Harman Professional India installation at The
Sumi Baptist Church, Zunheboto, Nagaland
The installation is a reinforcement of Harman Professional India’s presence in the House of Worship
segment in North-east India.
When Harman Professional India came on board for sound, light
and video control systems, the Church had already received a
suggestion of utilizing Line Array Systems for sound. Being a dome-
shaped structure, this would have worked against intelligibility of
sound, rather than in favor of it. The team from Harman’s end along
with System Integrator Mr. Calvin Baker from Toshniwal World
and the world-renowned consultant Mr. Kelvin Ashby-King from
T2 Consulting suggested a Distributed Point Source System, which
would boost speech intelligibility and uniform audio distribution
across the venue. T2 Consulting were responsible for the acoustics,
lighting, stage-lighting, video, and audio consulting for this project.
Calvin Baker of Toshniwal World said, “The equipment had to
be transported via a combination of exceptionally bad roads and
9-10 hour drives through remote forest areas. Akum Jamir from
Crescendo, Dimapur had executed the installation on our behalf.
They unboxed about 60-70 boxes of speakers which were then
mounted on brackets and hoisted up. Tuning the systems were also
a mammoth task. On the inauguration day, there were more than
10,000 people inside, with a couple of thousand people standing
outside as well! It was one of the most memorable installations.”
The legendary Kelvin Ashby-King of T2 Consulting said, “While
this project was memorable for many reasons, the travel involved
in getting to the site was certainly not one of them! What was
memorable was the opportunity to work on a project of this scale,
with a group of amazing people who had a vision they wanted to
fulfil now, and leave it as a legacy for the future. The project had
many challenges, and it has been a long one; 6 years, from start
to completion. Harman via AMX were also able to provide Video
over IP solutions for this project, making video signal transmission
simple and straightforward. The beauty of projects is that they are
never about one person, they are groups of people working together
toward a common goal and we had a great experience working
together with the Building Committee and the Chairman of the
Committee, the SI and the manufacturer as a team. Such experiences
are always a lesson on what makes a project successful.”
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highonscore.com
The project housed 5 Harman brands in all. The JBL AM series
(AM7315, AM7200, AM5212) formed the main P.A. system, while
the AC series (AC18, AC28) also played a part. Amplification was
taken care of by Crown, with the main unit being the XTi6002,
with DCi4|1250N and DCi|600N also playing their parts. The
Soundcraft Si Performer 3, a 32 Channel Digital Mixer along with
the Soundcraft Mini Stagebox 32 formed the console setup. AMX
took care of the Video over IP needs, with the NMX-ENC-1122 and
the NMX-DEC-1222, along with AMX N-8001 being the network
controller and the NT-ST-701 being the touch panel controller.
Martin Professional lit up the scene with its Rush PAR 2 CT Zoom,
the Rush PAR 1RGBW, Mac Quantum Profile Moving Head Spots
and the VC-Dot 4 CW 200mm, controlled by the Martin M2Go.
Mr. Kiyello Yepth, Chairman of the Sumi Baptist Church said
“We are very satisfied with the light and sound fixtures. Harman
products are a class apart. I am surely recommending Harman to
others!”
Sunil Karanjikar, Sr. Manager - Application Engineering at
Harman International India felt that “Working on this project was
an uphill task (pun intended). Kelvin Ashby King is extremely
particular with the way an install is executed. He has a great ear
for music and knows exactly how a place should sound once he
has designed it and imagined it in his mind. With 58 Loudspeakers
mounted at different levels across the building, we had to design the
Amplification and DSP is a way that we could exercise maximum
control over the system to be able to time align every Loudspeaker
and ensure coherent localization of the source. The Dome Structure
at a height of almost 160ft. meant we have to keep individual
Loudspeaker levels in control, while providing even coverage and
maximize direct sound across the venue”
They also managed to add a fair bit of color to the inside of the
Building and altar with the Rush by Martin series of LED PARs. The
PARs also provide ambient and Reading light to the congregation
sitting under the dome since conventional Lighting fixtures would
not be able to provide the same intensity considering the physical
mounting distance.