Houses of Worship can often be the focal point of the community, bringing together like-minded people from all walks of life. And it’s this sense of community that has played a significant role in the creation of one of Ireland’s newest and largest churches – Betania Church Dublin. Apart from the steel work, the church has been built entirely by volunteers. With very few professional builders employed on the project during the day, it was after 6pm when the site came to life – working people having finished their normal day would arrive at the site and offer for free their time, skills and services to bring the building to fruition.

Formerly occupying a building that held a maximum of 600 worshippers and hosting multiple services across the week, the church made the decision to invest in land and brand-new facilities so that everyone could worship together. Central to the new building is a 1,483-seat auditorium. Manchester-based integrator Wigwam became involved in the project at least three years ago. After consulting with Hillsong in the UK and asking for recommendations, Betania contacted former Wigwam owner Mick Spratt after building work on the ambitious project had started.

“After dealing first with Mick, it was about two years ago that I went out to Dublin and we started looking at different speaker options for the auditorium,” explains Tim Mortimer, systems integration project manager at Wigwam. However, considerable work needed to be carried out on the building’s acoustics before the project could go any further. “Mick told the church that he wouldn’t sell them a microphone or a cable, never mind a PA system, if they didn’t address the acoustics,” recalls Mortimer. “It was just a concrete shell. They had an acoustic consultant come in and fit wood panelling all around the walls. I walked in after a lot of the acoustic treatment had been fitted just before we hung the PA and, even just talking in the room, you could hear the difference. The acoustic treatment has significantly reduced the reverb times in the auditorium and also removed the reflections from the walls meaning the congregation are now hearing a direct source.”

It wasn’t just the construction of the building itself where volunteers helped to bring everything together. “We were originally asked to install all the new sound, lighting and video equipment,” explains Mortimer, “but we only ended up doing the audio in the end. A rigging company hung their videowall but, apart from that, all the video was done in-house and there’s minimal lighting in the auditorium. By the time we arrived onsite, all the cabling had been laid. We’d told them where everything needed to go and so this became another way for them to save money. Normally, we’d use electrical contractors but some of their tech people are electricians and they pulled the cables themselves.”

After considering proposals from two speaker manufacturers, the church settled on an array processed d&b system based on Y-Series speakers. Main left and right hangs contain six Yi12s per side with three Yi-SUBs flown behind each array to “fatten up” sound in the fan-shaped auditorium. Yi10p out-fills and upper out-fill delays cover the far corners of the balcony. XS10SD loudspeakers have been fitted under the balcony downstairs and six Bi6-SUB subwoofers are built into the stage. Seven 44S front-fills have also been integrated into the steps leading up to the stage. Three d&b M4 floor monitors have been provided for visiting preachers.

The main benefit of the d&b system for sound engineer Sam Biro is that the hangs are array processed. Each element in the array is fed off an amplifier channel so it gives a smoother coverage off the arrays across the room. “It provides a more consistent setup,” explains Mortimer. “Humidity and temperature can alter in the room but Sam has access via the d&b R1 software to every element of the system – whether it’s the line arrays or delays, he can get to every box.”

Apart from a couple of new radio mics that Wigwam has supplied, Betania has brought all of its existing microphones across from the old venue, with Mortimer adding an in-ear system consisting of 11 Allen & Heath ME-1 personal mixers. Currently, there’s no monitor desk so the band can control their own monitor mixes on the ME-1s.

At front of house is a DiGiCo Quantum 225, with an SD9 as the broadcast desk. “Sam always wanted DiGiCo so that was the only option for the desk,” explains Mortimer. The SD9 is currently located behind the stage with all the racks but will eventually move into its own broadcast room when it’s ready.

Sourced from AVL Systems just 3km from Betania, a 2.8mm pixel pitch videowall from Chinese manufacturer Lightking covers 72m2 behind the main auditorium stage. Further screens from the same manufacturer have been installed elsewhere in the building: a 5.5m x 3m videowall has been fitted in the conference room, with another smaller screen in the reception area, all adding up to around 110m2 in total. Six Blackmagic Design cameras with Blackmagic broadcast equipment are used for all the church’s livestreaming needs.

Mortimer was able to order all the new equipment for Betania before the pandemic, but lockdowns in Ireland delayed the construction process by around 12 months. With the first services held just before Christmas last year, it’s early days for the new building, and Betania Church Dublin is still enjoying the novelty of its new surroundings. The auditorium also has the potential to host corporate work on weekdays, when the building is not used for church services. “Although it’s been built as a church, it’s more like a conference facility and it’s an extra source of income,” explains Mortimer. “That’s one of the reasons why we chose a leading brand – if the space is going to be used for conferences, people want to recognise the manufacturer so they don’t feel they have to bring in their own equipment.”

But this isn’t the end of the story for Wigwam. “It’s an ongoing process for us,” explains Mortimer. “They’re hoping to add more equipment, but all the money has gone on the building at the moment. Although the main auditorium is finished, there are other rooms in the complex that still aren’t completed. Moving forwards, the singers are hoping to switch to wireless in-ear monitors but the money isn’t there at the moment. There’s going to be a lot of small jobs coming to us for quite some time.”

“It was a big challenge, a long procedure and we needed to make some hard decisions when choosing the right sound system for our worship place,” concludes Daniel Catana, tech coordinator at Betania. “But the d&b sound experience, together with the DiGiCo consoles, proved that it was definitely the right way to go. They provide great sound and awesome coverage. I am glad we could make this happen through Wigwam, a very professional company and a great team.”

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