St Apath’s Cathedral is small yet mighty with Harman
St Apath’s Cathedral is small yet mighty with Harman
Nestled within St Apath in North-East Wales, St Asaph’s Cathedral is largely recognised as the smallest cathedral in Britain, as well as one of the oldest in Wales, dating back to the 15th century. St Asaph’s recently received an audio system made up of Harman’s JBL Professional loudspeakers, Clown amplifiers, BSS processing and AKG microphones.
The cathedral’s management team turned to Richard Hughes of Richard King Systems. St Apath’s Canon for communications, John Lister, said: “We started a long time before the final spec was agreed. Richard was prepared to come down here and look at our needs to get to know the cathedral better and he made it very straightforward.”
“The initial part of this process was in-depth consultation discussions with the cathedral team to establish their needs and aspirations,” confirmed Hughes. In designing the system, Hughes ensured that visual impact was minimal, with the building being Grade 1 listed.
Hughes opted for a solution centred around JBL Professional’s CBT column loudspeakers. In total, 14 CBT 50 and four CBT 100 column speakers are installed. In the nave and under the tower, flush brackets are used with The South Aisle and Presbytery CBT 50’s coupled with angled brackets. All are powered by Crown CDi Series amplifiers.
“We continue to receive very positive customer reactions to the inclusion of JBL CBT loudspeakers in many system installations,” he confirmed. “JBL’s research and development in this product range has been very beneficial for us and our customers in providing first class sound solutions.”
The system design incorporates processing capabilities via a BSS BLU-100 signal processor and its companion iPad app. “Behind the scenes we have included automatic mixer control and scene selection which results in operators having a system which is very simple and straightforward to use,” explained Hughes.
Multiple AKG gooseneck microphones have been installed in fixed positions, alongside nine AKG WMS470 wireless microphone systems deployed for a variety of uses.
In commissioning the system, Richard King Systems’ engineers carried out extensive measurement of the system performance, including bespoke tuning, working with the cathedral’s team to ensure the operator controls matched its requirements.
“The new sound system is wonderful and we've been supported throughout,” concluded Canon John Lister. “We're now confident that when we've got people visiting, we have the opportunity to have sound just as we need it.”