Zürich, Switzerland’s historic Liebfrauenkirche, or Church of Our Lady, faced speech intelligibility issues due to its reverberant architecture. To correct this problem while maintaining the beauty of the sanctuary, the church installed beam-steering arrays from Foothill Ranch, Calif.-headquartered Renkus-Heinz.
The church staff contacted Urs Habegger, CEO of effekte.ch AG, to help solve their speech intelligibility challenge. Together with Chris Steiger, CEO of promedias AG, an audio and video solutions provider in Switzerland, they helped alleviate the church’s acoustic issues.
“As we’ve encountered in many other churches, Liebfrauenkirche had very long reverberation times in its nave. Given all the spectacular artwork, there were limited options for where we could mount loudspeakers,” says Steiger. “That’s why the only solution for this scenario was a beam-steered loudspeaker system from Renkus-Heinz.”
The Renkus-Heinz Iconyx Solution
effekte.ch AG installed and commissioned four of Renkus-Heinz’s ICC24/3 digitally steerable loudspeakers to improve speech intelligibility. As part of the Iconyx Compact Series, the ICC24/3 provides integrators with enhanced flexibility in cost, performance and size for projects, says Renkus-Heinz.
High-performance three-inch, full-range drivers and multi-channel amplifiers, combined with Renkus-Heinz’s beam-steering arrays, lead to great performance even in different sizes and price points. The ultra-narrow cabinet disappears into nearly any venue. At the same time, the high vertical directivity of the ICC24/3 can penetrate even the most challenging acoustics. As a result, it takes the performance of beam-steered line arrays to the most architecturally sensitive spaces. It also helps deliver clear audio to the exact spaces with concert-quality, full-range sound, says the company.
After hearing the new loudspeakers, the church leadership and staff were ecstatic with the audio improvements. “Our goal with every job is to meet or exceed the client’s expectations; and I think we were very successful in achieving our goal with Liebfrauenkirche,” says Habegger. “The church is a work of art; it’s breathtaking inside. Thanks to Renkus-Heinz, the church congregation can hear the liturgy clearly while basking in the visual grandeur.”
Click to view slideshow of Liebfrauenkirche Church of Our Lady. All photos ©Copyright Liebfrauen/courtesy of Renkus-Heinz via Brand Definition.
