A total of 32 of NEXO’s ID84 column speakers formed the core of a new sound system Bristol Cathedral, one of the UK’s most historic buildings. It was originally built as an Augustinian Abbey and dates back to 1140. The modernised system will be used for traditional services, but also will be used for Late Night DJs and concerts.
The cathedral hosts three services a day, and a rapidly expanding range of activities by congregations and audiences, clergy and performers alike, now including DJ events. It desired a modern, versatile, new sound system which could perform at the highest level while also remaining relatively discreet in such a beautiful and historic building. Bristol-based production services and installation specialists Enlightened were chosen for the job.
The bulk of the system comprises 32 of NEXO’s ground-breaking ID84 column speakers, mainly concentrated in the nave, with similarly voiced, ultra-compact ID14s nestled in the stonework under the pulpit, in the Eastern Lady Chapel and in other areas of the cathedral.
Power and speaker processing for the system come from a rack of NEXO NXAMPMk2s and Enlightened have provided touch-screen control for the configuration of the system by non-technical operators for all types of uses.
Martha Lewington, development director at the cathedral, said: “Under local artist Luke Jerram’s Gaia installation this autumn, we’ll have Up Late DJs, classical concerts and all kinds of different events that will hopefully attract the people of Bristol into the space, possibly for the first time. And without an amazing sound system, these things simply would not be possible.”
The complex system required seven miles of cables, but only 200 metres are actually visible. Great care had to be taken in deciding where to drill holes, for example. The cathedral architect and its Fabric Commission, and the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England, gave advice to Enlightened.
Henry Parr, head of installations, Enlightened, said: “We’ve worked very closely with the cathedral for the last 12 months, looking through extensive site visits to find the best routes for cables, often using existing cable routes in the main heating trench around the nave.”
All cabinets feature a custom RAL paint finish to match the colour of the stone columns upon which they are mounted. Meanwhile, all the speaker brackets and all the cabling have been custom coloured as well. “We used a coloured, braided sleeving to go over the cabling, so we didn’t need to worry about what colour the cable itself was, whether that’ s black, grey, orange, whatever,” said Parr.
He continued: “The key thing for us was intelligibility and, working with the NEXO engineering support team, we found that NEXO was going to provide very, very similar results to a system significantly more expensive. This freed up a significant part of the budget to produce a better result using more expensive, higher quality microphones, better processing, and to install more infrastructure for futureproofing on other projects.”
He concluded: “We really like the ID Series for a lot of reasons. It’ s a good format, it has a lot of flexible options in terms of rigging and mounting, and important for us is that the ID84 has the right visual profile for the installation. In a Grade 1 listed building, it’ s very, very important that the system not only sounds good, but also looks right.”
