The North-Eastern U.S. offers many beautiful churches, from Gothic-style buildings
to old fashioned meetinghouses. But a true European-style cathedral like the
stunning Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury, Connecticut, is a
rarity. Because it’s an architectural gem, explains Peter Scandone, Jr., president of
New Haven systems integrator PASCOM Sound, Inc., the aesthetic challenges of
installing a new sound system were even greater than the acoustical challenges.

The demanding aesthetic and acoustical requirements were key reasons Scandone
chose a Renkus-Heinz Iconyx Gen5 IC32-RN digitally steered line array as the heart
of the new system. “I’ve been working in the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception
for more than 25 years,” Scandone begins, “and when we finally got a chance to put
our own system in place, a Renkus-Heinz steerable array was clearly the best
choice. I’ve used Iconyx in the past, and the Iconyx Generation 5 speakers are a
great product. There’s no other loudspeaker I would have chosen for the basilica.”
Scandone sourced the system from Cardone Solomon & Associates, Inc., of
Northport, New York.

A single IC32-RN array, placed stage left and mounted to a large column 30 inches
in diameter, covers most of the seating in the main nave. “We normally would
prefer to use two IC32-RNs,” he notes, “But the space around the altar is not
symmetrical, and we didn’t have the right situation for a left-right pair. As it turns
out, we didn’t need a second array. One Gen5 IC32-RN was fully up to the
challenge. And it was simpler because we didn’t have to account for arrival times
from two arrays.”

While the basilica’s new IC32-RN is visible, its custom beige color and slim, low-
profile form enable it to blend with its surroundings-of great importance where
aesthetics are a critical consideration. “We not only needed a system that looks and
sounds good,” Scandone recalls, “we had to work with layers of marble and
decorative columns while being as minimally invasive as possible. Just surface-
mounting one IC32-RN array to a column required extreme care. But we
accomplished our goals.”

Scandone is greatly impressed with the performance of the new Iconyx Gen5
arrays. “Earlier Iconyx generations sounded very good,” he hastens to point out,
“and the drivers are the same in Gen5. But it has new amplifiers and new DSP, and
it sounds even better. The IC32-RN’s intelligibility is outstanding, even at 120 feet
away in a reverberant space with almost four seconds of delay.”

Although the IC32-RN provides excellent coverage for the main nave, the Basilica’s
new system also had to cover the transept and fill a few angles that even a digitally
steered array can’t reach. “For those areas, we chose a series of passive Renkus-
Heinz ICX7-II mechanically steered column arrays to serve as fills so we could have
a good match with the sound quality of the IC32-RN,” notes Scandone. “With an all-
Renkus-Heinz system, we could easily bring the voicings into alignment.”