Technologies such as Meyer Sound Constellation, d&b Soundscape and En-Scene, and L-Acoustics L-ISA have completely transformed audio spaces and performance, and the innovation continues, as new applications are tried. Recently, L-Acoustics debuted a spatial DJ product and saw its first install alongside a full L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal sound system; Meyer Sound brought Constellation outdoors, and a theater company used d&b Soundscape to shape their in-the-round space and as part of defining the characters in the show.
L-Acoustics DJ just began shipping earlier this year and has already seen its first fixed installation. The system allows DJs to do real-time mapping to surround arrays via a simple mixer that moves sound to any speaker with the literal push of a button. The Breakbeat, which recently opened in downtown Chico, California, is the first to put the concept to work. The venue occupies a compact former sunglasses store that its founder, Azariah “Z” Reynolds, has transformed into a multipurpose arts and performance space built around the latest in spatial audio technology, designed to be as immersive for a folk duo as it is for a DJ set.
Reynolds had a specific vision when he first assessed the space. “I really liked the sightlines of the space, the ceiling height, and the general feel of it, so I came up with a basic concept for how I wanted the room to flow. I wanted a performance space, a visual-art space, and a sound-listening room,” he says. The name he chose for the venue was equally deliberate. “We chose that name because it signifies beginnings. The breakbeat was the first sample drumbeat, and it led into the hiphop and electronic-drum sampling era.”
To realize that vision, Z turned to Denver-based Brown Note Productions, an L-Acoustics Certified Provider with deep experience in complex audio installations. What they built together is a venue that punches far above its physical footprint.
At the heart of The Breakbeat is L-Acoustics DJ, the industry’s first complete system for transforming traditional stereo DJ setups into fully immersive spatial audio experiences; it just began shipping to customers in early this year. Using proprietary Source Separate technology, the system applies low-latency machine learning to split stereo tracks into discrete stems in real time, allowing DJs to position and move those elements through the physical space as they perform. Critically, it does all of this without interfering with a DJ’s existing workflow.
The Breakbeat is the first venue in the United States to install L-Acoustics DJ. Brown Note Productions Account Manager Matt Bauer worked closely with the L-Acoustics Applications team to integrate the spatial system, combining an L-Acoustics DJ hardware controller and iPad app with an L-ISA Processor II, into a full 12.1.4 surround configuration. “I heard L-Acoustics DJ for the first time last summer and knew it was going to be a hit,” says Bauer. “But as far as putting these new technologies and products all together and customizing them for the space, we partnered with the L-Acoustics Application team and worked to develop a perfect-fit solution.”
The speaker configuration was purpose-built for the room: an overhead ring of 12 L-Acoustics X8i loudspeakers serves as surrounds, with four X6i above the audience area as overheads. Three Syva Sub in a horizontal array behind the stage anchor the low end, powered by a combination of LA7.16i amplified controllers for the surrounds and subwoofers and LA2Xi for the overheads. The system is driven by BNP-supplied Pioneer DJ decks and mixer, meaning any visiting DJ steps in and is immediately playing on it.
What makes The Breakbeat’s technology investment particularly significant is that it extends well beyond DJ performances. Alongside L-Acoustics DJ, the venue runs a full L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound system (HYRSS), meaning non-DJ artists also perform in immersive. Z’s goal from the start was a venue that could credibly host any kind of artist, and the system has already been tested across formats.
“You could see that each of these different types of performances delivered the same kind of impact,” says Z. The venue’s early programming has included a folk and Americana pairing of Willy Tea Taylor and The Sam Chase, whose set Z describes as sounding “very awesome and full” in immersive surround, followed the next night by Reno-based DJ duo Fox & Buck with Modelody. The reaction, in both cases, was the same: audiences reaching for reference points that weren’t there. “I think people come in with their brains wrapped around what it’s like to hear a stereo image, and to watch an artist perform with the sound traveling towards them from the stage. But The Breakbeat gives a fully immersive feeling of you being inside the sound. Watching people adjust to that’s pretty interesting.”
The Breakbeat’s 12.1.4 configuration allows stems to travel independently around the room, something a standard left-right system can’t do. “It creates this visual spectrum to where no matter which way you turn, no matter which way you’re facing, you get a perfect sound image,” says Z. “I had people asking us during our last show if we had speakers under the floor or if we were using any type of vibrational effects, but it was just purely the impact of the Syva Sub in a line behind the stage.”
A venue built around technology this new carries the implicit responsibility of bringing artists along. Z and the team at The Breakbeat have approached this as an active part of the venue’s identity. For DJs playing the space for the first time, the learning curve is, by design, kept shallow. L-Acoustics DJ was built to require no prior technical expertise, but the creative possibilities run deep.
