HK Audio has helped transform the audio experience at Christ Church Kowloon Tong, where a new loudspeaker system has dramatically improved speech intelligibility while respecting the aesthetics of the church’s historic interior.
Built in 1937, the Anglican church is renowned for its modern Gothic architecture, which has been carefully preserved for nearly 90 years. While visually striking, its high ceilings and reflective surfaces create long reverberation times that make clear speech reproduction particularly challenging. Any upgrade also needed to integrate discreetly into the heritage building.
Supplied and installed by Tones Tailor, the new system replaces an analogue installation that had served the church for more than two decades. The solution centres on HK Audio’s SI SERIES P10i and P10j column loudspeakers, selected for their controlled vertical dispersion, which minimises reflections from the walls and ceiling while delivering consistent coverage throughout the sanctuary.
“Our previous sound system had been running for more than 20 years and we were looking to move from analogue to digital,” Explained Raymond WC Chan of Christ Church. “We finally chose Tones Tailor because they understood the background of the church, especially its aesthetic elements.”
To complement the column loudspeakers, Tones Tailor also installed an HK Audio SI SERIES S 210 subwoofer for music and live performances, alongside FINEO FO5 and FO8 loudspeakers for front fill and monitoring, creating a system capable of supporting both speech and musical events.
“Because of its long reverberation time, the church has a very challenging acoustic environment,” said Howard Chan of Tones Tailor. “There were also high expectations for how the system would look, you don’t want anything to stand out too much in a historical building like this.
“Thankfully, the HK Audio column system offered excellent vertical dispersion, helping us reduce reflections from the ceiling and walls. The P10 also gave us flexible mounting options, allowing the loudspeakers to integrate neatly into the building while delivering excellent performance.”
The finished installation has transformed the listening experience for both the church and its congregation. “Tones Tailor did a great job proposing the right solution,” added Raymond Chan. “It has solved almost 90% of the problems we experienced before.”
Howard Chan concluded: “After installation and commissioning, the client was extremely happy with the results. Speech intelligibility has improved hugely – they were equally pleased with how discreet the loudspeakers look. The final performance was very close to our acoustic simulations and the system sounded excellent straight out of the box.”
