiseBoys Technologies has selected an Electro-Voice and Dynacord solution to replace the ageing sound system at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. With a history dating back over 800 years and a claim to be the most visited parish church in the UK, Holy Trinity is best known as the place where William Shakespeare was baptised and is buried. Alongside being a historic location, it is also an active house of worship that wished for reliable, high-quality sound for services, spoken word, contemporary worship with a full band and special events.

“Their old 100V system was coming to the end of its life,” recalled Phill Beynon, director of NoiseBoys Technologies. “They wanted a solution that could handle both speech and music, and extend the coverage into different spaces to create a multi-zone system. Dynacord’s IX series networked DSP amps together with Electro-Voice’s EVC series speakers and LRC columns seemed like a really good fit for the project.”

EVC-1082 loudspeakers cover the main body of the church. Models with the narrow 90° x 60° dispersion angle and rotatable horn for longer throw were selected for the nave, while the wider 100° x 100° variants evenly cover the side aisles, delivering clarity of speech and the full audio range required for mixing a live band. “Having the EVC is really good because you can choose the dispersion on it,” added Beynon. “It allows you to tailor the coverage a little bit more to these super reverberant spaces that were not designed for electronic reproduction.” An ELX200 subwoofer that can be plugged in when required and removed when not enhances the full range coverage.

The LRC-1100 Line Radiator Column loudspeakers were selected as fills and delays for areas of the church such as the choir stalls and chancel. In architecturally sensitive areas, the sleek enclosures and the compact SwifTilt mounting system of the LRCs keep the column speakers discreet and as close as possible to the wall, respecting the church’s stunning architecture. A pair of Dynacord IX30:8 and a further IX15:4 amplifier power the system, with their line inputs utilised as Dante break-ins. Control is split via the amps’ built-in mixer and an external sound desk, the former providing simple control for day-to-day use, and the latter more hands-on mixing for services and events. “

SONICUE Sound System Software was used to set up the fully networked Dante audio system and design a customised GUI for the TPC-1 touchpanel controllers, allowing staff and volunteers easy access to the main controls and the ability to switch between different operating modes.

With the system installed, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. “It was a once in their lifetime upgrade for the people dealing with this, and they were so keen to get it right,” concluded Beynon. “We had an email after the first week of services to say the new system is excellent and they’ve had great reports back. It was a massive relief to the church and is exactly what you want to hear as an installer.”