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1873 Cathedral Updates with 2020 Audio System

Built in 1873, St. Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry, Ireland, now sports a sizable d&b audiotechnik xC-Series system.
Built in 1873, St. Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry, Ireland, now sports a sizable d&b audiotechnik xC-Series system.

Derry, Ireland (June 8, 2020)—Following an architectural refurbishment and technical systems upgrade to match, St. Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry, Ireland, now sports a sizable d&b audiotechnik xC-Series system to help parishioners hear sermons within the massive stone house of worship.

Built in 1873, the cathedral is from an era before audio systems, and has the reflections and reverberations to prove it. Looking to tame them, however, the church turned to acoustical consultant Michael Kielty of Belfast-based MK Audio, who in turn recommended a distributed system, and contacted Absolute Technologies for a specific solution recommendation that would meet the church’s requirements.

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Absolute Technologies brought on the xC-Series column loudspeakers from d&b audiotechnik. Supported by Oran Burns from d&b’s Application Support team, Absolute made an initial design for the church using d&b ArrayCalc software to predict coverage and decide on suitable loudspeaker positions. Following this, an in-situ system demonstration was arranged and was decided upon as the solution for the church.

The design uses an inner pair of d&b 24C-E cabinets at the front and an outer pair of 24C serving the aisles; further down the room are two more pairs of 24Cs as delays, again arranged as inner and outer pairs. The system is powered by two d&b D10 amplifiers. For control, simplicity was key, with as little user interaction required as possible. An Allen & Heath Qu-Pac mixer is provided, with presets for the various regular services.

Aside from intelligibility, St. Eugene’s presented another major challenge: building restrictions forbid the fixing of hardware to walls and pillars. The only option was the creation of custom floor-mount brackets. Designed in conjunction with the architect and a specialist engineering company, each bracket is unique, to account for floor height and pan angle, and incorporates a plate for mounting beneath the floorboards and a rear cover to hide mounting bolts and cable. The back plate is finished in the same RAL colour as the loudspeaker, and the base plate in stainless steel to reflect its surroundings.

d&b audiotechnik • www.dbaudio.com

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