d&b’s xC-Series helps spread the word at St Jacob’s Church, Stockholm.
St Jacobs Church in Stockholm has taken a major step forward with the quality of its sound provision, while adhering to strict aesthetic requirements, thanks to a new d&b xC-Series installation, designed and installed by Mono Plus.
Time for Renewal
Dating from the 17th century, Stockholm’s St Jakobs Kyrka (St Jacobs Church), known for its red-brick tower and ornate Baroque interior, is an internationally recognised hub for traditional church performance. As home to both the St. Jacob’s Chamber Choir and St. Jacob’s Vocal Ensemble, it continues a reputation established over centuries.
Despite preferring an unamplified, acoustic environment for its regular concerts, organ recitals and choral performances, the church still had a pressing need for reinforcement. While church organs and choirs are perfectly suited to the building’s acoustic, it can be a very different story for a solitary speaking voice. For services and other events where speech plays a lead role, amplification was required.
To provide the quality of sound and intelligibility they needed, the church looked to one of Sweden’s leading experts in sound system design and installation. Led by Jacob Julin, Mono Plus is a company able to draw on years of experience in sound solutions – with an especially successful track record in the tricky acoustic environments of churches.
The Vision of Quality Sound
“This was a fairly typical church project for us,” says Julin, “in that it uses arrays of column loudspeakers from d&b audiotechnik’s xC-Series. We have used the xC-Series in a large number of churches now, and it always takes care of church acoustics.”
What made this project slightly unusual was that the customer already had a system design in hand – one which had been prepared not for d&b, but for another manufacturer’s product. “From our point of view,” says Julin, “it could be significantly improved.”
As an alternative, Julin demonstrated the d&b 24C column loudspeaker to the customer. Impressed, they agreed to change the plan. One thing that did not change, however, were the strict aesthetic conditions. The client was just as concerned with visual impact as with sound performance and had strict demands on the appearance of the loudspeaker hardware.
“Their architect consulted on the colours of the loudspeakers,” Julin explains. “Two custom colours were needed, one to match the pinkish-grey tone of the large main columns lining the nave, and another for the pale-cream plaster of the walls. This is a common demand in these old buildings, and one which d&b is able to meet perfectly.”
Sound Solution
“Once the speakers were colour-matched, the installation was fairly straightforward,” says Julin. As usual for Mono Plus, great care is taken with the detail of the installation, with cabling concealed within robust, colour-matched copper pipe and care taken to eliminate shadows which might make the speakers more apparent.
The church already had a comprehensive Q-SYS-based system controlling every aspect of the environment – including video, lights, heating and alarm – so it was a relatively simple matter to incorporate control of the new sound system.
Because Julin is so familiar with the acoustics of church environments and confident in the performance of d&b loudspeakers, he does not always feel the need to model church sound systems in d&b ArrayCalc – at least not for his own benefit. “In this case,” he says, “I did produce a relatively simple model in ArrayCalc, so that I could show the customer before the system went it. Sometimes it’s very useful for that reason – it’s an extra level of assurance.”
The system used here employs seven 24C and a total of nine 16C cabinets from d&b’s xC-Series, with an additional 5S for the organist and a pair of Bi8-SUBs for low-end complement, with everything driven by four 5D amplifiers
Prayers Answered
The end result provides a fitting capability for such a historic and sensitive space. While remaining largely unnoticed, the system only really makes itself felt when there is something to be said.
“They are very happy with it,” says Julin, “but then, I’ve never had a situation with d&b when the customer has been unhappy!”
