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Trondheim, Norway’s Nidaros Cathedral, which recently
finished a major upgrade of its sound system, has added
a control system based on Medialon Manager Lite designed
by Vidar Eggen of Multitekst. The sound system, which
features 16 microphones, five of them Shure UHF-R radio
microphone channels, was designed and installed by Benum
Siv. ing. AS, a major Norwegian professional
sound-system supplier.
It is estimated that the great Gothic Cathedral was
finished around the year 1300. Tradition has it that
the high altar stands on the spot marking the secret
burial state of King Olav Haraldsson (later St. Olav)
who was killed in the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030. The
Cathedral has experienced more than 130 years of
restoration and rebuilding; it receives 400,000 visitors
annually.
The Cathedral’s sound system is used for three main
purposes: daily guided tours of the church in several
languages, daily services and special religious events,
and concerts and recitals.
In choosing Medialon Manager Lite for the control system
Eggen says he “wanted to give the non-technical users a
choice between an intuitive and simple interface or a
comprehensive and detailed one. Some users only need to
point to their location on the floor plan, grab a radio
microphone, and they’re ready to go. During services,
the parish clerk can fine-tune each microphone and
adjust over all levels, making sure the Word is heard in
all areas of the church.”
The control system has one fixed-position touchscreen as
well as a Rugboard wireless unit. The fixed-position
screen remotely operates the Medialon server by means of
a BlackBox KVM extender via a CAT5 cable.
The operator chooses the Operating mode and one of 21
possible sound source positions to recall the DME64
presets of level, EQ and delay settings. The sound
system operates in stereo mode for concerts; the
Cathedral is a popular venue for concerts and recitals.
The touchscreen interface has CD-player controls, an
overall volume slider and a mute all button. Individual
speakers can be muted and microphone settings can be
adjusted for the duration of the session.
At the heart of the sound system is the Yamaha DME64N
digital mixing engine. Its signal-processing
capabilities cater to EQ, Automix, Matrix and Delay
functions, as well as to the Cobranet and analog audio
outputs. The main loudspeakers are Renkus-Heinz Iconyx
Cobranet Columns; various 100V loudspeakers add up to a
total of 27 speakers, all of them painted the color of
the mounting surfaces. The speaker system is tuned to
the complex acoustics environment by means of EASE-RA,
MLSSA 9.0, Norsonic NOR118 and Clio 4.52 measuring
systems. |
