With New Bag End Speakers, Pennsylvania Congregation Now Hears the MessageSome older congregation members of the East Kishacoquillas Presbyterian Church in the small central Pennsylvania town of Reedsville had complained to church trustee Dave McNitt about not being able to hear the service clearly. McNitt approached Tom Gallagher of Music Mart Inc. about installing an induction loop in the church that would help those that have hearing aids with T-Coils hear the service. When Gallagher visited the church, he recognized immediately that the problem was due primarily to the combination of the church's simple sound system and the layout of the church's architecture. The sound system included only two speakers that produced good reproduction but were not suited for the room. Sound was not distributed evenly across the seating area, and there were pockets "shaded" by pillars and other barriers caused by the design of the room. As a result of pointing out these and other deficiencies, Gallagher was asked to propose a complete new sound system for the church, including the ability to record the Sunday service for shut-ins and for the church web site. Gallagher developed a plan for speaker selection and placement, then consulted with Bag End to confirm the plan. They confirmed the need for multiple full-range speakers and sub woofers and agreed with his choices and placement of them. Gallagher specified the remaining equipment for the system, and the church gave the approval to go ahead. The speaker installation included four Bag End TA6002-I-B full-range speakers and one Bag End PD10E-I-B subwoofer, all in oiled birch cabinets that matched the church décor. The small size of the TA6002-I-B cabinets (22.5"h x 9"w x 11"d) also made them unobtrusive, always a benefit when placing speakers in an existing space. "Bag End speakers continue to be my favorite to install, especially for live performance speakers," Gallagher says. "Being able to start with a fairly flat response makes my job easier. And the speakers always astound people with their sound compared to the size." Equipment that completed the primary system included an Ashly ne8800m Protea DSP controller, RD-8C remote control and ne800 that allowed Gallagher to equalize and delay the four zones, crossover the signal to send to the subwoofer and limit the amount of low end going to the full range cabinets. It also enabled him to send and compress audio to the loop, the nursery and the solid-state recorder. The RD-8C eight-channel remote control lets the musical directors turn microphone channels on or off and control individual volume levels and the operation of the CD player from their seat at the piano. A Denon DNF450N solid-state recorder records the service for the church's shut-in members and makes services available on-line on the church's web site. The Audio-Technica ES935SML6 podium microphone is almost invisible on the podium and the pickup pattern of it and the other Audio-Technica microphones allows for a good amount of level without feedback. The only significant challenge that Gallagher and his crew found in the installation was getting wires through a ceiling in the church basement that had been finished with drywall, making it difficult to navigate through the joists. "We spent one entire day pulling wire," he reports. Following the installation of the new system, congregation members have been telling McNitt that they can now hear the services very well. Pastor Pat Roller is equally pleased and "ecstatic" that she can now press a button and have the sound system respond perfectly every time.
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