Iconyx Combines Aesthetics with Quality Sound at St. Columb's, Mississippi

The congregation of St. Columb's Church in Ridgefield, Mississippi recently moved into a new facility. The sanctuary itself is traditional in appearance, with high ceilings and large, ornate stained glass windows, but with a few contemporary touches. Along with the new building came a new sound system, installed by Josh Sanders from Players Audio Video of Jackson, Mississippi.

Being traditional in design, the room has a fairly live acoustical signature, which can spell trouble for amplified sound. So right from the start, Renkus-Heinz Iconyx IC24R digitally steerable arrays were specified as the main loudspeaker system, providing the ability to precisely steer and control coverage of the sound. Richard Hembree, of Atlanta-based Griffith Sales, performed the on site system alignment. Hembree credits the consultant and the church leadership for their decision to budget for and install a speaker system that would take into consideration the acoustical requirements of the sanctuary.

"When I went to commission the system and saw the size of the room and the live acoustics, I was thankful that the consultant and the church had made the right decision," he says. "Even though a pair of IC16-Rs would have performed 'well enough' for many, they opted for excellence by specifying a pair of IC24s instead. The IC24s allowed me to gain control over the problematic lower mid frequencies in this style of sanctuary. I was able to shoot the sound right over the pulpit and altar, covering front to rear of the pews with less than a 2dB variance in SPL."

The loudspeakers are installed in alcoves situated left and right of the alter, hidden from view via grilles designed to match the décor, minimizing even more the visual impact of the system. To facilitate the install, Players Audio Video took full advantage of the Iconyx's rigging option, suspending the IC24s from the top of the alcove.

Sanders noted, "The overall performance of the system afforded us a tremendous amount of flexibility to mount the speakers where we did. There is no way we could have met their aesthetic concerns with any other type of system. And it has performed flawlessly."

Hembree concurs, "They had the vision to do it right and it made all of the difference. The system really does sound great in the room."