The Cathedral Church of St. John Vladimir in Bar is currently the second largest Serbian Orthodox Church, after St. Sava Temple in Belgrade. The construction of the temple began in 2006, when it was expected that it would take about 10 years to fully complete the temple, and then consecrate it. The consecration of the temple was held in 25th September, 2016. Our expert team was there, as the technical support for the system installed.
The Client’s Needs
The part of construction works on the temple included the design and installation of a sound system in the interior of the building aiming to make the words of the clergymen appropriately loud and intelligible at any time At the same time, our client wanted also the external sound system for organizing various events in the area around the temple. In the end, it was necessary to create an audio system that would undoubtedly be technologically complex, yet simple for users. All the requirements were addressed to us by Momcilo Stanojevic, Protaneimar, BSc. Engineer of Architecture, representing the Committee for the construction of the temple at the Montenegrin-Littoral Metropolis of Serbian Orthodox Church.
The Design and Installation
Acoustics in the temple can be described as extremely unfavorable, which is reflected in a completely disabled communication between the speakers if they are at the distance of more than 15m. The technology overcome the issue achieved exceptional intelligibility in all parts of the temple. The professional team of AVL Projekt further managed to create an impression with the visitors that they listen to the ministry without the help of technology, meaning that the installed sound system delivers a completely natural sound.
The area around the temple is enriched with facilities such as a church school and outdoor benches in olive trees. In this regard, one of the user's demands was that the area around the temple had a sound system and wireless microphones. Since it is an area of about 10,000 m2 which, among other things, borders with the telecommunications operator and a large number of different antennas, the challenge was even greater. An additional challenge was the fact that the temple is located at a distance of 150m from the sea and salinity throughout the year, combined with UV radiation is constantly high. At the same time, the client insisted on mounting less equipment on the facade of the temple.
We installed a complex antenna system consisting of 16 antennas with accessories which provide the complete coverage of the interior, as well as of every part of the churchyard, and facilitate a smooth transfer from the microphone in case the church lithium parade goes around the temple.
Carefully designed independent mixes through the digital matrix allow all the participants in a worship to obtain all the information they need so that the worship flows smoothly.
In addition, the user has been provided with the two independent outputs for connecting to a broadcast operators. Considering the words of the RTCG producer Miro Radosevic who was in charge of covering the consecration of the temple: "The quality of the audio signal and the mix was exceptional and we had no need for adjustments during the entire 4-hour ceremony of consecration," we can freely conclude that the mix that had been made for broadcast operators was extremely high-quality and with full respect to the needs of a TV transmission.
Special attention was given to complete protection from RF interference of all types, bearing in mind the fact that nowadays we all have with us a variety of devices that radiate and cause disruptions in audio systems.
The installation of the complete system is the equipment used by our suppliers RCF, Audix, MC2 and Xilica.