Satellites for the Basilica – LD Systems CURV 500® as Church PA of Choice

Neu-Anspach, Germany – June, 2019 – Like most Gothic churches, the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción casts an impressive silhouette. The Spanish house of worship was built in the 15th century in Colmenar Viejo, north of Madrid and has been part of Spain’s cultural heritage (“Bien de interes cultural”) since 1997, impressing visitors with its massive pillars, its august main altar in the Renaissance style and its 50-metre-high church tower. Not a simple set-up for Audiovisuales Sanser, an integrator from the Spanish capital tasked with providing a sound system for the vast interior. Following meticulous analysis and planning, project leader Carlos Serna’s team decided to collaborate with the Adam Hall Group and install a flexible LD Systems CURV 500® array system.

Almost every church offers unfavorable conditions for an electro-acoustic sound system: The hard stone surfaces reflect sound in ways that are difficult to control and which result in long reverberations, thereby making it extremely difficult to provide precise sound through the speakers. At the same time, the speakers must be discreetly installed into the church surroundings, so as not to disturb prayers or distract the congregation.

Clear Speech and Natural Music Sound Quality
The slim, versatile CURV 500 array system from LD Systems enabled Audiovisuales Sanser to meet several requirements: “The CURV 500 facilitates excellent speech intelligibility for worship services as well as a natural and powerful music reproduction for concerts,” explains Carlos Serna from Audiovisuales Sanser.

The Audiovisuales Sanser team installed a total of 84 CURV 500 S2 array satellites in white on the stone pillars of the church building, with the S2 satellites arranged in eight clusters of six and twelve clusters of three. While the larger array targets the central area, the triple array covers the side areas of the church. Four CURV 500 iSUB 10” installation subwoofers provide sufficient bass reinforcement in front of the altar and in the choir area at the back. Additional CURV 500 S2 array satellites act as monitoring in the control room and for the choir. The entire system is driven by five CURV 500 iAMP 4-channel Class-D installation power amplifiers.

Heavenly Sound Installations
Due to the architecture of the church, the approximately two-week installation phase of the CURV 500 systems was a challenge: While the speakers were installed on the lower third of the church pillars, the wiring had to be re-routed at a height of 20 meters along the columns and the protruding dome.

In order to illustrate the acoustic challenges to the client while also presenting the advantages of the CURV 500 array system, the Audiovisuales Sanser team arranged an on-site demonstration prior to installation. “It didn’t take long for the responsible persons to make their decision. They were extremely impressed by the CURV 500.” All the hard work has paid off: Since the spring of this year, worship services and concerts in the basilica of Asunción de Nuestra Señora have been blessed with a heavenly sound.

The following products are in used in the basilica:
84x LD Systems CURV 500 S2 W array satellites
4x LD Systems iSUB 10” installation subwoofers
5x LD Systems iAMP 4-channel class-D installation amplifiers

#ProAudio #Installaton #Churches #AVIndustry

Further information:
basilicacolmenar.com
ld-systems.com
ld-systems.com/curv500

adamhall.com
blog.adamhall.com
event.tech