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Japanese temple Higashi Betsuin upgrades with Renkus-Heinz

The Nagoya Betsuin of the Shinshu Otani-ha is a historic temple located in Aichi Prefecture’s Nagoya City. Known as “Higashi Betsuin”, it has grown into a central place of worship in the Japanese region since its construction in 1632. As well as hosting Buddhist ceremonies and religious events, the temple is used for exchange events and markets, making it a meeting place for the local community. However, the building’s distinctive architecture comes with complex audio challenges, including intelligibility in the main hall.

To resolve long-standing acoustic issues and improve clarity for attendees, the Taimensho reception hall recently enjoyed a significant upgrade with the help of Renkus-Heinz distributor Beetech Inc., who installed an Iconyx Compact audio system. The reception hall is a large, traditional temple structure boasting a grand architectural style built with thick concrete. Buddhist sermons are delivered here every day, as well as large ceremonies. It’s a place of reflection and religious importance for both locals and tourists.

Around ten years ago, the building underwent a major renovation. Original tatami flooring was replaced with carpet laid over concrete, whilst shoji paper screens on the sides were changed to a more durable, tear-resistant material. The renovation, along with the temple’s previous loudspeakers, caused significant issues with reflected sound from walls and ceilings. The sound-absorbing properties of the tatami flooring and shoji paper screens were lost, leading to increased sound reverberation and a significant drop in speech intelligibility when using the PA system. A substantial upgrade was necessary for the temple to continue hosting sermons and other events successfully.

A representative from equipment supplier A&V Co. Ltd suggested Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers would be a suitable solution due to their narrow form factor and beam-steering technology. After conducting a demonstration with the Iconyx Compact Series ICC12/3, the decision was made to officially install the system. “With the introduction of the ICC12/3 system, we were able to deliver sound evenly throughout the room with minimal power”, a representative from the temple explains. “This reduced the need for excessive output to the rear, effectively helping to control reverberation.”

Where the temple’s previous sound system used portable loudspeakers, the new fixed installation needed to be mounted on the pillars. Due to the temple’s unique architectural design and structural limitations, installation locations were highly restricted and required careful consideration to achieve optimal audio performance. To address these concerns, the installation team designed custom mounting brackets that allowed the loudspeakers to be positioned as desired. The brackets were also engineered to be almost invisible behind the array, ensuring minimal disruption to the hall’s traditional appearance.

Hanging the speakers from the front pillars raised concerns about potential sound distortion; however, utilizing the ICC12/3’s beam-steering technology guaranteed minimal reverberation. The technology allowed integrators to freely adjust the output sound angle, allowing precise control over the focus and therefore minimizing echoes around the pillars. Furthermore, Renkus-Heinz’s Rhaon II software’s 8-band equalizer was used to adjust the acoustics to match the existing system for input devices such as wireless microphones and mixers.

(Photos: Renkus-Heinz)

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