HTB at St Paul's

February 2006 once again saw SFL descend on St Pauls Cathedral. This time for the service of commissioning of Sandy Millar.

February 2006 once again saw SFL descend on St Pauls Cathedral. This time for the service of commissioning of Sandy Millar (former vicar at Holy Trinity Brompton "HTB") as Honorary Assistant Bishop in the London Diocese

SFL are regular visitors to St Pauls Cathedral providing video relays to a multitude of plasma screens and large projecton screens for events in the past including Soul Survivor celebrations and various Royal services.

SFL were particulary pleased to be able to provide a the complete technical solution for this event, including a 4 camera setup (Sony DX35/PD-170) mixed using a panasonic MX70 and projected onto 16' screens with Christe LX100 10,000 lumen video projectiors

A complex time aligned sound system (d&b Q7, d&b E3 and HK CT112 loudspeakers), controlled and processed using a Yamaha PM5D-RH digital mixing console was installed throughout the cathedral ensuring that all members of the congregation were receiving crystal clear, quality audio. FOH Engineer Mark Payne explains more....

'I did all the processing, EQ and time alignment on the PM5D, We were running 10 different 'time zones' within the cathedral which forces you to use a lot of amplifiers and control. The end result is well worth it however. A space like St Pauls needs treating with respect at all levels. It is an audio challenge but incredibly rewarding when you get it right?. We get it right!'

To help reduce the stage noise SFL installed a Clearsonic drum chamber complete with roof system to control the acoustic noise of the drums, Tim Hughes led worship with the whole band utilising either wireless Sennheiser G2 IEM or Wired Garwood IEM.

"There was practically no stage noise" (Mark continues?), "this allowed me to concentrate on the FOH mix without having to battle against the noise that would normally spill off the stage and into the very reverberant space that is St Pauls. Without the drum chamber one hit of the snare drum hangs around reverberating for over 30 seconds!!!.

By controlling the monitor system spill I was able to control the amount of energy that I was sending into the cathedral. With careful speaker placement we were able to ensure that every member of the congregation was listening to direct sound, not the diffused sound of the space, therefore ensuring fantastic speech intelligibility.

SFL Director Tom Jeffery worked closely with HTB's Technical manager Matt Sales for a number of weeks before hand to ensure a sucessful service. Quote from Matt " From the start of planning we knew this was going to be a big and strategic event. At every stage SFL came up with the goods and made it a great smooth running evening"