Philadelphia's St. Peter the Apostle Church Receives a Sound Makeover with Audio-Technica

	The National Shrine of St. John Neumann, located in St. Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia. Monte Brothers Sound Systems, Inc. chose microphones from Audio-Technica for the facility's recent renovation. Photo: Monte Brothers.

The National Shrine of St. John Neumann, located in the lower church of St. Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia, holds a special place for American Catholics. Neumann, the fourth bishop of Philadelphia, is also the first American male to be canonized as a saint. The Shrine, the main church sanctuary (St. Peter the Apostle Church) and a brand new atrium are the location for a wide variety of religious events, and the sound has to be top-notch -- no easy task in a traditional church, where an abundance of hard, reflective surfaces create a challenging acoustical environment. That's why custom sound system design and integration company Monte Brothers Sound Systems, Inc. chose microphones from Audio-Technica for the facility's recent renovation, in preparation for the World Meeting of Families events at St. Peter of the Apostle Church, during the visit of Pope Francis in Philadelphia in September.

The facility uses a selection of engineered sound microphones, including ES915ML MicroLine Condenser Gooseneck Microphones, ES961 Cardioid Condenser Boundary Microphones, ES935ML Cardioid Condenser Gooseneck Microphones, and the Audio-Technica 3000 Series Frequency-Agile True Diversity UHF Wireless System with A-T powered antennas.

"These A-T microphones will be used for all aspects of the liturgy, from the pulpit to the lectern, the organist, the choir, and soloists," says Steve Minozzi, co-director of Monte Brothers, based in Dobbs Ferry, New York, and which has specialized in house-of-worship environments for over 30 years. Minozzi's personal experience with the church goes back many years, to his work with the late John Cardinal O'Connor, Archbishop of the Diocese of New York in the late 20th century and an in-demand speaker at many events and occasions, religious and secular. Minozzi recalls the Cardinal's distrust of how microphones portrayed his quiet, tempered approach to public speaking. In the 1980s, Minozzi collaborated with the late Ken Reichel, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Audio-Technica at that time, to develop the ML capsule, whose extended frequency response and uniform cardioid 90-degree polar pattern met and exceeded the expectations of the Cardinal and thousands of other users since then. "The ML had a very tight polar pattern that was incredibly useful in reverberant environments like churches, because it rejected ambient sound and had no proximity effect," Minozzi explains. "It's the best house-of-worship microphone element in the world, and if it could meet Cardinal O'Connor's expectations, it can meet anyone's."