PA Project for Church

[reubensm]

Speaker boxes back form the carpenter's

He's done a fantastic job in making these look like the other Ahuja speakers in the church. Now I have to screw in the corner caps, wire up the drivers and mount up everything. Have changed the original logic and cross overs and will be customizing these for PA use with double LF drivers per box.

First glimpse of the speaker boxes (Simon, recognize these?):

The corner on my listening room with all the stuff for the church:

 

[saheb11123]

That's some great work you are doing..
Keep up the work



Regards
Soumyajyoti

 

[greenhorn]

Here are some pictures of a Church in Kottayam where these speakers are installed, just 2 speaker columns for the entire hall:

I'm quite surprised to find a receptive audience for proper sound reinforcement these days in a church.

I recall when I was young, visiting the new lourdes church, and noticing that they had designed in a proper and unobtrusive sound reinforcement (not public address) system. It was a pleasure to attend mass there without the PA system in your face. The Sound reinforcement was subtle, but effective.

Unfortunately, the rest of the faithful did not seem to share the opinion, and they ended up adding a bunch of more boxes and killed it.

The Trivandrum Latin Archbishop had once given a directive that the music and the PA systems in churches should not be so loud as to drown out the voices of the faithful, but sadly it is observed more in the breach

 

[reubensm]

An overview of the transformation:

Before:

The boxes, after:

 

[reubensm]

I'm quite surprised to find a receptive audience for proper sound reinforcement these days in a church.

I recall when I was young, visiting the new lourdes church, and noticing that they had designed in a proper and unobtrusive sound reinforcement (not public address) system. It was a pleasure to attend mass there without the PA system in your face. The Sound reinforcement was subtle, but effective.

Unfortunately, the rest of the faithful did not seem to share the opinion, and they ended up adding a bunch of more boxes and killed it.

The Trivandrum Latin Archbishop had once given a directive that the music and the PA systems in churches should not be so loud as to drown out the voices of the faithful, but sadly it is observed more in the breach

This directive from the Trivandrum Latin Archbishop still stands. However in practice, people on local church councils have been lobbying for louder PA. Same happened with this little church as well, except that the church did not have any funding for this. They consulted with JBL and BOSS distributors (who posed as sound engineers) and received quotes that were way beyond what they could afford. On another note, the usual wealth hoarding keralite has started enjoying the benefits of bragging rights and prestige these days. A lot of affluent NRIs have started influencing local Church Parish councils and make hefty donations for Church Realestate, construction, rennovation, PA systems, lighting, furniture etc. I know of a church where the entire Ahuja sound system is dismantled and BOSE PA was installed. The earlier Ahuja PA sounded much better in my opinion but then, Bose is Bose for the sake of bragging rights

 

[Simon Wires]

First glimpse of the speaker boxes (Simon, recognize these?):

Excellent work, Reuben..It has come out very nice, indeed

I truly appreciate your spending's on time,money & effort!

See if you could fasten the mid-range speaker to the main box..Else, in public places, people may meddle and dislocate it.

 

[saheb11123]

Quite right sir!
I have seen kids and other people having and awe curiosity of speakers (not technically), just want to just touch and poke and press them , i dont know why though..

 

[saheb11123]

Keenly waiting to see how the speakers would look after putting them in the cabs..

 

[jmascreen]

@Reuben - Any Idea which system is there @ Velankanni Church, Particular where the Malayalam mass happens (I think its the newly build Church)?
It is very musical when I heard it

 

[reubensm]

After a brief while, I'm back and starting work on the project today. Its now installation time after which we will be doing the sound calibration. More to follow.

 

[reubensm]

@Reuben - Any Idea which system is there @ Velankanni Church, Particular where the Malayalam mass happens (I think its the newly build Church)?
It is very musical when I heard it

Its been a while since I went there and don't quite recollect the sound from the sound system they had around 2002-2003

 

[reubensm]

Wify called in to give me the news, she's just taken delivery of a brand new Studio Master SEQ152 15 Band 2-channel Professional Graphic Equalizer for the Church Project. What a shot in the arm for the Church. This will surely go a long way in controlling sound quality and feedback.

Here's a stock picture for reference:

 

[reubensm]

Installed the new wall mounts for the speakers. Had to heavy-duty wall mounts made for hoisting those heavy speakers. These will be the 2 main speakers in front and will drive the sound across the hall. Today, the speakers will be placed on the stands.

Kindly note that there is no down time for installation as the church has service every day. We will have to work during the nights to set things up. Even though its being done in phases, we still have to keep the PA running with a standby setup.

Pictures to follow over the weekend.

 

[saheb11123]

Thats some work!!
When would you sleep

 

[reubensm]

Thats some work!!
When would you sleep

We worked from 8pm to about 1am. The parish priest complained that there were wires hanging all over the place which was untidy (with the existing set up). He has set a challenge for me, to hide the wiring on the walls without using any cable ducts or cable channels. This is a real challenge and I'll have to look at finding a way. The challenge is that the cable should be completely invisible at casual glance. :sad:

 

[reubensm]

Reuben, just got a mail from our FM ASK07.

He has a, still in box never even once used AHUJA mixer, to donate for your charity project. If it fits, ensure a prayer for his factory to flourish, and take it.

A few words; He is indeed an altruist, humorous,soft spoken gentleman. Once when I was searching for some rare vacuum tubes, just like that, he had send it to me all the way across 1500 miles, for free.

I wish, he would soon buy a private jet and expedite his long pending visit to the south!

A couple of weeks ago, received this splendid little mixer from our FM Ask07. Yet another contribution for a good cause. The church currently has a professional mixer with a capacity of 12 mics and additional line inputs. This is adequate for the church's use as they will have a total of 10 xlr mics, 1 wireless mic and 1 aux input used for the choir keyboard. Besides this, both Ahuja amplifiers together can accomodate a further mixable 10 mics, that's a lot of mic capacity for a smallish church. We have put this little mixer to good use in the parish hall beside the church, where they normally use 2 or 3 mics for conducting parish council meetings, sunday school, etc. This was a great move as the church was trying to find a way to buy a new mixer for the parish hall. Special thanks to FM Ask07 for donating and sending across the same and to FM Simon_Wires for all his help and support as always.

 

[reubensm]

Last night, we finished the speaker wiring and installation of the speakers. We managed to hide the speaker cabling very well, much to the delight of the parish priest. I have used the cinema theatre approach for speaker positioning wherein the hall is powered by the 2 front towers and there are 2 pairs of speakers placed with spacing, covering the rear of the hall, positioned like surround sound speakers.

 

[saheb11123]

WOW!!

But how actually did you manage to hide cables without using any ties?

 

[reubensm]

WOW!!

But how actually did you manage to hide cables without using any ties?

I noticed a design feature on the upper walls of the church wherein there was one steady groove running the length of the church. Used white cable and hid it in this groove. The parish priest had earlier consulted with a electrician for putting cable ducts and they asked for 30k to do this. We achieved hidden cabling with zero expense. Pictures over the weekend.

 

[saheb11123]

Neat..

Can wait for pics.