Wales’s medieval jewel now sounds as magnificent as it looks

[ ST ASAPH CATHEDRAL dates back 1,400 years, with the current building dating from the 13th century. The cathedral now benefits from a bespoke, comprehensive premium sound system designed and commissioned by expert engineers from Richard King Systems. In addition to significantly enhancing the sound reproduction for services and events at the cathedral, the new system provides a matrix of selectable audio feeds for both live streaming and recording which is attracting viewers both in the UK and overseas.

With 40 years’ experience, Richard King Systems have an extensive portfolio of many successfully completed projects in places of worship – from medieval to modern. In addition to the project at St Asaph Cathedral, their commissions in 2022 included a substantial improvement scheme at St Mary’s Church, Welshpool.

At St Mary’s the audio facilities have taken a quantum step forward with a completely new system designed to provide the church with a first-class flexible, top performing and user-friendly facility. While the system is designed to provide top performance, the aesthetic impact on the Grade One-listed building’s interior is appropriately discreet and the installation has not caused any long-term damage to the fabric of the building.

Richard King Systems consistently provide clients with first-class, reliable and costeffective expertise for new builds, improvement projects and support services across England and Wales. They are supporting members of the Institute of Sound, Communications and Visual Engineers (ISCVE).

With technological advances over recent decades, people are now used to highquality audio visual – in their homes, in their cars and on the move. That progression in domestic and personal AV quality has been echoed by the advances in professional systems, for all types of venues and locations. Whether we are being informed by an announcement, listening to a speech, enjoying the restaurant atmosphere or the excitement on the dance floor, or at a live concert, the professional audio visual is an all important ingredient.

Richard King Systems are established and recognised specialists in the field of professional sound and AV systems. For four decades they have been at the forefront of harnessing the capabilities of professional technology, to produce first-class performance. With their extensive experience in designing, installing, commissioning and servicing all types of systems they are able to work with clients to create the desired environment for a wide range of commercial audio visual systems with the value, quality and reliability that operators and listeners now expect.

Effective collaboration and team work are key to being reliable team players, either working directly for clients or with architects, electrical engineers, acoustic consultants and project managers.

During the past two years their services have been expanded to include system specification, design, installation, commissioning and support for live streaming.

Extensive maintenance services are provided, with test results, certification and reports to ensure compliance with Building Regulations, equality legislation (formerly DDA) and current BS and EN standards. Their service engineers and technical personnel are appropriately qualified to provide customers with high standards of system servicing, fault finding and backup.

Among the many plaudits from satisfied customers is this comment from Canon Quentin Bellamy of Colwyn Bay, North Wales: “Quite simply there is nobody better! The service offered by Richard has been consistently superb over many years, and he has helped us to achieve excellence in ‘spreading the word’ and in getting the best sound reinforcement that we could have. Nothing is ever too much trouble and Richard is truly one of the best! I can heartily commend him to you.”

Meanwhile, David Kendall of Ashby Wesley Methodist Church in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, writes: “We would highly recommend Richard and his team for their professionalism from start to finish. Planning and installation in the most cost effective way to produce a system that has been a joy to work on. The initial teething problems were quickly resolved and the back-up service is readily on hand. We look forward to working with you for many years to come.” q

• Further information on their services and previous projects can be viewed on their website at richardkingsystems.co.uk or at their YouTube page, LinkedIn pages or Facebook pages.