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Living (and praying) with better acoustics

phpPKOeIrPMJehovah’s_Witnesses conventions last several hours, the audience is made up of entire families, large and small, and are held in halls of considerable size … which need to be comfortable and welcoming, and above all have good sound quality. The Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Caltanissetta, Sicily is a large area covering ​​60×30 m  with reverberating challenges,  a stage on the narrow side, that can fit 2,000 people including the gallery .

The large space had some challenging acoustics. To improve the well-being of the faithful and therefore improve intelligibility of the spoken word, it was decided to correct the acoustics. A volunteer and also an expert in audio technology was retained as a consultant and project manager to  improve the sound reinforcement system in the assembly hall.

Exhibo, K-array’s partner in Italy was called in to work on treating the acoustic environement. Massimiliano De Angelis, Exhibo’s acoustic consultant, evaluated the hall’s characteristics, provided the measurements and prepared a draft correction of the environment, using STIPA (Speech Transmission Index Public Address)parameters.

De Angelisrelated: “The treatment has allowed us to bring the reverberation time by more than 6 seconds of T60, in under 1.5 seconds at each point of the room, gallery and platea included, avoiding any acoustic phenomenon of regeneration reactive. A good result. ”

Fromt the outset, the correction took into account even the type of speakers powerful for wide throw coverage, but at the same time not obstructing or greatly impacting the appearance and overall dimensions and design of the stage and auditorium.

Guido Diamonds, from Exhibo, was commissioned to design the active part of the hall , and the choice fell immediately on the KR402, a system that meets all the features you want and alone is able to cover 70 % of the total listening area,  with another branded delay , the far end of the room was also evenly covered.

The work was completed in about two months and a few days were needed for the installation and calibration of the system, and the room was returned to the Assembly in early 2012.

It was therefore possible to test a K-array system in relation to a room acoustically treated from the passive point of view , and its performance has been significantly enhanced by an environment that met the parameters of intelligibility ideals. The success of the work is clear: they are already taking several other projects.

A special thanks goes to Antonio Becherucci, President of Exhibo, who embraced the project and decided to support it.

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