Installation PLACES OF WORSHIP 10 May 2011

RCF Columns in St. Columcille Church

RCF Columns are the order for St. Columcille
Star Systems find delayed L2406’s offer controlled directionality.
When the beautiful 19th century Catholic parish church of St. Columcille, situated in the picturesque village of Inistioge, Kilkenny, had its rededication ceremony recently, the clergy were able to address the congregation through a new RCF column speaker system.
For the first time, following the extensive redevelopment, parishioners could hear the spoken word with absolute clarity — thanks to the delayed L2406 speaker array that had been specified by Co. Tipperary-based Star Systems.
Led by their MD, Declan O’Sullivan, the installers responded to the tender issued by local contractors, Corbett Electrical, and were awarded the contract based on their reputation in outfitting other houses of worship. However, this was the first time they had taken RCF to church, despite having worked extensively with the Italian brand over the past five years.
With a reverberation time of more than five seconds to contend with, Star Systems created an acoustic model of the building, and based on the measurements set about detailing a system best fit for purpose.
“We had heard the L2406 at Frankfurt ProLight+Sound last year and were hugely impressed with the directionality and the bottom end — and the fact that the speakers looked good,” declared Declan. “We knew we could wall-mount four speakers down each side of the church on delays — just 1.2 metres up from the ground — with the fifth pair upstairs in the choir loft.” The front pair also provides monitoring for the altar.
Purpose designed for houses of worship, the L2406 is a high intelligibility compact 3-way column speaker array, equipped with six 5" woofers and four 1" dome tweeters, with the vertical-controlled directivity that Declan O’Sullivan was seeking.
Reference monitors were also required for use in the sacristy and at the entrance, and Star Systems opted for an RCF Monitor 33T in each location — finished in white to match the L2406’s. These compact 2-way loudspeakers are loaded with 4.75" high-efficiency carbon fibre woofer and 0.5" mylar dome tweeter mounted on a 110 x 100 constant directivity horn.
The RCF loudspeakers form part of a full, high specification audio package, including wired and wireless (lapel and handheld) microphones, an eight-channel mixer, amplifiers, processing and an induction loop system. The overall fit-out was project managed by electrical contractor, Michael Corbett.
Visiting clergy have already been impressed with the high-grade speech and background music reproduction offered by the RCF solution — so much so that Star Systems have already received several enquiries for a similar fit-out, including a firm order.