Mexico. Like many other religious temples, which struggle to make their audience hear clearly from the speakers of their different ceremonies, the Church of St. Josemaría Escrivá, a Catholic temple in the Mexican city of Guadalajara, experienced that same problem during community activities and masses scheduled during the week.
Thanks to the design and integration of a new audio system by the company Audio & Comfort and the use of Bose Professional technology, parishioners can now listen and participate in the ceremonies from any seat of this temple.
Named in honor of St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, founder of Opus Dei, the temple was inaugurated in 2003. Its design has a structure of three roofs, with a height of 20 meters in its highest part. Inside, different materials are mixed such as wood, marble, stained glass windows in its upper part and a series of large windows on both sides of its central nave. Its altar is adorned by a large altarpiece more than 12 meters high.
With an indoor capacity for 600 seated people, which extends up to a thousand people when using its outdoor atrium, the Church of San Josemaría Escrivá offers daily masses, in addition to other activities such as courses or choir rehearsals. Due to its location and beauty, this temple is one of the favorites of the local community to celebrate weddings, baptisms, first communion or luctuous ceremonies.
However, the temple had an outdated audio system that did not meet the required standards of coverage, intelligibility and clarity. In addition to not having the necessary tools to eliminate the echo and reverberation produced by sound reflective materials such as marble or glass from its windows and stained glass.
Several community members had heard some of the audio systems designed by Audio & Comfort, a local audio, video and automation integration company with more than 30 years of experience in projects such as stadiums, auditoriums, hotels, courtrooms, retail stores and religious temples; so they suggested to the church administrators that they ask them to evaluate the possibility of improving the sound.
After a first survey of information, Ramón Ceja, Developer of Magnos Projects of Audio & Comfort, decided to propose an audio solution based on Bose Profesional technology, since his previous experience indicated that the speakers of the Panaray series could be the best option to solve the challenge of coverage and intelligibility.
To achieve the best result, he used Bose Modeler software to do the acoustic analysis of the interior of the temple. Modeler's information was very valuable because it allowed to test different configurations and location of the speakers to find the optimal point of coverage, intelligibility and sound pressure level (SPL).
To achieve the desired coverage, six Panaray MA12EX speakers were installed in the area of the central nave, which is where most of the audience is concentrated when the temple is at its maximum capacity. Due to their wide horizontal coverage, the Panaray MA12EX are ideal for large spaces where high voice intelligibility is required. In addition, due to their slim design and their availability in white, they were subtly integrated into the side columns of the temple and practically go unnoticed by the eye.
