Houses of worship :: New England and beyond
“For the past nine years, BL&S has proven invaluable for advising us on the selection, installation, and maintenance of our audiovisual systems.”
– Benjamin Chase, Exhibit Specialist II, Mary Baker Eddy Library
Cathedral of the Holy Cross ::
Dedicated in 1875, this neo-Gothic style church is home to the Boston Catholic Archdiocese. As one of the largest churches in the diocese,
it serves as the main church for the Archbishop of Boston. The impressive
cathedral hosts small weddings, funerals, and masses as well as the
Archbishop’s mass, which draws upwards to two thousand parishioners.
The archdiocese hired BL&S to create a sound system that would meet
these diverse needs.
BL&S installed a sound system consisting of ten pairs of column-style
loudspeakers, each properly time aligned down the nave of the church to provide clear sound as if there was a single audio source coming from the presiding speaker. They also added two mixing systems, an automatic mixer for simple, smaller events, and a manual mixer in the pew area for large masses involving organ and choir accompaniment.
Parishioners can now enjoy clearer vocals and richer sound throughout every seat in the cathedral.
Highly knowledgeable
“I’ve worked with BL&S for nearly
20 years since they installed the sound system at the
Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. They are not only highly knowledgeable in their field, but also extremely professional in providing
for our liturgical and musical needs in both religious services and concerts.”
The First Church of Christ, Scientist ::
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as the Mother Church, was designed to make the healing and educational system known as Christian Science accessible to everyone. Located in Boston, the original 1,000-seat church was built in 1894 using New Hampshire granite. In 1906, the church designed a 3,000-seat extension using a combination of Renaissance and Byzantine architectural concepts.
Voice intelligibility at the church was of primarily importance, with guest
readers playing a major role in public testimonial meetings and
(Photo: ©2006 The Christian Science
Board of Directors)
Sunday services.
Like most houses of worship, the Mother Church is particularly reverberant in nature, as it was designed to project sound from the pulpit area without electronic amplification. In addition hard surfaces such as limestone further exacerbate this problem; sound waves bounce off the walls, making it difficult to direct sound to the seating areas.
To improve vocal clarity, BL&S provided sound reinforcement to the seating area with two 16-foot tall by four-inch wide steerable array column loudspeakers. BL&S sound engineers tailored the output of the church sound system to focus speech directly on the seating area and almost completely off the surrounding limestone. Thus, the new loudspeakers provide clear, intelligible sound with very minimal volume change.
The team carefully designed the church sound system to match the church’s aesthetics. Matching the color of the loudspeakers to the exact shade of limestone within the church made the 16-foot tall column all but invisible. Today, parishioners from the front pews to the back row can appreciate the spoken word.
Invaluable and enthusiastic
“For the past nine years, BL&S has proven invaluable for advising us on the selection, installation, and maintenance of our audiovisual systems. The staff is extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about helping us achieve our presentation goals.”
Arlington Street Church ::
Designed by the celebrated architect Arthur Gilman, the Arlington Street Church was the first public building in Boston’s Back Bay. The 2000-seat church is home to the Unitarian Universalists.
The natural reverberation of the church made controlling sound, particularly voices, quite challenging. Congregation leaders hired design team Cavanaugh-Tocci & Associates to provide clear sound reinforcement throughout the church without detracting from its pleasing historical interior.
BL&S sound engineers worked alongside the design team, installing a church sound system consisting of distributed overhead speakers mounted in the ceiling above the upper-level side pews as well as two Dutch manufactured Intellivox loudspeakers, which flank the left and right side of the pulpit area. These thin, column-style speakers are steerable in the vertical plane, allowing the sound operator to steer the sound down onto the seating area to minimize audio reflections off the ceiling and back wall.
With the new system, voices can be heard clearly throughout the entire church so the entire congregation can enjoy rich, clear sound.
“These guys have incredible integrity.”
“They do what they say they’re going to do. The way they wire and install the product is fantastic... the consultants who hire BL&S actually talk about that! BL&S is detail-oriented and they’re one of the best to have on a work site.”
Sisters of Charity ::
The Sisters of Charity in Wellesley, MA have a senior housing complex for retired nuns. Architects Meyer & Meyer of Boston asked BL&S to design a sound system for the complex’s chapel. BL&S transformed a traditional rectangular chapel into a more intimate space by bringing the altar area into the seating area with fan-shaped seating, as with a thrust stage. BL&S recommended a system that covers the seating areas with clear, intelligible sound without creating feedback from microphones in the sound field. The careful selection and positioning of loudspeakers along with system tuning gave the clients the optimal sound quality and visual appearance.
Rave reviews from the congregation
“Zeke, Just a note to express our appreciation for all the great work you and Boston Light & Sound put forth designing and installing the new audio system in our sanctuary. We are delighted with the results of that effort and have received rave reviews from the congregation. I made a special effort to speak to several folks that have hearing difficulties and they too add their positive vote indicating they now hear every word.”
