The Parrocchia di San Lazzaro in Bologna, Italy, is the largest church in its town and has recently upgraded to Ashly Audio solutions.
Daniele Santini, CEO of Etabeta Electronics, said the church was rebuilt after being destroyed in World War II. As such, it follows the architecture of the era with high ceilings and multiple reverberant and reflective sides. Marble on the floors and multiple glass windows have long made the location a difficult audio integration.
“When we first spoke with them we heard that many people could not listen to mass correctly because of a lack of intelligibility,” said Daniele. “Utilizing steerable loudspeakers and an intensive digital signal processor architecture, which was powered by Ashly Audio, allowed us to minimize redundant open microphones and limit modal frequencies.”
Daniele installed the Ashly ne8800mm digital signal processor, the Ashly MX-206 6-channel stereo microphone mixer, and the Ashly TRA-4150 4-channel power amplifier. Speakers in the installation came from Pan Acoustics.
“Ashly is the perfect choice for an installation like this because of their extensive DSP capabilities,” said Daniele. “In every highly reverberant environment I work in, I appreciate the total lack of noise and the speed Ashly provides on mic inputs. That helps to cut off the microphone a fraction of second after it stops being used. I also love the ease of use of their auto-leveler. This is very important when there are new readers and speakers sharing the same microphone during the different parts of the mass.”
Finally, Santini said the ability to use Ashly software on an iPad provided a new and unique level of control for the church. Santini sets presets for the sound system during different types of events – be it Sunday Mass or a large Easter celebration – and empowers the church to make the change seamlessly.
