Shure Powers Sound At ‘Cathedral Of Creativity’

Shure's Axient Digital wireless system has been selected as the sound system of choice for a multi-million pound restoration project at St John at Hackney Church in London.

A Music Venue’s Trust and Independent Venue Week affiliated venue, as well as a cherished landmark, St John at Hackney Church was established in 1275 and has been part of the East London community ever since. Since 2010 it has welcomed major artists such as Robbie Williams, Florence Welch, Jamie XX, Benjamin Clementine, Bloc Party, Ed Sheeran and Emeli Sandé.

The aim of this project was to create one of London’s premium live event spaces: a ‘Cathedral of Creativity.’ The demands of this ambition, combined with working in a historic listed building, created an environment for a challenging installation.

Getting the right team together was at the heart of the brief and working with the internationally renowned designer John Pawson on the architecture, the project needed to apply the same level of detail and discretion to the tech, with a great team of consultants, in order to achieve the aim of an entirely classic, future proof and industry standard event space.

Specifically, they needed to achieve reliability, clarity and variety of use and, above all, visual discretion.

“Having previously used ULXD, the Axient range was a natural next step,” said production manager Ben Musson. “What I found particularly impressive was its efficiency in the frequency spectrum, and with the RF it can gather through the antennas. This meant that we were able to push the limit on placement, keeping them out of sight and as discreet as possible.

“For set up we relied on our brilliant production partners at Southby. We haven’t had a problem since, the system has been totally dependable. We use a number of the core features that integrate with our system. It’s patched over Dante to save on analogue I/O but to also provide that flexibility.

“The capsules that Shure offer sound brilliant, I’m a huge fan of the KSM9, it provides incredible intelligibility for speech, and does not compromise on translating high energy from a big vocal. Audio conversion has to be one of the biggest advantages of using the Axient range. There is just something about its A/D that keeps the sound natural and crystal clear. So many issues normally associated with wireless handheld microphones are also resolved.”

Musson continues: “We use Axient receivers on our production network. This means we are able to remote control the units over our network to check on via Workbench, like most. My favourite feature is an extension of this remote capability within our mixing console. On the preamp page on the Allen and Heath Dlive, we are able to see the RF Strength, Battery life, Receiver name, and also remote control the gain level of the receiver. This has got to be the neatest party trick, where normally, without using workbench or being at the receiver, the engineer would only have access to a Dante trim level, or an analogue gain from the receiver into the desk – but to actually gain the wireless mic, this is life changing.

“It’s a real privilege to use world class equipment like Shure in a context that is about so much more than being a premium events space. As a church, we are rooted in our community too, with our amazing Lighthouse project caring for people in need all over East London, doing incredible youth work, kids work and so much more. Our ultimate vision is to bring hope to the people of East London, and it’s amazing that my work is part of a much bigger story than just the equipment and the space in front of me.”

This work has improved the access to a much-loved community heritage asset and created a Cathedral of Creativity to be enjoyed for generations to come.