THIBODAUX, Louisiana -- Originally dedicated in 1923, St. Joseph Co-Cathedral of Thibodaux, Louisiana is a magnificently preserved 650-seat house of worship built in the Renaissance Romanesque style. With the recent installation of an unobtrusive L-ACOUSTICS KIVA and XT loudspeaker system, the church’s sound is now every bit on par with its beauty.
Tampa-based AVI-SPL, a leading provider of audio-video communications solutions, was brought in to provide the system integration, which was based on a SOUNDVISION model created by L-ACOUSTICS’ Dan Palmer.
“The accuracy of SOUNDVISION was very impressive,” notes Mark Hoffman, project manager for AVI-SPL. “You can clearly hear everything in the very last row of seats, even in the acoustically shadowed areas, but as soon as you walk away, the audio drops off dramatically. KIVA’s directionality has greatly benefitted the cathedral. There have been so many positive comments from parishioners on how they can hear the bishop, choir and bands so much better.”
St. Joseph Co-Cathedral Building Committee Chairman HJ “Rog” Roger concurs, “With all of the hard surfaces in this room, we used to have so many problems with echo. That’s no longer a concern. It sounds so beautiful in here now.”
Today, the main audience seating area is addressed by left and right arrays each comprised of eight KIVA enclosures. Two coaxial 8XT are additionally flown to address the far left and right seating wings, with two more positioned on stage and another two in the choir loft for foldback. All systems are powered by a rack of three LA4 amplified controllers.
Rog adds, “Father Vic at St. Francis, who was really the one that put us in touch with L-ACOUSTICS in the first place, took some photos of a mass he recently attended in Rome that the Pope was giving. The loudspeakers that were being used in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican looked exactly the same as our KIVA, except they were a different color. So if they’re good enough for the Pope, I’m sure they will be a blessing for us as well!”
For more about AVI-SPL, visit www.avispl.com