As for aesthetics, the O-Line elements (and other Martin Audio loudspeakers) were installed in standard colour finish, however all other fixings including cable-runs in conduit were colour-matched where possible to satisfy heritage requirements.
Dating back to 1824, St. John’s Anglican church in Launceston, Tasmania is the oldest church in the city, having recently celebrated its 200th anniversary. To mark the bicentennial, the church committee commissioned a major upgrade, largely to enhance speech intelligibility. GUZ BOX design + audio, headed by founder Tim Kuschel, were tasked with overseeing the acoustic and electroacoustic design works, deciding on Martin Audio at the system’s core.
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This was back in 2020, but hampered by COVID restrictions and a lack of data, it wasn’t until March 2021, in the post-COVID era, that the Canberra-based consultant fully realised the overwhelming number of architectural constraints he would be facing in this heritage-listed building—not least the demanding acoustics, with multiple reflections created by a 22m-high dome.
St. John’s Anglican church
The reason intelligibility was such a concern was because a large proportion of the congregants are elderly worshippers, struggling to understand spoken word services. The existing speaker system simply did not meet the requirements, as it consisted of too many non-compatible enclosures, randomly installed as new extensions had been added over time.
But speech wasn’t the only consideration as St John’s also hosts more contemporary music for its youth services— as well as orchestral and pipe organ recitals.
After evaluation, Tim Kuschel’s upgrade solution to provide enhanced coverage in the sanctuary, platform and presentation areas, came down in favour of Martin Audio’s multi-award-winning O-Line modular micro-array set-up, with scalable resolution.
“This offered the most consistent results across the seating areas,” he rationalised. “With its compact form factor, O-Line excels in houses of worship where speech intelligibility is the primary function.”
Founded by audio engineer David Martin in 1971, Martin Audio pioneered the use of all-horn-loaded bass designs in world-class touring loudspeaker systems for groups such as Pink Floyd, ELP and Supertramp. Today, Martin Audio embodies a sophisticated mix of acoustic design, research, mathematical modelling and software engineering for a wide range of products in the installation and touring sound markets.
For local Martin Audio enquiries, visit Technical Audio Group. For more Martin Audio and O-Line info, visit them here!
