Introduction
Al-Emaan Centre in Bromley (also known as Bromley Mosque) is a church building converted to a Mosque. It has a main hall, a side room, an outdoor marquee and a small room outside the main building. It would be classed as a medium sized Mosque. We were called in to improve the sound in the mosque by a very prominent Imam (Sheikh Mudhaffer Noori) who was very skilled in Quranic recitation (Qirat). We upgraded the sound system in various stages facing numerous challenges in a deceptively simple environment!
Kit List
Speakers
- 4x JBL Control One Pro speakers in the Main Hall
- 2x JBL Control One Pro speakers in the Marquee
- 1x JBL Control One Pro speaker in the Side Room
- 1x JBL Control One Pro speaker in the Outside Room
Amplifiers
- 3x Crown XLi 800 2x 125W amplifiers
Microphones
- 2x Shure SM58S Handheld Mics
- 2x Audio Technica Pro 70 Lapel Mic
- 1x Shure BLX Receiver with 2x PG48 Handheld Wireless Mics (existing)
Mixers
- Allen & Heath CQ20B Rackmount Digital Mixer
- Midas MR12 Rackmount Digital Mixer
- Behringer Flow8 Digital Mixer
- Soundcraft Notepad-12FX Analogue Mixer
Cables & Hardware
- 6x Van Damme XLR interconnect stage cables
- 200M 2×1.5mm Van Damme LSZH Speaker Cable
- 100M 3×1.5mm Arctic Cable
- 1x 15U Rack
- 8 Way Surge Protected mains lead
- Neutrik XLR, Speakon, Jack & Phono Connectors
Speakers
The Main Hall is decorated beautifully so speakers needed to be discreet and unobtrusive. Can you spot the speakers in the picture below?
We used 4x JBL Control One Pro speakers in each of the corners of the hall at high level. This was not ideal from a sound quality perspective but we had to respect the aesthetic of the Mosque.
The JBL speakers were able to deliver good coverage and the hall acoustics resonated well with a carefully tuned reverb effect from the mixer.
Sound levels were very respectful and we were just under the threshold of too loud!
Amplifiers
We used 3x Crown XLi800 125W low impedance amps, 2 of which drive the 4 speakers in the main hall and another amp drives the speakers in the side room, the Marquee and the outside room.
Using multiple amplifiers like this not only improves sound quality but also greatly improves resiliance so in the case of an amplifier failure we will still have sound.
Mixer Evolution
Soundcraft Notepad
When we first were called into the Mosque in 2018 we chose a Soundcraft Notepad-12FX Mixer. Although analogue this mixer has digital effects provided by Lexicon and a USB interface to connect to a computer for live streaming and recording purposes.
Behringer Flow 8
A disadvantage of analogue mixers is that there are a lot of knobs that people like to “adjust” sometimes quite frequently leading to inconsistent sound and issues.
Time to enter the digital era with the Behringer Flow 8 mixer. This mixer offers much simpler controls, a great effects engine, app control and presets which can be recalled to reset the mixer to it’s originally configured settings.
Midas MR12
The Mosque has a very active team who are pushing events and activities for the community quite hard and the Flow-8 mixer reached it’s limit for connectivity.
We installed a Midas MR12 app controlled digital amp to upgrade the sound quality and to provide more flexibility to the system.
Allen and Heath CQ20B
Shortly after the Midas MR12 was installed the Mosque made plans for future events with more microphones and recording and streaming requirements. This meant another upgrade to the mixer!
Again this mixer is fully digital, app controlled, has great effects and plenty of inputs and outputs for future expansion.
The Midas MR12 will be used for fault tolerance in case of failure. Sound is essential for a Mosque at all times!
Cabling
The existing speaker cabling was not up to current building regulations which state that all cabling in a public building must be at least Low Smoke Zero Halogen (LSZH). When we upgraded the amplifiers, it was time to also upgrade the speaker cable to ensure the building regulations were met, the public was kept safe and sound quality improved.
We used Van Damme 2×1.5mm LSZH installation speaker cable for the main hall and arctic external grade cable to cabling outside the building to the Marquee and external room.
A can of worms!
Cables tend to grow just like plants and they do need to be tended to. Once we saw it, we couldn’t unsee it, so naturally we tidied it up! Here’s some before and after photos.
Before
After
Conclusion
Al-Emaan Centre is a challenging Mosque because it really has Imams that are very skilled in Quaranic Recitation and are very demanding when it comes to sound quality. The team are very dedicated and also are willing to spend what it takes to make the Mosque sound and look beautiful at the same time. A Mosque that looks and sounds good will naturally encourage the community to come to the mosque and participate which in turn allows the Mosque to give back to the community in kind. It’s no wonder that the Mosque was a finalist in the Best Run Mosque category at the Beacon Mosque Awards 2023!
