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CASE STUDY: St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York

On St. Patrick’s Day 2012, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York announced that Manhattan’s historic 135-year-old St. Patrick’s Cathedral would undergo a massive five-year, three-phase, $175 million renovation due to crumbling bricks, faulty heating, and pollution damage. Part of this undertaking was a new AV system.

“The system, provided by Masque Sound and installed by B & G Electrical, allows the church to utilize the most current audio and video technology,” says Matthew Peskie, Install Department Manager at Masque Sound. “Also, with the installation of a fiber infrastructure, the facility is able to look forward to any future technological advancements. The AV system was designed for people of varying skill sets to use it, allowing both experienced and novice operators to deploy it adequately, depending on the service.”

B & G installed a complete wire-tray system along the triforium level of the church, which fed down an old chimney to gain access to the basement, and then up to the mix position of the AV equipment. Most of the main fiber runs were in the range of 800 to 1500 feet. Keeping the clean look of the columns was also a concern, and this was addressed by using Wiremold mounts for dressing wire down the columns to both speakers and AV panel locations.

The elaborate PA system features 30 K-Array KA10 amplifiers located primarily at the triforium rack locations, with 58 KK102 speakers mounted to columns throughout the nave and altar. The “spot” or “flood” pattern on the KK102 speaker allows for greater control of the coverage at each location. The size and shape of the speaker also enables the speaker to be slightly concealed within the flutes of the column.

The choir array is comprised of two 12-box Alcons LR7/90 line arrays (driven by Sentinel amps). The team mounted the arrays on custom cantilever steel tube stock poles to allow positioning along the north and south ends of the choir loft. The small size of the boxes gives the arrays the ability to blend into the venerable surroundings.

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