The shrine of
St Pio in San Giovanni
Rotondo, a small town in southern
Italy, is the second-most visited
Catholic shrine in the world after that of the
Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City, and is
centred on the tomb of
Padre Pio of
Pietrelcina, a Capuchin friar, priest and
mystic known for his devotion to God, care
for the sick and supernatural gifts. The
tomb of St. Pio, who died in 1968 and was
declared a Saint in 2002, is in the Church of
our Lady of Grace, in the friary on the
outskirts of the town, behind which the new
St Pio Church stands: designed by worldfamous
Genoan architect Renzo Piano and
completed in 2004, it can seat 6,500, with
30,000 more pilgrims able to be hosted in
the olive tree-lined outdoor precinct.
The church's congregation and pilgrims
alike are now able to hear the ceremonies
perfectly thanks to just three Renkus-Heinz
Iconyx digitally controlled line arrays
installed by a partner contractor of
Adeo
Group, the manufacturer's Italian distributor.
No mean task, considering that it is
reportedly among Christendom's largest
churches: in fact, the main indoor portion
of the church's main hall requires a 65
meter (200 ft) throw.
Engineer
Giuseppe Muciaccia, the friary's
works manager for the construction of the
new church, inaugurated with a Mass
concelebrated by 10 Cardinals, 120 bishops
and 500 priests, explains:
"Thanks to the
work by specialist German acoustic firm
Müller-BBM for the Renzo Piano Building
Workshop, including special acoustic
panels installed in the suspended ceiling,
the church has wonderful acoustics as far
as events not requiring amplification are concerned, but problems arose with the
sound reinforcement system originally
installed."
Nicola Palazzo, the technical consultant
called in by the friars who run the sanctuary,
the shrine, TV and radio channels,
continues:
"We chose the Renkus-Heinz
units supplied by Adeo for the new install,
not only for their excellent performance,
but also because Adeo enabled us to
recover some of the previous components,
as 'fill' speakers when the perimeter doors
are opened round the shell-shaped
church's hall."
Palazzo, whose company is also a key
player in the broadcast sector and works
with almost all the most important TV
networks in southern Italy, particularly
Mediaset, continues:
"We opted for the
Iconyx as opposed to the other two brands
initially considered, as they're wide-range
speakers (120Hz to 18khz), so they also
enable excellent music reinforcement,
whereas the others focused mainly on
speech frequencies."
Living up to the aim of being "architecturally
transparent – designed to be heard
but not seen", the two main enclosures are
almost invisible to worshippers entering
the church. One is installed behind the
celebrant's seat on one of the supports of
the huge window with motorized fabric
panels depicting the Apocalypse alongside
the altar, whereas the other blends in with
the horizontal wooden elements of the
superstructure of the majestic organ on the
other side, hand-built by Pinchi of Foligno
and reportedly the largest ever constructed
in Italy, with no less than 5,814 pipes.
Behind its perforated steel grille, each tall, slim
IC32 (377 x 15.3 x 17.8cm)
aluminium enclosure houses 32 coaxial
transducers with a 4" woofer and dual 1"
tweeters, divided into four sections, each
powered by an eight-channel class D
amplifier/DSP processor with a power
rating of 50W RMS per channel. Despite
their slender lines, the
IC32 units produce
100dB peak SPL at 100ft and ensure
consistent pattern control down to 200Hz.
The eight-channel module format simplifies
shipping and transport and multiples
can be quickly joined together on-site: the
IC8 at the far side of the organ is a single
module, identical to each of the four
sections forming the two main
IC32 arrays,
installed at the altar.
The enclosures' vertical alignment maintains
consistently broad horizontal dispersion,
allowing each array to cover a wider
section of the worshippers.
In the church's control room, the desk
hosts six 8x8 DSP units, forming the matrix
controlling the audio set-up, which
currently has a total of forty incoming
signals, as
Palazzo explains:
"as well as the
gooseneck mics on the pulpit, altar and at
the celebrant's chair, and wireless models
used by the officiants, I had also installed a
'tree' of quality shotgun mics to ensure the
best possible sound for the organ and the
choir. Two are for the organ, the others for
the choir - with three for the treble voices,
sopranos and contraltos and three for the
male voices.
Two more microphones are available for
events requiring a smaller choir or for
instruments, such as flute and violin."
Other incoming channels consist in media
players and feeds from a series of multimedia
rooms in another area of the church.
Recording facilities are also implemented
and, although the facility has not yet been
integrated, the system was designed to
enable it to be controlled remotely in the
future.
Audio automation is based on a professional
media controller and two main
touch-panels giving access to various levels
of control feature a Graphic User Interface,
also developed by Adeo.
In the event of a hitch with the main
control network, a small control panel is
mounted on the main desk and another in a
small room adjacent to the main hall,
enabling the system to be switched on and
off or muted.
