Worship in Lusail comes to life at Al-Manaa

With its construction started as the country began to gear up for the World Cup, the Al-Manaa Mosque, also known as the Lusail Marina Mosque, was the first of its kind to open doors for worshippers in Lusail. Once a quiet village 15 miles north of Doha, Lusail has taken on new significance after hosting the World Cup final inside its huge 88,000-capacity stadium. It’s grown to become a modern city, the second biggest in Qatar – serving as an extension of the capital city itself, and has been investing in infrastructure that will eventually allow it to accommodate upwards of half a million people in the near future. All this has led a recent wave of construction that has included several places of worship covering different denominations.

Nestled within the heart of the Lusail Marina, the Al-Manaa Mosque covers 14,000m² with a capacity to accommodate up to 3,000 worshippers. There are a number of smaller mosques in nearby neighbourhoods, but residents of Lusail City had been eagerly awaiting a ‘’main’’ mosque in the area. The building beautifully blends with the hypermodern infrastructure of the Lusail, and stands out for its simplistic beauty in blending both traditional and modern elements. The interior is simple yet elegant, with minimalistic decor, a beige backdrop and golden lighting. Just like most of the grand mosques around the world, Al-Manaa also features a courtyard that is semi-open air and can serve to accommodate many worshippers.

Darwish Technology was brought into the project at the early stages to assist with the design and integration of the audiovisual systems. Like many mosques, the main worship space inside Al-Manaa is cavernous, with high ceilings, large reflective walls and awkward columns hindering sound propagation. “We got involved at the construction stage but it was an incredibly fast-paced project and we were working concurrently on several other big sites at the same time,” explains Darwish Technology’s ISD operations manager, Ahmad Dabberni. “As a result, it was quite challenging and the upper management was also very involved, as everything had to be finalised prior to Ramadan. We completed the entire installation in less than one month. Beyond simply designing everything, we also had to make sure the sound quality would be very good in what was quite a tricky environment.

“During the installation, we worked closely with the building contractor which integrated all the cabling alongside construction. The entire project covered audio, video and a live production solution that allows broadcasters such as Qatar Media Corporation to come in, plug their cameras and take live pictures. Events can also be livestreamed on YouTube.”

Covering the main worship area from an audio perspective are six Bose Panaray MSA12X column speakers lining the back wall – the four primary inner full-height columns each formed from a pair of Panaray arrays. Filling in the coverage gaps around the protruding columns are an additional pair of Bose 402 series II speakers on either side wall. The entrance area, which serves as an overflow space for worship, integrates six Bose surface mounted speakers high up on the walls to bring audio coverage of the Imam into this area.

Six wall-mounted Sony 75-inch 4K Professional BRAVIA TVs – three in the main hall and three in the entrance hall – can display feeds from any of the two Sony EVI-H100 HD or three Sony BRC-X400 4K PTZ cameras mounted in the main worship area, together with screens in the main sanctuary itself for IMAG purposes. The speakers connect back to the amplifier rack in the building’s rear via Dante and the entire setup is then powered by a combination of Bose Professional PowerMatch PM8500, PM4500 and PM4250 amplifiers, with DSP capabilities from a ControlSpace EX-1280C processor. Eight TOA TH650 horn loudspeakers outside in the minaret are powered by TOA A-2240 power amplifiers also housed in the same rack.

“We modelled the space thoroughly with Bose Modeller before designing the solution,” says Jerico Acosta, system programmer at Darwish Technology. “The two pillars block sound from the column speakers in certain locations which is why we installed the fill speakers further back to fill in the gaps. We’ve done extensive testing since with a local consultant here and we have only +-3dB difference across the entire space. It sounds fantastic.”

Providing audio capture of the Iman’s call to prayer are a selection of Sennheiser handheld and podium microphones, such as the e 865-S vocal mic and MZH 3042 metal gooseneck mic, set in the middle of the space for use in various worship configurations. These connect back to a QSC WP in-wall stage box that feeds the 16-channel Yamaha TF1 audio mixer used to balance signals. “We installed an interface on the wall that allows them to just plug the microphone in and it’ll be immediately connected to the audio system,” notes Dabberni. “Every time someone new comes to play in the mosque, they have their own requirements. The current Iman likes to be placed centrally, quite far away from the traditional location. Three rack units of Sennheiser ew G4 wireless also allow for freedom of movements by speakers when required.”

In order to manage which camera will be displayed onto which of the mosque’s TV screens and in which format, Darwish created a bespoke A/V control platform with simple drag-and-drop operation from an Apple iPad. “The entire system can be controlled by the iPad through the Crestron 4 Series Control processor and Sony live production controller,” says Dabberni. “There’s a multiviewer for the PTZ cameras inside the Crestron Mobile Pro iPad interface where the user can simply drag a camera source onto the correct window. It’s a custom interface we designed and includes all of the audiovisual devices here and the ways to connect their inputs and outputs together. The idea is that you can simply drag a camera onto a screen and it will display on one of the TVs out there.”

Local recording, live streaming and camera control is handled by the Sony AWS-750 portable live content producer in tandem with a Sony RM-IP500 PTZ remote camera controller and a Blackmagic solution of five SmartView Duos (capable of showing total of 10 feeds – six of which are reserved for broadcast purposes), two MultiView 4 multiviewers, Smart VideoHub 12G router and a Videohub Master Control Pro. A Sony XDS-1000 professional media station additionally allows pre-recorded content to be introduced to the production.

“Operation of the audio is even simpler than the video,” adds Acosta. “Several presets have been configured depending on the use case, and the Iman can just come in and hit one button to set everything up.”

Outside, the building is surrounded by a large car park on all sides. During popular events, worshippers can often spill out of the main building and into the car park. As a result, Darwish integrated Bose 402 series II cabinets along each side wall which, in combination with the minaret speaker, reinforces the call to prayer around the building’s vicinity.

“During Ramadan, even outside, there’s not enough space to accommodate the whole population of the mosque,” explains Dabberni. “We installed the additional speakers around the periphery, but this created another challenge for us as it was an additional requirement that came later. We brought the contractor back again in order to do the cabling.”

At the very rear of the building is a dedicated hatch for interconnecting broadcast vehicles with the interior camera and sound system, allowing OB vans to drive up and plug straight in when covering important events. A Blackmagic Mini Converter Optical Fiber 12G installed inside the main rack converts SDI to optical fibre, feeding an ACS Reveal Plate that can be opened by OB operators.

“We got a lot of great support from Bose to help achieve really superior audio performance inside the mosque,” Dabberni concludes. “Thank God, the client is very satisfied with the result. But not only the client, even worshippers both inside and outside have commended to us on the quality of the sound.”