Feature: Reinforcing Mosquée de la Riviéra Golf

Almost half of the population of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) follows the teachings of Islam, the majority of which adhere to the Sunni denomination, abiding by the Maliki version of Islamic law. In the late 1990s, as the religion enjoyed a resurgence in the West African country that continues to this day, Mosquée de la Riviéra Golf was built to serve a Muslim community of up to 800 people in the Riviéra 1 district of the city of Abidjan.

Over the course of the past two decades, the mosque has struggled to find a sound system that suited its needs. Several potential solutions had been tried over the years until Protech Distribution was contacted recently.

‘We were approached by the mosque president to provide a world-renowned sound solution,’ recalls Inza Bamba, managing director of Protech Distribution. ‘For the past 20 years, the mosque has been looking for a high-quality sound system that can offer the intelligibility they need both inside and outside the building. They tried several systems with different combinations of mixers and amplifiers. But, not only were the speaker systems not up to the standard the mosque was looking for, the sound solution as a whole was always far too complicated for the non-technical members of the mosque staff to operate.’

Among the catalogue of manufacturers that Protech Distribution represents as a supplier in Côte d'Ivoire is TOA Electronics, which produces audio solutions across the entire signal chain, all designed for ease-of-use.

‘We installed a TOA MX-6224D digital mixer amplifier,’ says Bamba. Specifically designed for use in small- and medium-sized houses of worship, particularly mosques, the MX-6224D provides 240W of power per zone for two zones of public address systems and is easy to use with a three-band EQ available on all six of its mic inputs.

‘For coverage inside the mosque,’ Bamba continues, ‘we installed 31 TOA BS-1030 two-way, bass-reflex speakers. We chose the BS-1030 because it has a wide frequency range, making it suitable for use in reinforcing both speech and music playback. The speakers were installed around the pillars and in the ladies’ prayer room.

‘In addition, we fitted 12 TOA TC-631M public address horn speakers to cover the outside of the mosque and the minaret.’ Built for public address announcements, the TC-631M features an external speaker component and is finished with a powder coating and stainless-steel screws for use in all weather conditions. We chose TOA speakers for this installation as they not only form consistency across the system with the digital mixer amplifier, but also because of their reliability and sound clarity.’

Although the installation, for the most part, was a simple as the system setup itself, the project wasn’t completely without its challenges for the Protech Distribution team. ‘We encountered feedback from six open microphones,’ explains Bamba. ‘However, we were able to fix this by simply turning down the volume and adjusting the frequencies on the built-in amplifier DSP settings. Once we had solved that issue, the result was astonishing. Not only have we received plenty of adulation from our client at Mosquée de la Riviéra Golf, we have also had kudos from other mosques in the area.’

This article first appeared in the July-August 2019 edition of Worship AVL. Subscribe at www.proavl-central.com/subscribe/worship.