Located along the banks of the slow-moving Nemunas River and surrounded by green meadows, the Old Church of St. John the Baptist stands alone as a sentinel against time. The picturesque Gothic church, with its striking steep-pitched roof, draws tourists and photographers from around the world to the Lithuanian town of Zapyškis. While the building is no longer used for religious purposes, it was given the status of a Cultural Monument in 2002 and is now a popular venue for cultural and music events like the annual Kite Festival and Pažaislis Music Festival. Steerable loudspeaker arrays from Renkus-Heinz were installed in the building to combat long reverberation times, improve intelligibility and enhance the experiences of festival attendees.
Church staff contacted Vytautas Stasiukaitis, system designer at Audiotonas, to help redesign the audio system. As one of the largest audio, video and lighting solutions providers in the Baltic States, Audiotonas was well-positioned to help alleviate the church’s acoustic issues.
“The church had very long reverberation times, and we weren’t allowed to install acoustic treatments of any kind due to its cultural designation,” said Stasiukaitis. “That’s why the only solution for this scenario was a beam-steered loudspeaker system from Renkus-Heinz.”
Audiotonas installed and commissioned four IC8-RN digitally steerable loudspeakers called for in the audio redesign. A member of the ICONYX Gen5 Series, the IC8-RN gives sound system designers the power to create a system to cover even the most problematic spaces with up to four steerable beams that can be individually shaped and aimed. Their triple tweeter “array within an array” design reduces the distance between high-frequency sources for greatly improved performance with consistent, broad horizontal dispersion.
Audiotonas added two CA112S-RN subwoofers to the system for the deep, rich bass response needed for festival performances. The CA112S-RN is a 12″ direct radiating subwoofer perfect for any application where strong, tight bass response is required, and the large ports ensure that no chuffing or fluttering noise ever mars the sound. Used singly, it’s the perfect match for adding bass to six- and eight-inch loudspeakers and steerable arrays. In multiples, like the installation at St. John the Baptist, it becomes an impressive and powerful addition to any music system requiring a compact subwoofer system.
After hearing the new loudspeakers, the church leadership and staff were ecstatic with the audio improvements.
“Our main goal is to provide solutions that meet the needs of the client, and I’m proud to say we were very successful in the case of the Old Church of St. John the Baptist,” said Stasiukaitis. “The church is over 400 years old and still looks great. Thanks to Renkus-Heinz, now it sounds great, too.”
