St Mary’s Church, Highley, Shropshire

St Mary’s Church, Highley is grade II* listed, sitting in the Shropshire countryside near Bridgnorth. The chancel and nave are early 12th century with the nave having a late medieval panelled roof with carved bosses.

During 2019 and into 2020 substantial refurbishment works were carried out at the church. These included substantial improvements to the sound system together with the installation of an audio-visual facility.

As part of the project a number of sound and AV specialists were invited to submit improvement scheme suggestions. From the schemes submitted the proposals put forward by Richard King Systems were selected and developed.

The improvements included:

  • Professional high quality, compact loudspeakers for both speech and full range reproduction
  • Digital mixer for comprehensive input control and flexibility
  • Multiple input connection options at the front of the church for instruments and vocalists etc
  • Drop down projector screen behind the chancel arch
  • Long throw projector for discrete installation at the rear of the nave

David Rayner of St Mary’s commented:

"We were seeking quotes for a replacement sound and vision system in our 900 year old church as part of a restoration and updating of the building. Richard King Systems took time to understand what we were trying to achieve whilst taking on board the common constraints of limited funds and the need to minimise the visual impact of the equipment.

Of the specialists we approached it was RKS alone who took on board the possible re-use of existing equipment to maximise the improvements from our available budget. This enabled, for example, the inclusion of higher quality compact loudspeakers without compromising sound quality sound while reducing visual intrusion.

As the internal building work was only completed in December 2019 we had a very limited window before the Christmas services but the efficient RKS installation team ensured we had the new sound system fitted in time for the festival.

Before we placed our order with RKS we spoke to a selection of their other customers who consistently told us that support is ongoing after the install is complete. We are pleased to be able to advise that we too have found this to be the case."