Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge 

Trinity College Chapel – A Heritage Installation in Sound and Silence 

RG Jones Sound Engineering was commissioned to deliver a discreet distributed audio solution for the historic Chapel of Trinity College, Cambridge—a Grade I listed building steeped in architectural, musical and royal heritage. 

Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, Trinity College is one of the most prominent colleges at the University of Cambridge. Its chapel, begun under Mary I in 1554, is a centrepiece of college life and a cultural destination in its own right—home to the world-renowned choir and a rare Metzler organ set into a 17th-century case by ‘Father’ Smith, England’s most famous organ builder. 

The challenge: implement a modern sound system without disturbing the historic fabric of the building—and deliver localised, high-fidelity reinforcement in a space never designed for amplified speech. 

A Distributed System Designed to Disappear 

RG Jones’ Jon Berry led the design and installation. Working under English Heritage restrictions, every part of the system—from cabling to loudspeaker placement—had to be invisible to the eye and sympathetic to the architecture. 

• Speakers: 127 x JBL Control 52 miniature 100V loudspeakers 
• Discreetly installed under pews and within architectural shelving 
• Each individually aimed and colour-matched to surroundings 
• Zones: 14 core speaker zones (7 per side), plus 4 additional (organ loft, ante-chapel, control position, altar) 
• Control Interface: Custom GUI designed for non-technical users (clergy) 

Intelligent Audio Routing with Preset Logic 

What makes this installation exceptional is the dynamic delay management system. Berry programmed the Soundweb units with Logic that actively detects which microphone is in use and adjusts time alignment to ensure the speaker’s voice is heard first at their physical position—maintaining clarity and natural acoustic localisation. 

If more than one person speaks from different positions, the system auto-blends delay presets to deliver a compromise that retains intelligibility and positional authenticity. 

Every element of this system had to serve the space, not impose on it. The goal was to deliver clarity and control while leaving the visual and acoustic integrity untouched. It’s one of those rare projects where the best compliment is that you can’t see what we’ve done — but you can feel it."

— Rob Powell, Project Manager, RG Jones Sound Engineering

At a Glance 

FeatureDetail

Client / Venue:

Trinity College Chapel, University of Cambridge

Challenge:

Design and install a modern sound reinforcement system within a Grade I listed chapel, preserving historic architecture while achieving clear, natural intelligibility for speech and music.

Scope of Work:

Delivered a fully distributed audio system using 127 colour-matched JBL Control 52 loudspeakers powered by BSS Soundweb BLU processing. Integrated intelligent delay logic and a custom GUI interface for clergy operation — all installed invisibly under strict English Heritage oversight.

Result:

A seamless, transparent audio environment providing consistent clarity to every pew, with zero visual intrusion — enabling speech reinforcement for the first time in the Chapel’s 470-year history.