St. Antonino Martire Parish

— A High-tech Parish with Yamaha Sound —

Overview

The St. Antonino Martire parish of St. Antonino Ticino in the Italian province of Varese recently redefined the concept of oratories, traditionally the centre of social life in Roman Catholic parishes, with the inauguration of its "Opera Grassi" Oratory multi-function center. The building, designed by architect Giorgio Luini and built thanks to benefactor Emilio Grassi, includes a gym complete with sound reinforcement that can become a theater for various types of events, a meeting room with a bar which, as well as being a meeting point for parishioners, is also a conference facility equipped with a system for screening films with 5.1 audio. On the floor above is a study center for youngsters and a series of rooms for seminars and other activities.

Installed Products

Processors:: DME24N
Power Amplifiers:: P7000S, P2500S, XM4080
Speakers:: IF2205, IF2108, IH2000, IL1115

Details

Yamaha Systems in an Innovative Oratory

The audio systems in the Oratory were installed by Telesystem Professional, designed by Pierluigi Pecchenini of Direct Field Engineering, who described the various zones involved: "For each system solution in the two main rooms — the bar zone and the gym — there’s a Yamaha DME24N Digital Mixing Engine, which in fact controls all the data and signals arriving from the rooms, such as microphones, players, etc., as well as the various reinforcement configurations of the rooms."

In the gym, following acoustic treatment work, two clusters of loudspeaker enclosures were flown from the ceiling, each comprising two Yamaha IH2000/64 for mid-high frequencies, and an IL1115 enclosure for the low frequencies fitted with a 15-inch woofer. The set-up is powered by three Yamaha P7000 power amps capable of delivering 750 watts per channel into 8 ohms. This format offers the ideal solution for the various types of foreseeable applications: musical events, theatrical performances, etc.

Pecchenini continued, "To ensure the utmost flexibility for these requirements, four microphone connectors have been mounted in the wall so that MCs or commentators can connect a mic or an audio source and use the room’s sound system. The system has also been set up in such a way that the two groups of enclosures can be used either together or separately."

When theatrical or musical events are staged, the two clusters are aligned and set via presets programmed before the system’s start-up. Users therefore just have to the connect their sources. In addition to the mic connectors, there’s also a wall-mounted Yamaha CP1SF remote control panel featuring a fader and a switch. "The fader is used to control the volume in the room," continued Pecchenini, "so, when necessary, it’s possible to raise and lower the volume of the microphone by just using the slider, without having to change the settings of the rest of the system."

The mixer installed in the Oratory (a Yamaha MG16/6FX) can be connected to the DME24N inputs via a wall-mounted line connection.

Another Yamaha CP4SW remote control panel with four switches is used to select the room’s presets, enabling the various cluster configurations via the DME routing section. Three of the switches allow users to quickly and easily choose whether to use the individual clusters separately or together, whereas the fourth mutes any signals arriving from the bar zone.

Pecchenini added, "This obviously isn’t an auditorium, so we had to work bearing this in mind, trying to create the best possible coverage of the floor from above. For these systems we worked with the enclosures’ directivity characteristics and their coverage angle — in this case they have a dispersion of 60° x 40° — pointing and inclining each cluster in the appropriate manner."

As well as signal equalization and delay, the DME units carry out other functions, as Pecchenini explained, "They’re responsible for all the signal processing, which goes from equalization to delay, crossover, limiting — in short the entire sound chain. Each cluster has a mid-high part, used in passive mode, exploiting the on-board crossover, while the low section’s crossover is handled by a module of the DME."

In addition to the fader and switches mounted on the wall and the two XLR line input connectors for mixer connection, two output connectors from the DME enable events being held in the other room to be recorded without having to carry out any changes in the settings in the first-floor control room hosting the DME, power amps, etc.

The system has been successfully put to the test since its inauguration with sports events, folk music and rock bands (some of which connected their own mixer to the in-house set-up in place of the venue’s console, via the handy wall connectors).

The meeting room, which can seat approximately seventy people with a conference/projection layout, was mainly designed as a meeting place for the parish’s youngsters, so there’s also a well equipped bar and games area, and the end wall of the room is perfectly white so it can double as a projection screen.

The sound system comprises three ceiling-mounted Yamaha full-range enclosures from the Installation range: two IF2108 units and an IF2205 unit. As Pecchenini explained, "As well as the video projector, the room’s heating is also installed on the ceiling, so this aspect had to be carefully considered when designing the sound reinforcement system. I took advantage of the fact that the enclosures’ horns can be rotated, installing them in a horizontal position, and the extremely low profile of the middle enclosure — fitted with two five inch woofers — was of fundamental importance as it avoided obstruction of the projection."

The equipment rack for this zone also contains three Yamaha power amplifiers: a P2500S powers the left and right channels of the main system, another the center channel and the sub, and a four-channel XM4080 unit the surround speakers.

As well as conferences and seminars, this room also hosts a series of thematic projections for which the surround effects are reproduced by six small wall-mounted speakers controlled by the DME unit but — thanks to yet another preset on the unit — they can also be aligned with the main system, becoming part of the standard sound reinforcement when the room is used for conferences. Here too, users can select the type of configuration required in an intuitive manner.

A Bet that Paid Off

The Grassi Oratory project was the first on which Pecchenini used the Yamaha Installation Series speakers, and the system designer was enthusiastic: "I was really pleased — the mid/high enclosures installed in the gym are extremely interesting — being ‘loaded’, they allowed me to work at a considerable height, flying the entire system from the ceiling and ensuring remarkable control of sound source directivity. In the other room, on the other hand, the enclosures are very adaptable and easy to use, thanks also to their compact dimensions. The eight-inch woofers sound really good. They’re very linear and also perform well at the bottom end."

Concluding, Pecchenini added, "I’d particularly like to stress — and the parish priest Don Paolo Torti also agrees — that this project was a sort of a bet. The products had just come out when we chose them, and everything worked perfectly thanks to the valuable contribution of efficient Yamaha staffer Gianni Volonterio, who sadly passed away before his time."