Tyneside firm helps to spread the word of God

Dec 1 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

SPREADING the word of God is something a Tyneside audio visual company is asked to help with quite often, but venturing into a Buddhist monastery for the first time was quite a new experience.

Blaydon Communications were faced with a challenging request from Harnham Buddhist Monastery near Belsay in Northumberland.

The monastery needed portable equipment that was able to broadcast speakers’ voices both indoors and outside, as well as being able to record the output.

Blaydon Communications engineer, Dan Milner, said: “I was unaware of what goes on in a monastery, so I had to find out their needs and the appropriate equipment.

“They said they needed to record from it on to an MP3 player. Churches usually just have a public address system. It also had to be mobile.”

The company, which manufactures, supplies and installs sound equipment across the UK, had to specially modify the system for the monastery.

It also had to source portable loudspeakers to allow the Abbot and other speakers to move freely around the building and the grounds while remaining connected to the system.

Mr Milner then trained the monks to operate the sound system.