The parish of Vettukad, more popularly known as “Madre-de-Deus Church”, under the Latin Catholic Arch Diocese of Trivandrum, is a famous pilgrimage site that bears a history of more than five centuries. The church is dedicated to the Mother of God – Madre De Deus – which is combination of two foreign words; derived from Portuguese and Latin ‘Madre’ means Mother and De Deus means ‘of God’; and people from all parts of Kerala and outside, irrespective of caste and creed come to the church seeking the blessings of Christ the King.
A landmark structure in the region since its inception, the church prides itself on its rich history and legacy. And with the recent overhaul of its internal and external semblance; the church’s glorious heritage now embraces cutting-edge audio technology with the installation of a state-of-the-art PA system consisting from global pro audio leaders, Bose Professional – designed and integrated by the Bose Professional team in India in association with their Indian distribution partners Hi-Tech Audio, and regional partners M/S Nobel Audio who managed the installation and technical support during the execution.
With the audio architecture divided into indoor and outdoor sections respectively, the system inside the church comprises multiple units of the Panaray MA12EX modular line-array loudspeakers integrated and aligned in clustered sets of two, with a few units of the RoomMatch Utility RMU 108 loudspeakers supplementing as front-fills. Additional units of the MA12EX cover the flanks of the church as side-fills. The entire system is powered by four Bose PowerMatch® PM8500N networked amplifiers, and complete speaker management is handled via a Bose ControlSpace® ESP-00 processor. This indoor system replaces an older PA system that whose insufficient coverage lead to the need for multiple numbers of speakers to line the internal space, thereby compromising the aesthetical appeal of the heritage structure. The precise positioning of the loudspeakers of the new Bose system perfectly addresses the church’s unique architectural challenges and allows the sound to be projected unobtrusively everywhere within the church with greatly enhancing speech intelligibility. The crystal clear sound is experienced in virtually every seat without significantly increasing the volume.
On the other hand, the outer areas required a complete weatherized solution that met the key requirement of maintaining the same tonal signature as the indoor system. And this is covered through multiple numbers of the LT 9702 WR weatherized loudspeakers speakers along with a few units of the LT MB24 WR subwoofers providing the low-frequency fidelity; all powered through the PowerMatch PM8500N and PM4500N amplifiers. This system is particularly crucial in conveying the audio from inside the church to almost 40 meters outside, where people gather on important celebratory processions like those on Easter and Christmas etc.
