A ‘condemned’ Victorian Grade II-listed church in Wales has been saved from destruction, renovated, and installed with a JBL sound system.
The Diocese of St Asaph, serving the Anglican churches in North-east Wales, had been looking to close Holy Trinity Church in Holywell, Flintshire. However, newly appointed Rev Canon John Lomas was confident the church still had an important role to fill within the community. And so it received a stay of execution leading to a complete quarter of a million refurbishment project.
The 200-seat church, with its vaulted roof, was originally built in 1871 to a design by Ewan Christian and extended in 1910. When Richard Hughes of Richard King Systems of Oswestry was brought in, he knew just how he was going to treat it.
“We have fitted out around 40 churches in this diocese; mostly using loudspeakers from the JBL range and recently the CBT50LA model. When the church was inviting sound system designs the rector contacted us,” he said. “It’s an area in which we specialize.”
The brief was for a discreet high quality solution with the capacity and flexibility to accommodate various acoustic groups performing in the church. This time around Richard recommended two JBL AC18/95, high output 2-way loudspeakers, which combine discreet compact size with class leading high fidelity and reliability.
He added, “Historically churches haven’t spent a lot of money on their sound systems which is a real shame — and when I see the amount of sales that go into places of worship in the States I just weep! “Generally churches are still not aware of what technology can do and there are many with poor performance column speakers and dynamic mics.”
The layout of Holy Trinity incorporates a nave and a south aisle, and lancet windows. While the local sand stone contrasts with the white walls and highlighted blue roof timbers. The mixing position is midway down the church (to one side), the speakers are mounted left/right of the central aisle, by the nave and chancel.
Richard King Systems have provided expandability and kept audio components in the Harman Pro domain, providing a Soundcraft EPM12 mixer, Crown XTI 1000 to drive the loudspeaker system, two AKG C450 presenter sets and three AKG GN30ESP goosenecks with CK31 heads on circular solid based stands for the clergy. Control is achieved through the Soundcraft EPM12 from the discreet mixing position in the south aisle.
“We see this as a slowly expanding but exciting market,” summarises Richard Hughes.
