St Nicolas, Newbury

When people in an historic church aimed to become more central to the life of their community, they were not looking for a quick fix. Recognising the importance of sustainability, members of St Nicolas Church in Newbury viewed the need for development.

Initially, they began by making their building more useful and flexible with new sound and projection systems.

Their first step was to call on b+h for a consultation. The main issue was the age of the building. Diocesan architects knew that St Nicolas Church warranted protection from being marred with the appearance of new technology.

Taking into account all the church considerations, we carefully worked through all the different possibilities. The complexity of the building required meticulous planning. Demonstrations allowed everyone involved to be fully satisfied prior to work actually beginning.

As we were only able to drill into seams of the pillars, the b+h team created bespoke joinery for speaker mountings. We chose particularly low profile speakers which includes K-Array module speakers as well as Bose miniature speakers for their choir. Also, the team selected K-Array amplification and an Allen & Heath GLD80 digital mixing desk.

While providing architecturally discreet features, this selection allows a system for a full range of music. Not only is the sound capable of use with the band currently, but it also enables future use involving sound tracks.