All Saints – Pasadena
In 1990, All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, CA hired AMT Systems to design and install a new sound system for their church space. In 2013, twenty three years later, they again asked AMT Systems to design and install a new sound system – not because the original system had failed, but because they recognized that a new system that was engineered to take advantage of the latest advancements in technology would better serve their style of service, both today and well into the future.
After listening to the church’s needs and plans, AMT designed and installed a 7-element medium-format line array in the main sanctuary space with matching distributed 2-way speakers for the ancillary seating areas. AMT engineers worked diligently to ensure the system would deliver extremely even coverage for every seat in the church and offer the highest level of intelligibility while still rendering the powerful sound needed for the church’s choral music offerings. The end result was a sound system that made the room far more intimate than anyone at the church thought possible.
In order to increase overall sound quality and greatly enhance the connectivity options, AMT added digital mic preamps to the digital mixing console system. This also resulted in simpler routing options and the elimination of the analog patch bays allowing all patching configurations to be recalled from the mixing console.
AMT installed high-quality digital wireless microphones that deliver excellent sonic quality, allow a high quality signal chain throughout and play an important role in the system’s ability to deliver the extremely natural sound that the church was looking for. In order to maximize convenience and reliability, AMT also included rechargeable batteries and charger system, ensuring the wireless mics were always ready for use.
AMT also designed and installed a 5-camera HD video package consisting four pan-tilt-zoom cameras, one fixed camera, and a full studio-grade control system with HD-SDI switching. The services are live-streamed for both overflow seating and webcast as well as recorded on a digital recorder for the archive.
In order to support the hearing impaired in the best way possible, AMT installed a loop induction assistive listening system that would cover the church space yet be invisible to the congregation. Considering the church was built in the 20’s with construction techniques that would make this a challenging design, AMT performed a detailed engineering survey of the site and ultimately installed an intricate wire antenna system under the steel-reinforced concrete floor that allows guests with T-Coil enabled hearing aids to hear the sermon with nothing more than their existing hearing aids. For guests without, loop receivers allow them to receive the signal and amplify it through ear-buds.
The original system that AMT installed supported All Saints Episcopal Church for 23 years. With this new system, the church is looking forward to another generation of worship with first-class audio performance.