St. Francis of Assisi

Context

The Team

Frisco’s St. Francis of Assisi Brings Premium Sound to Parishioners 

Frisco was a watering hole in Texas along the old Preston Road cattle drive trail until the 20th century when Dallas’s massive growth supported residency in outlying rural towns. As a result, Catholics in Frisco were scarce until Spanish-speaking ranch hands and farmworkers began settling in the area in the 1950s. At the time, the closest Catholic churches were in Denton, Plano, and McKinney. After two years of construction, in 2013, the Catholic Community introduced St. Francis of Assisi with a dedicated mass on December 7, 2013, by Bishop Keven J. Farrell.  

The Challenge

In the spring of 2019, faced with an aging sound system, St. Francis of Assisi began searching for a replacement. Intending to improve the dynamic range of their music and intelligibility, Deacon Alex Barbieri and the Church Committee sought the help of Ryan Knox, of the Idibri Consultant Group. The church wanted to provide parishioners with a consistent experience throughout the space while accommodating various mass styles and musical accompaniments. The new sound system would have to be inconspicuous to preserve the church’s aesthetic and not impact the church’s ornate marble, stone, and concrete elements, while still minimizing the room’s reverberation. Being a non-profit organization, they wanted modern technology that would serve the parish for the long term. 

The Solution

Using L-Acoustics Soundvision modeling tools, Ryan and the Committee agreed on a small format line array design to replace the previous steerable column arrays. Electro Acoustics was chosen as the project integrator, working hand-in-hand with Idibri on the new PA’s design and deployment using Kiva II and Syva subwoofers. Kiva II provides concert-quality sound in a compact package, while Syva was the perfect size to provide enough low frequency without needing additional mounting space. To conceal the arrays, Luke Jordan, VP of Electro Acoustics, enlisted the help of architect David Shanks to create custom enclosures that would blend the arrays into the existing mount and not detract from the aesthetic of the church.     

System pictures

The Result

The new Kiva II sound system exceeded expectations for St. Francis of Assisi. “It is a huge step up in sonic quality,” said Ryan of Idibri. He was pleasantly surprised to pick up a significant amount of gain before feedback on speech. The custom enclosures blended seamlessly into the church’s aesthetics, so much that the Committee was able to forgo a – sometimes lengthy – approval process required for structural changes by the Catholic Diocese Sacred Spaces Committee. The team at St. Francis excitedly anticipates holding mass on their new PA.  

Project photos