A high RT and flutter echoes were among the issues to be addressed when the Hasseris Kirke in Aalborg, Denmark, decided to install a new loudspeaker system. The answer came in the form of a system from d&b audiotechnik – a brand that the church’s organist and musical director, Mogens Jensen, first encountered seven years ago.
“I was visiting a high school at Esbjerg in southern Denmark,” he recalled. “I’m a musician and used to hearing many different types of loudspeaker and amplifier systems but never d&b until then. I had not heard such high resolution; it was so clean. My main request from any loudspeaker is that it shouldn’t be heard; you should hear only the music and singers coming from it. After the concert I walked up to the stage and saw the d&b logo. Then sometime later I was in Oslo, Norway, visiting Jakob Church in the city for a cultural event and I heard that sound again; completely clean, no colouration. Again, I went after the event to the stage and saw the same logo. It was so transparent, you just didn’t notice it was amplified; it was direct, human, and detailed.”
To accommodate a wide variety of musical styles and a seven-piece line-up of professional musicians – including a saxophonist, flautist, guitarist and singer – alongside Jensen’s organ, Lars Frederiksen from d&b distributor Alfa Audio devised an unusual solution that delivers a large vertical coverage with a very narrow horizontal pattern.
“I have put d&b Ti10L loudspeakers in an upright orientation facing down the nave to the congregation, but the horn is turned by 90° to a non-conventional orientation for this upright positioning; in other words, as if the loudspeaker was being used as part of a line array,” said Frederiksen. “This produces a large vertical coverage with a very narrow horizontal pattern (DATA). It covers the listeners well without exciting the church walls. Mogens’ pipe organ is up on a balcony at the opposite end from the altar and the small orchestra plays below it. There is another PA system here comprising Ti10s and there are some E0s elsewhere for delays. So the church can function from either end.”
Image Credit: Søren Ohlsen
