For 85 years, Hendricks Chapel has been the spiritual, ethical, and cultural heart of
Syracuse University, connecting its large, diverse community. The beautiful Greco-
Roman-style building hosts a wide variety of weddings, services, lectures, choir
performances, and music events. Crowds range from intimate gatherings of 100 to
major events with more than 1,000 people. To deliver the quality of music and
speech appropriate for such a prestigious venue, the university recently upgraded
the chapel’s sound system with Renkus-Heinz Iconyx Gen5 loudspeakers.
“The space was underutilized until about 15 years ago,” recalls David May, owner of
DCI Sound. “At that time, we installed a sound system that was primarily Renkus-
Heinz loudspeakers and first generation steerable arrays. Finally, people could hear,
and usage of the space increased. But that system was designed for speech
intelligibility, and Hendricks Chapel now hosts many musical events. So in the
summer of 2015, the university asked us to design and install a new system that
would address the chapel’s expanded requirements.”
Hendricks Chapel is quite reverberant, with domed ceilings, curved walls, and the
deep balconies that complicate the acoustics. “The balcony areas are almost
acoustically isolated from the main nave,” May explains. “Fortunately, Iconyx Gen5
arrays deliver plenty of power, and their multiple precision-steered beams enabled
us to address the acoustical issues.”
To cover the main auditorium seating, May chose a left-right pair of Iconyx Gen5
IC24-RN digitally steerable line arrays, mounted on each side of the proscenium.
The IC24-RN employs 24 4-inch coaxial transducers, each with three tweeters, in a
slim, low profile design. “Because we can choose the location of multiple beams, we
were able to mount the arrays up high, getting the beams above the lectern mics,”
May explains. “That improved gain before feedback.” For sub-bass, May opted for
Renkus-Heinz CFX12S 12-inch high-performance subwoofers. “The CFX subwoofers
provide excellent warmth in the low end,” he notes.
May used Renkus-Heinz’ new RHAON II software to program the Iconyx Gen5
speakers. “The original RHAON was good, but RHAON II renders much faster,” he
states. “It’s a big improvement.”
The chapel’s old sound system employed Renkus-Heinz TRC81 floor wedges and
TRC121 side-fills as stage monitors. May determined that these speakers, which
feature Renkus-Heinz’ smooth, low-distortion Complex Conic horn technology, were
still doing a fine job, so they were integrated into the new system.
The main system is processed with BSS SoundWeb DSP, and the overall sound and
lighting system is managed with a Crestron control system. This enables anything
from a simple, fully automated system for events without a system operator to
versatile manual control with a Dante-enabled, Soundcraft SI Performer-series
digital console. The operator can even choose between three monitoring
configurations for the TRC-series floor wedges and side-fills.
The new sound system is a success in every respect. “The staff at the Hendricks
Chapel and Syracuse University are extremely happy with the Iconyx Gen5 system,”
May relates. “Now they have uniform, high-quality sound throughout the space that
is great for music and speech, whether there are 100 people or 1,000. It’s a huge
improvement. We’re very pleased, as well; we’ll do a lot more installs with Gen5.”
