VENICE, Italy – World-famous Saint Mark's Basilica, visited every year by 1.5 million plus people, has been equipped with a new sound system that includes 40 RCF loudspeaker enclosures and no fewer than 10 of the company's new VSA 2050 digitally steerable vertical line arrays. Marco Mazzon, founder of the company of the same name, installed the system.
"The brief I got from the client was above all to ensure a considerable increase in intelligibility and flexible control of the various sectors – there are approximately thirty microphones used by officiates and singers in seven different zones of the church," Mazzon noted.
With his detailed knowledge of the Basilica and its logistics, Mazzon designed the signal management system, but for the actual acoustic design, he contacted RCF's dedicated in-house division and worked with Francesco Venturi, who presented a detailed report and acoustic simulation documentation along with the definitive design.
The main problem to be solved consisted in the different sound coverage required from the system (ranging from a few to 30 meters), which had to ensure considerable spl as well as extremely even distribution, achieving better intelligibility without increasing the reverberation problems typical of this type of location.
Given the building's architectural classification, each array had to have a color that would make it nearly invisible.
"The VSA systems provide the ideal solution to both these aspects, thanks to their remarkable sound pressure and precision and a ‘custom' finish, which solved the aesthetic problems," Mazzon said.
The 10 VSA 2050 arrays cover the "congregation" zone of the Basilica and are mounted on the church's columns, forming a main sound front made up of six systems covering the front area of the naves and the transept, while the other four are mounted 20 meters further forward and appropriately delayed to cover the rear portion of the naves. Two compact RCF MR 33WT enclosures installed below the ambos optimize the coverage of the first rows of worshippers.
Thanks to the its powerful DSP circuit, with a direct digital connection to the 20 Class D 50W amplifiers, the VSA 2050 processes the audio signal fed to each of its 20 loudspeakers to control their vertical dispersion, driving them with the necessary power for ensuring sufficient dynamics and appropriate coverage.
Various other types of RCF enclosures were installed in the Basilica, both indoors and outside. They included 17 two-way passive loudspeaker columns (versions CS 6940 and 6520) in the other seven zones of the church, including the entire area of the presbytery and the Pala d'Oro (the high altar's retable), the Baptistery, the chapel of St. Isidore and the narthex.
Three MR33T "service" enclosures are positioned at the two organs (as monitors for the organists) and in the vestry. On particularly important occasions, six H6045 fiberglass multi-cell long-throw exponential horn speakers, each fitted with four D5076 drivers, are mounted outside the basilica with fast-lock hardware and cover the entire square.
When installation work was completed, RCF technicians took a series of measurements to ensure that the system's performance achieved the acoustic objectives set by the client, well in advance of Pope Benedict's May 8 visit to venerate relics at St. Mark's Basilica.
For more information, please visit www.rcf.it.
