Founded in 1882, Temple Emanu-El is the oldest Jewish Synagogue in the city of
Birmingham. The Temple’s current home, dedicated in 1914, underwent a $17
million renovation in 2002. The building is a true architectural beauty, with a domed
ceiling, rich woodwork, and flawless cream-colored walls. Two alcoves, each with a
balcony, flank the bima (stage), with a third balcony in the rear.
For generations of congregants and clergy, that same exquisite architecture has
been a source of frustration, creating an ocean of echoes that drowned
intelligibility. The sanctuary’s old pew-back sound system was never quite up to the
task, with a narrow frequency response, insufficient power, and poor articulation.
To provide a sound system worthy of this historic space, the congregation contacted
Birmingham technology integrators Twist Technology. Twist’s team specified a pair
of Renkus-Heinz ICONYX IC16-RN arrays, mounted high on the wall on either side of
the bima.
“Temple Emanu-El’s sanctuary is an extremely challenging acoustic environment,
with a lot of hard surfaces, as well as a dome,” observes Twist Technology engineer
John Kendall, who designed, installed, and tuned the new system. “Renkus-Heinz
ICONYX systems are excellent for music reproduction, and the congregation has a
cantor who sings very beautifully. The sanctuary also has a piano. But the most
crucial issue was speech intelligibility. The clarity of ICONYX, combined with their
precision beam steering, made them the perfect choice for this install.”
Part of the new ICONYX Gen5 series, the latest in the evolution of beam-steering
technology, the IC16-RN is a powered, coaxial system that employs 16 4-inch, low-
frequency transducers, each with 3 tweeters. Up to eight steerable beams can be
individually shaped and aimed from a single IC16-RN column using powerful,
software-controlled DSP.
“We’d originally planned to fire the arrays straight ahead,” Kendall recalls, “but we
had to mount them fairly high up on the walls, and with that placement, we would
have had trouble covering the front rows. Fortunately, with ICONYX we could
precisely aim the beams, so we were able to crossfire the arrays to cover the front
rows without creating other issues. We also steered a beam to cover the rear
balcony.”
Aesthetics were an important consideration, as well. “Temple Emanu-El is a
beautiful, historic building, so the sound system could not be visually intrusive,”
Kendall notes. “The IC16-RN’s slim, low profile design, combined with a custom
paint job, enables the two columns to blend with the walls. You can see the arrays
but you have to look for them.”
ICONYX Gen5 integrates the power of advanced beam steering algorithms with the
intuitive control of Renkus-Heinz’ RHAON II system designer software. “We’ve done
numerous installations with ICONYX, and the new RHAON II software is better than
ever,” states Kendall. “When you change the aiming of a beam or the processing,
loading the settings into the array’s DSP takes less than a minute. That’s a big
advantage when you’re tuning a system.”
As always, what matters most are the results. “The congregation is extremely
happy with the Renkus-Heinz ICONYX Gen5 system,” relates Kendall. “It sounds
great, it’s visually unobtrusive, and you can hear everything clearly throughout the
sanctuary. Temple Emanu-El finally has a state-of-the-art system worthy of its
sanctuary!”
