Hurrairah bin Sohail explores the cutting-edge AV systems deployed at Al Mawaddah Mosque by PAVE System. Find out why this project won the House of Worship Project Award category for the integrator.
The Inavate APAC Awards 2025 introduced the House of Worship Project category because we knew exceptional work was being delivered in the vertical by Asia Pacific’s integrators and AV professionals. The inaugural winner of the House of Worship Award, PAVE System for the Al Mawaddah Mosque in Singapore, proves our point.
Jeffrey Lim, managing director of PAVE System, starts the exploration of the project by discussing the early designs and direction of the project: “The initial design was based on traditional matrix switching, with the rooms being designed with 4 by 4, 8 by 8, or 16 by 16 switchers as needed. There was a requirement for the spaces to be linked together, and this was achieved with traditional matrix switching.”
Lim continues: “When we reviewed the initial design, we actually reached out to the consultant, CCW, to ask and propose whether a network-based AV-over-IP solution would be something they would consider, and CCW was open to it. Because of that openness and our collaboration, the project moved forward with the system being designed based on AV over IP. Our understanding was that the client wanted to be able to route AV sources to various locations, particularly from the wedding hall and the main hall, and AV over IP is perfect for such applications.”
While the AV professionals were in agreement about leveraging the capabilities of AV over IP, how did the client react considering that switching to a network-based system can sometimes come with an increased price tag?
Lim answers: “We did a quick cost evaluation, considering the number of rooms, the different features required, and the need to enable source switching. Overall, we realised that once you reach a certain level of interconnectivity, AV over IP tends to be the more cost-effective solution.”
Lightware encoders and decoders have been used for AV over IP at Al Mawaddah Mosque. Lim explains the choice: “We chose Lightware mainly because, after learning about their solutions and their IP capabilities, we found their system to be quite straightforward to configure and use. They also provide a network management processor to assist us with configuring signal and source switching.”
Staying with the video system, the mosque’s main hall features two Aver PTZ cameras and primarily receives presentations from laptops. The AV system supports streaming not only to the main hall but the wedding rooms and other spaces as well as outdoor areas, including the car park. Visual displays include two LG 98-in flat panel displays screens, supplemented by differently sized flat panel displays where necessary, all controlled via an Extron IPCP system.
Lim sheds further light on the control system and the decision to use an iPad as a mobile control interface: “Because the mosque is quite a large facility, the iPad allows users to move around and verify that the source switching matches what they see on site. This interface is intuitive enough for volunteer staff, but we also programmed a more advanced control layer for tech-savvy users.”
AV over IP was an inspired choice by the integrator and consultant as it helped address challenges. Lim expands: “The mosque is four storeys high, and it is quite large. Even with AV over IP and the cable runs, we had to create a main network and sub-networks to get the signals to all the spaces and stream content. It was a challenge to get the AV system done. At the same time, the mosque did not stop serving its congregation during this upgrade. We had to work with the hours that the mosque specified and of course stop all work well before it was time for prayers. It was helpful that the Lightware system was easy to deploy and configure.”
An additional challenge arose mid-project with a request to stream services to platforms like Facebook and YouTube. The team integrated Blackmagic equipment and a vision mixer to accommodate this smoothly.
Over on the side of audio, Lim says: “CCW captured the audio requirements perfectly. The sizes of the speakers and the positioning were spot on, and this was a great help because audio in houses of worship is of paramount importance. We went down to the site to confirm that the spots specified for the speakers were available to us and from there it was just a matter of getting the speakers in place to do their job.”
Bose Professional column speakers were installed in the main hall, while ceiling speakers with distributed zones managed sound across other areas. Audio distribution leveraged Dante networking protocols.
Lim shares an interesting detail: “The existing ceiling speakers had to remain operational during installation. We built the new speaker system externally and ran both old and new systems concurrently for nearly three weeks before completing the switch, ensuring no disruption to worship.”
Sennheiser microphones were selected for their quality and the vendor’s willingness to provide extended warranty coverage, a key client requirement.
The Al Mawaddah Mosque project is up and running, and Lim details: “We needed to complete this project by February 2025 without any downtime for the mosque. Around the specified deadline, the mosque had key events both religious and communal in nature, so the work had to be completed, and we are happy to report that everything was completed on time. Our team was present for the scheduled events and even supported the mosque with our expertise to execute them.”
Looking ahead, Lim believes the AV-over-IP system puts the mosque in a great position to leverage technology. He says: “Monitoring and remote management were not something that we were looking at during the project, but they would be obvious natural progressions. AV over IP and Dante and are used for signal transmission over the network so it would not be hard to implement. And even the amplifiers from Powersoft could be monitored remotely with the new Verso Gateway solution. This is something we can consider in the future but at the moment the operational members need to be familiar with the system they have and run it to its full potential.”
Lim concludes: “This a special project for us because of two reasons. The first is the ambition of the consultant and the end user to be willing to implement AV over IP in a house of worship. The spaces usually default to traditional solutions but as you can see modern solutions can do the job just as well if not better and in a more cost-effective manner. And secondly, some of the members of the congregation of this mosque are part of the AV industry and capable AV professionals in their own right. So, we felt the pressure to make sure that we delivered as we knew our work would be under stricter scrutiny.”