St. Elias Maronite Church in Birmingham, AL follows in a tradition that dates back to Maron, a hermit monk whose life of prayer and meditation in the mountains near Antioch, Syria, inspired others to also make sacrifices in support of their faith.
And for a while, it was looking as though the congregation was going to have to sacrifice audio intelligibility for the sake of the stunning visual aesthetics of a sweeping church remodel.
"The reverb time in the sanctuary went from just under two seconds to over six seconds," says Gary Boackle, president of audio contractor Clear Solutions Inc., who is also a church member, of the newly-remodeled 350-capacity church.
A Sweeping Upgrade
The scope of this latest remodel – the first since 1970 – was intentionally broad, and included an upgrade of the church's physical structure, and also its lighting, audio and air conditioning systems. Work at the church began in mid-2009 and was completed by Nov. 2009 – coinciding with the celebration of the parish's centennial celebrations.
The remodel included the refurbishment of woodwork in the rear of the church, new porcelain and marble flooring, and the restoration of the ceiling to a smooth, more reflective surface.
The result is visually stunning, a blend of modern and traditional architectural elements that reveals the graceful arch of the ceiling and provides an beautiful setting for 19 stained glass windows that line the narthex, nave and apse.
Prior to the remodel, "the ceiling had been patched where they'd had some water leakage. There were tiles that were different colors because some were newer than others, and some were missing entirely. We knew the ceiling tiles were affecting the acoustics in the room, but we did not know to what extent," Boackle says.
Positives and Negatives
As it turned out, the church's facelift left a livelier space with added grandeur for the choir and organ. "I've heard multiple people say it's the best the choir has ever sounded," Boackle says, "much fuller and more blended. It sounds like you're in a big cathedral now. That's one of the positives."
On the negative side, however, anyone trying to be heard, unamplified, was going to have trouble getting their message across.
"Sound in St. Elias was never optimal," says James Boohaker, another parishioner and owner of Boohaker and Associates, a local contracting firm. "It was a 60-year project," he adds.
Full Circle
For Boohaker, the project was personal. The church relocated to its current building 60 years ago, after the initial building had fallen into disrepair and was to be closed by the diocese.
"I was the first one baptized here in this church," Boohaker says. "My father just died as this started, and I was going to back out, but before he passed away, he said ‘you've got to stay with the church.' I'm glad I did. He was in charge of choosing the architect and contractor then, so it's full circle that I'd work with the architect and contractor that would finish it."
Challenge from Above
Although Birmingham-based Rives Construction was the contractor on the build, Boohaker was heavily involved as part of the committee overseeing the remodel, along with fellow parishioner David Elkourie, who was instrumental in keeping the committee on track and moving forward.
"The church just reached a point where we needed to do a major renovation," says Elkourie. "We started the remodel over two and a half years ago, but the hangup was always the ceiling, until we found the sound system that would allow us to do what we wanted to the ceiling and still get the sound we wanted."
A Different Solution
Boohaker approached Boackle with the hopes of looking at the problem from another angle. When Boackle learned the church planned to pull out pre-existing carpets from the aisles, take down the ceiling and replace a number of other surfaces, he feared that the acoustics would be altered dramatically.
To address the problem, Boackle suggested a new technological solution that was able to direct sound to the congregation while not detracting from the traditional aesthetics of the sanctuary – Tannoy's self-powered, digitally steerable QFlex array, paired with two Tannoy VS10 BP subs.
The prime objective of this install was to overcome the architectural issues that served as a barrier to intelligible speech reinforcement, and also to provide the desire on the part of many in the congregation for the room to sound more reverberant.
The initial architect on the build suggested several options, but each involved an acoustically treated ceiling that would have been expensive and difficult to maintain. "Until Gary came along," says Elkourie, "we didn't know there was another option."
A Revelation of Sorts
After a new architect was hired – John Carraway of Birmingham's Carraway and Associates – Boackle arranged a demonstration using a single QFlex 32. For Boohaker it was a revelation. "Who would have thought that technology would allow us to do that? I didn't even know you could control sound in that way."
Carraway also saw the benefit of the QFlex solution, Boohaker adds. "It freed him up to deal with the ceiling and restore the church to what it was always intended to be."
Though he has used Tannoy product previously, this was Boackle's first use of Qflex, and he relied heavily on Griffith Sales representative Richard Hembree and his knowledge of the array.
"This is one of the toughest acoustic environments into which I have been asked to place a system," says Hembree. He stresses the effect that removing the existing carpeting and redoing the floor in slate and marble had on the room. He also explains that the arched ceiling continued to work against them, focusing all of the sonic energy back at the parishioners and the wooden pews.
Reflective Surfaces
"Pretty much every surface is hard and reflective, short of the people who walk in. It is virtually impossible to carry on a conversation with someone standing more than 30 feet away. However, when you step behind the microphones, every word is delivered to the room clearly."
In the end, a pair of QFlex 40s were mounted to either side of the altar roughly six feet up the wall. For low frequency support, two VS10 BP subs were placed behind a side altar.
"Even though acoustical problems were created in the church by the renovation, we were confident we could provide a solution that kept the intelligibility high," says Boackle. "We steered one beam across the entire congregation and ended about seven feet up the back wall, so if someone was standing they could hear. A second beam of sound went up to the choir loft.
"A different approach to the sound system simply wouldn't have addressed the acoustical problems in the room," Boackle adds. "We wouldn't have been able to achieve solid gain before feedback and the intelligibility would have suffered."
Other Upgrades
Clear Solutions also specified Audix microphones near the pulpit, lectern and altar, and in the choir loft. The latter, two Audix MB5055-HC Microbooms, are used to pipe the choir to exterior third party speakers employed during special services and processions.
Automatic mixing, routing and processing are handled by two Biamp Nexia CS DSPs controlled remotely via one AMX touchpanel and two AMX keypads, allowing users to manipulate the system for mass, or for guided public tours of St. Elias' collection of stained glass windows during an annual spring festival that draws large numbers of visitors from the surrounding community and beyond.
The resulting sound is far more in keeping with St. Elias traditional worship services. Unamplified, it takes on the reverberant character of a cathedral, while transmitting spoken word with a level of clarity that many in the congregation didn't consider to be possible.
"It accomplished every goal that we had in terms of both budget and performance," Boohaker says, and Elkourie agrees. "It's a wonderful, full sound," Elkourie says. "We're pleased and the church is better for it. It will take us into the next 50 years."
