Looking to the future
Looking to the future
Saint Ignatius' College Riverview is benefitting from a long-overdue AV upgrade to its Dalton Memorial Chapel
Located on the lower North Shore of Sydney, Saint Ignatius' College Riverview may have been established as an independent boarding school for boys in 1880, but its AV technology is operating in the present and beyond. Prior to the pandemic, the singing of hymns during Mass, assemblies, parent association meetings and theatrical school productions required basic audio setups and a minimal use of video. Assessing future trends and AV requirements for an overdue AV upgrade, Saint Ignatius' College’s AV engineer Kevin Kwan was in a position to take on this project during one of Sydney’s lockdown periods.
The initial scope for the upgrade hit an obstacle for Kwan as the first company engaged to conduct works for the school was unable to facilitate a full installation to the level required. “Fortunately, that same company had approached Technical Audio Group (TAG) to create a design, and this was passed on to me,” comments Kwan. “TAG’s engineers visited me onsite and we agreed on what the requirements would be going forward before engaging a contractor for the installation based on their design.”
Built in 1909, the Dalton Memorial Chapel required intelligible speech for the boarder students attending Mass services and other external church functions. “The reinforcement of speech at the front was the focus, where we are switching between Audio-Technica U853A microphones with an adapter mount installed on microphone stands and a Crown boundary mic at the altar,” attests Kwan. “Some parts of the chapel, including the wings on either side and the area behind the altar, also required extra reinforcement in the form of eight Martin Audio CDD5s.” Following simulations by TAG’s SES team, a Martin Audio O-Line array system was specified. “The previous speaker system required equalisation prior to audio output, which compromised the audio quality. With its onboard digital amplification, the O-Line speaker management is straightforward.”
During the past 15 years, particularly in Australian houses of worship, O-Line has become something of a tried-and-trusted array. “Owing to its aesthetically slim dimensions and acoustically scalable nature, we opted for this speaker system for the Dalton Chapel setting,” comments TAG’s consultant liaison, Bryan Davidson. “Each element is driven by its own amplifier channel to produce a flat frequency response from the front to rear seats. For me, that's the holy grail of any audio system. The 10 O-Line cabinets fixed to each wall produce even sound pressure levels throughout the chapel. With a reverb time of 3s, O-Line achieves a very high speech intelligibility of approximately 0.6.”
The addition of the Q-SYS Core Nano provides audio distribution together with video control functionality from a single 5-inch touchpanel. Its inclusion transforms the device into a fully capable Q-SYS processor with local HDMI switching capabilities. “The combination of Q-SYS and Dante enhances the futureproofing features, including the adoption of lighting control,” explains Davidson. “With its scalable architecture and ease of programming, the school has almost limitless possibilities going forward. Via Dante, other spaces in the school can now be networked with the Dalton Chapel, and this can be increased to streaming across the entire site by enabling network connectivity to new spaces.”
When combined with the Q-SYS processing, an Allen & Heath ecosystem and Martin Audio outputs, the possibilities for expanding the Dante network to other halls and faculties on the campus are almost limitless. A masterclass in AV installation may not yet be on the curriculum at the school, but its application will subliminally advance academic studies at Saint Ignatius' College Riverview.
