Sound System, Acoustic & Lighting Project

A major undertaking under the Project HOPE (Help Our Parish Excel) is the improvement of the lighting, sound system and acoustics of the Church. This was the purpose behind the fund-raising done through the Leap of HOPE concert, which generated some P2.6 million from sponsorships, ticket sales and donations in cash and kind.

Sound System Replacement

A major complaint among churchgoers was that the sound system in the church was defective. Except in areas very close to the speakers, it was difficult to understand what the priest and lectors were saying. Thus, the parish embarked on the project to improve the quality of the sound in the church mainly through the purchase of a new sound system.

As early as December 2007, at the onset of the promotion of the  Leap of HOPE concert, a generous soul anonymously donated the entire sound system. This was installed in time for the simbang-gabi masses. The old speakers were put outside the church for the benefit of those who could no longer be accommodated inside the church.

Despite the new sound system, there was very little discernable improvement in the quality of the sound. Thus, it was imperative to focus on improving the acoustics, defined as the ability of an enclosure to reflect sound waves in a manner that would produce distinct hearing.

Acoustic Treatment

Technical analyses revealed that due mainly to the dome-like predominantly concrete architectural structure of the church, the sound waves coming out of the speakers had very high reverberation rate, more than 3 times the allowable level (to be clearly audible).

The acoustics project entailed massive work in order to preserve the impressive “Peter’s fish net” architectural feature of the ceiling. Each diamond-like segment of the net had to be treated with a two-inch layer of acoustic fiber, designed to absorb and avoid the sound waves from “bouncing”. This was finished with covering of textured white vinyl. 

The ceiling treatment took more than two months to complete. It was started in mid June and finished by end of August. This was a complex undertaking due the sheer height of the ceiling and the need to go through tedious dismantling and assembling of the scaffoldings for weddings, Sunday masses and other special occasions.

The post-project test conducted revealed that the sound wave reverberation has been cut by more than two-thirds, making the sound very clear in any section of the church. There are still fine tunings being done, with possibility of replacing with more powerful speakers the two that are farthest from the altar, to eliminate the delay in the sounds they produce.

Mr. Dar Quintos, a foremost name in acoustics engineering in the country, has so generously rendered his services pro bono.

Father-and-son team Joe and Carlo Aguado of Basic Machineries Corp. provided the acoustics treatment services, while graciously including the painting of the ceiling in their scope of work.

Lighting Systems

Over the last 30 years, there have been numerous additions and repositioning of lighting fixtures inside the Church. The lights looked patchy as a few portions were glaringly lit with floodlights, while the other sections were dark. Thus, professional help was sought to create a harmonious warm lighting for the church highlighting the altar and other architectural features, impressively rendered by Architect Jose Zaragoza, as well as the distinctly beautiful bronze sculptural pieces crafted by Eduardo Castrillo.

So far the lighting on the alcove at the base of the ceiling surrounding the church has been transformed into a continuous soft light. The distractive elements in the alcove are still slowly being eliminated or muted by paint treatment.

The installation of lights at the sanctuary is still in progress. Implementation of the exterior lighting plan is also underway, with most of the electrical wirings installed.

PL Light in Existence is managing the lighting project. They have been able to generate substantial donations in kind from suppliers.

Other Improvements

To complement the whole project, improvements in ventilation and the computer and projection system are currently being worked out.

The challenge is to get rid of the physically obstructive and aesthetically distracting high-mounted electric fans along the inner aisles, while providing ample and comfortable ventilation to all churchgoers, particularly when the air-conditioning system is off.

All these improvements, while helping us save on our electric bills and care for our environment, are meant to make our church a more fitting place of worship - beautiful and conducive to prayer.