Our Lady of Perpetual Help

The Sound Source recently had the pleasure of working with Fr. Billy O’Riordan, Pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Belle Chasse, LA.

We met Fr. Billy at the Reconsecration Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Chalmette.
We had just completed OLOL’s installation before Christmas 2009.  He was a guest celebrant with Fr. John Arnone (pastor of OLOL).  After mass was over, Fr. Billy asked us to come in and see if there was anything that we could do to improve the quality and intelligibility of the spoken word at his church.  He explained that he his experience with the existing sound system was not a positive one.  His parishioners also expressed their dissatisfaction with the sound system.  Apparently, it had been a problem even before Fr. Billy arrived.  He was impressed with how clear the system at OLOL was…as was interested to see if that could be achieved at his church.

While attending several masses, Tim came up with a plan for the church that would fix the problems.  After meeting with Fr. Billy, as well as the Construction Committee, TSS was awarded the contract to install a new sound system.  There was one caveat.  Fr. Billy’s 25th Anniversary was coming soon and we had to have the system installed, tested, tuned, timed, and finished by June 27th, 2010.  After a few conversations with our manufacturers, we felt comfortable that the timeline was one that we could meet.  We also had to be considerate of funerals and weddings.  Keep in mind, this church is open for parish business.

First, our crew spent one full day in the church removing the original equipment, re-terminating existing connections, and doing a little investigative work.  It’s always intriguing to see what we find when we open the walls.  Fortunately, OLPH did not experience any damage from Hurricane Katrina.  At this point, no surprises were found and we dove in head first.

We started the process of running all new wire.  Next we proceeded to install the new speakers and headend.  Things progressed nicely and we stayed true to our timeline.  Our plan was to have the system installed and operational for the next weekend’s slate of masses.  Things moved forward well and thanks to the great communication between the Church office and our office, we were making noise by Thursday.  We then spent Friday cleaning up and tuning the system.

Once everything was completed, Tim attended mass a few more times to make sure that all was good.

We have received several positive complements from the parishioners, as well as from Church staff.

TimK goes on to say….
“OLPH is a great example of a system that required a total removal and reinstallation.  We communicated with our suppliers and worked out viable schedules with the Church staff.  Our goal was not to change the visual impact of the church, but to increase the intelligibility to a level no-one has ever experienced before.  While attending mass post install, Fr. Billy was briefly explaining to the congregation that the new system was installed and working….it was then that a older parishioner yelled out ‘the sound system sounds great!!!’ and starting a loud round of applause.”

We continually visit all of our church installs on a regular basis to check in and make sure that everything is operating properly.  We do occasionally make a few adjustments, but overall things have been working well and our pastor’s and congregants are happy.