St John’s has been in Darlinghurst since 1849, making it the first Christian presence in the area. The sandstone church has a unique design which The P.A. People Installed Systems team were careful to preserve with the recent installation of the new AV system.

The previous system had seen a good few years of service and was in need of an upgrade due to its age and the desire of the church to expand functionality to cater to its growing needs and activities. In response, our team met with the church to identify what the church saw as limitations of the old system and what they were wanting to achieve in undertaking this AV system upgrade.

An important issue identified was the fact that not everyone could hear what was being said from the front of the church. Delivering the message clearly for all to hear would be a priority issue. The church also wanted to have more capacity to put additional instruments through the system.

The audio system upgrade included replacement of the mixer, amplifiers and speakers; the video upgrade supplemented the existing LCD display.

We installed a Yamaha TF3 Digital mixing console and two TIO digital stage boxes (one for the north transcept and one for the chancel). JBL CBT 70J-1 & CBT 70JE-1 speakers were supplied, driven by Crown amplifiers.

The team relocated the existing front of house speakers further down the church to be used as delay speakers to improve overall coverage, ensuring a more even sound dispersion.

New Shure MX series microphones were added to the pulpit, lectern and prayer desk along with three new Shure radio mics.

An Atlona video switcher was provided to manage video sources to the Churches existing LCD display. Inputs included a Blu-ray player and their words PC.

The platform was also equipped with foldback speakers and a foldback LCD display to enable the band and others to hear themselves and to view song lyrics during the services.

The front-of-house equipment was enclosed in a custom lockable timber cabinet, colour-matched to the church pews. The speakers were also colour-matched to blend in with the sandstone walls of the church.

To maintain the traditional look of the old sandstone building while integrating the technical requirements of the facility, design consideration was given to conceal the system cabling which had previously been fairly exposed.