K-array enhances intelligibility at Canterbury Cathedral

Whitwam AVI has installed a K-array loudspeaker system at Canterbury Cathedral that has improved the intelligibility of the spoken word.

The cathedral’s earlier sound reinforcement system, which was installed in the 1970s, was becoming intermittent and starting to fail.

Ahead of a Lambeth Conference due to be held in the summer of 2020, the cathedral had been in talks with AV system consultancy Michael Hyland & Associates to identify its requirements for a replacement and made plans to upgrade to a new audio system which were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic before eventually being put out to tender.

Whitwam AVI submitted the winning proposal and teamed up with Dave Wooster at K-array’s UK distributor 2B Heard to work on modelling a new system for the cathedral using K-Framework software.

The key objective was to deliver sound more accurately to the choir stalls, since the previous speaker system was aimed horizontally out at a height of 4m, so the sound was flying around the building and developing multiple unwanted reflections.

The solution was to deploy several small-sized Tornado-KT2 speakers on custom brackets, directed downwards towards the choir stalls. A pair of Rumble-KU44 subs were mounted on custom brackets behind grilles at floor level, with a further pair among the stonework up towards the presbytery, lifting the bottom end of the speech vocal range. These are powered by Kommander-KA14 and KA02 amplifiers.

Whitwam AVI director Andrew Pymm says: “Given that we couldn’t fix anything to the fabric of the building, we had to design custom brackets for the speakers. Fortunately the Tornados are dimensioned perfectly to fit between the crenelations, with all the cabling hidden in a channel behind the wall. Their 90° conical dispersion gave us just the right coverage pattern to be able to focus on the ears of those people sitting in the choir stalls without significant overspill.

“We had done a trial with these speakers previously, and along with the K-Framework modelling, we knew what to reasonably expect. But we were pleasantly surprised at just how good the K-arrays sound in situ. Despite a near-three second reverberation time, the spoken word is as clear as a bell and the coverage is beyond our expectations.”

Gerardo Calia, who heads the cathedral’s AV support team, says: “It’s been a game changer not only in the quality and clarity of the audio, but also the aesthetic improvement brought about by incorporating modern technology into this beautiful medieval setting.

“I was somewhat sceptical that such small units – such discreet drivers – could supply the power required for a vast space, and also deliver the quality necessary for an iconic institution that hosts performances by world-renowned musicians. But I need not have been concerned, as the K-array system performs superbly.”