Only ten years ago, this 1200 seat church, once the center of an old Chicago neighborhood, was shuttered and destined for the wrecking ball. But things changed when the neighborhood aborbed an influx of new residents during the 90's, and St. Mary's reopened. Today, in 2000, with eight masses every Sunday in four languages, the parish is once again vibrant and full of life.
Prior to our involvement with the parish, another consultant had supervised the installation of a new sound system that didn't work very well. That system was designed with the constraint that it had to be invisible. It was, but the loudspeakers that were small enough to conceal were also too small to control the church's 7.5 second reverberation time! The church has a very high dome, lots of glass and plaster, and hard wood floors.
Our design utilized existing wiring, loudspeaker locations, and much of the existing electronics. But all of the loudspeakers were replaced by larger models capable of controlling sound in the very reverberant environment. The front third of the nave is covered by a pair of large Renkus-Heinz horns, each with a companion bass array (custom by Renkus Heinz based on our design). The rest of the nave is served by six special column loudspeakers (custom, based on our design), two of which are visible here on architectural columns within the nave. Additional loudspeakers cover the choir and the clergy.
A separate system reinforces the cantor and choral soloists, who are with the choir and organ in the antiphonal balcony (antiphonal means that it is at the back of the church). This system, controlled by a compact mixer in the balcony, carries sound clearly through the reverberatiion all the way to the altar, approximately 120 feet away.