IVAS PUTS OMNILINE INTO CROATIAN CHURCH

The irresistible combination of transparency, vertical beam distribution and a tiny footprint made Martin Audio's award-winning OmniLine micro-line array system the obvious choice for Croatian installation company Ivas Studio when it came to fitting out the 500-seat Church of Saint Ana in the centre of Krizevci.

The parent company of Martin Audio's Zagreb-based importers, Niking d.o.o, covers a wide spectrum of integration work but finds Houses of Worship a vibrant sector - just as OmniLine does.

With its modular, scalable approach, the architecturally-designed OmniLine can be optimized in the system's dedicated intelligent software, which enables the sound to be delivered precisely over any vertical angle, while the elimination of high frequency side-lobes provides an advantage over DSP-steered columns, making it ideal for heavily reverberant spaces such as church interiors.

Niking director, Lovro Ivas admits, 'There are a lot of reflections in the church and the acoustics are very poor. It's a highly reverberant place, producing a lot of feedback - and the problem was how to deal with it. It was due to the dedicated mapping software that we managed to achieve this.'

The sale came about after the resident pastor, the Rev. Krešo, had registered disappointment with the column system he had purchased earlier, and was wondering how best to replace it. He found his answer after Lovro Ivas introduced him to Martin Audio's Martin Kelly on the Niking stand at a local music trade fair - and this was quickly followed up by a visit to the church.

'In fact Martin advised on the best solution for two different churches,' said Lovro. While one went for 16 of Martin Audio's elegant, surface-mount C115's, the Rev. Krešo found the clarity of speech, offered by OmniLine, irresistible.'

Initially the church didn't have the budget for OmniLine - but the overall system spec changed to accommodate it. 'I'm pleased that we did because the end result is fantastic,' says Lovro Ivas. 'When we turned the system on he couldn't believe the quality.'

A cluster of four enclosures has been mounted on either side of the altar, while a further 12 Martin Audio Contractor series C115's provide a separate system in the adjacent church hall - which is either fed from a separate stand-alone sound system or will take signal feeds from the main 500-capacity church.

Operating under XTA system management, the OmniLine system has been mounted from the beams, using special custom brackets, in accordance with the software predictive model. 'This also provides a very discreet solution because the ministers didn't want speakers showing all around the church.'

Equipped with radio lapel mics (or speaking through fixed gooseneck mics at the lectern) the clergy operate from different positions depending on the service or ceremony.

As a result, Niking have subsequently taken similar OmniLine orders, while administrators of other churches in Croatia have already paid special visits to Church of Saint Ana to hear and experience the system at first hand.

Further information from:

Maureen Hayes, Martin Audio
Tel: +44 (0)1494 535312
Fax: +44 (0)1494 438669

Jerry Gilbert, JGP Public Relations
Tel: +44 (0)1707 258525
Fax: +44 (0)1707 267140