“The technology is new to the DJs that we’ve had in, but once they got a feel for using the system, it was pretty easy for them to pick out points in their songs that would work really well for each effect and be able to use those confidently,” says Z. “It’s always really cool to watch the looks on the faces of DJs when they use it for the first time, because once they start wrapping that sound and using some of the cross effects, it can be pretty stark and surprising right away.”
That reaction is exactly what the venue is designed to produce, for artists and audiences alike. Bauer puts it plainly: “Everything is working together to make it both practical and magical.”
While performers are actively bringing their creativity to the manipulation of spatial sound, sometimes it’s the invisible electroacoustic support that makes the experience. On many Miami Beach evenings, the New World Symphony’s WALLCAST concerts turn SoundScape Park into a vast open-air listening space, with performances inside the Frank Gehry–designed New World Center brought to life outdoors on a 7,000-square-foot projection wall. An outdoor Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system fills the 2.5-acre park with immersive sound. Thirteen years after the first WALLCAST in 2011, that outdoor experience has been renewed with a comprehensive upgrade of the sound system that delivers a new twist in an outdoor immersive experience.
The New World Symphony (NWS) is an orchestral academy that prepares gifted young musicians for leadership roles in ensembles around the world. So the upgrade timing was driven by both necessity and opportunity. “The audio system in the park hasn’t been updated since we moved into the building,” says Clyde Scott, senior vice president and creative director of NWS Media. “The technology has advanced so much at this point that we knew we could get a vastly improved sound in the park by upgrading the equipment.”
The new Meyer Sound system was supplied by Solotech and designed by Solotech and Meyer Sound’s design services team. “The goal was to create a smooth, consistent sonic field across a very large, open lawn,” explains Bryan A. Edens, Solotech’s senior business development representative. He notes that fitting the system into the site’s unique layout and technical footprint called for careful design—a challenge the team embraced. “Architecturally, the entire system has to coexist with Frank Gehry’s building and the massive projection wall without cluttering sightlines,” he explains. “We also had to work within the existing infrastructure from the 2011 installation, and we had a hard summer deadline because everything needed to be online and tuned ahead of the first WALLCAST of the season.”
Solotech installed an expanded Meyer Sound ecosystem anchored by the latest ULTRA family solutions: seven ULTRA-X82 and one ULTRA-X80 versatile point source loudspeakers for focused projection. 20 LINA very compact linear line array loudspeakers provide long-throw reinforcement, with 26 ULTRA-X40 and 53 ULTRA-X20 point source speakers for near- and mid-field coverage and six 2100-LFC low-frequency control elements, four 750-LFC low-frequency control elements, and 26 USW-112P compact subwoofers for low-end support. The system is driven by two NADIA CP integrated digital audio platforms with nine NADIAAI12and eight NADIA-AO16 interfaces.
NWS Director of Audio Services Roberto Toledo, who has worked with the Meyer Sound system since its original installation, says the move from the legacy DMitri platform to a NADIA-based Constellation architecture has brought a significant step forward in both sound quality and workflow. “We get a more accurate representation of what the orchestra is doing. That helps us make better decisions on how to present the show in the park.”
The new signal path integrates a digital console in the chain, better reflecting how modern productions are mixed. “In the past, we were mixing entirely within the DMitri system,” Toledo explains. “Now all the audio goes to the console first, and then to the NADIA system to be processed and distributed to the speakers.”
The result improves not only the mix outdoors but also supports how Fellows learn to perform in productions that extend beyond the stage. “Anything that we can do to help the Fellows realize their own ambitions and prepare them for all of the challenges that they’re going to face as they embark on their professional careers is something that we want to do,” Scott says. “More and more orchestral institutions are employing technology to reach bigger audiences. “This helps prepare our Fellows for the reality of the modern concert experience.”
The upgrade also reinforces New World Symphony’s role as a civic and cultural resource. SoundScape Park is funded and owned by the City of Miami Beach, ensuring that world-class orchestral performance remains freely accessible as a shared public experience.
“The new system gives the park a huge leap in clarity, coverage, and dynamic impact,” says Edens. “But maybe the most meaningful improvement is the sense of community the sound now supports. WALLCAST concerts bring people together, and with this upgrade, the audio finally matches the scale of that community energy. It feels like the performance isn’t just being broadcast—it’s truly happening in the park, with the audience as part of the experience.”
“At the end of the day, the audience doesn’t think in terms of arrays or horns—they think in terms of how it feels,” he concludes. “The music feels closer, clearer, and more alive than it ever has outdoors.”
In another example of how an invisible system can change an audience experience, we turn to theater in the round. Hale Center Theatre (HCT) is recognized as one of the nation’s highest-attended theatres, annually serving over 600,000 patrons with high-level professional productions at an accessible price. Faced with the challenge of upgrading their 911-seat, in-the-round, Centre Stage venue, HCT installed a comprehensive d&b audiotechnik Soundscape system with En-Scene, En-Space, and En-Snap software modules.
“With this upgrade, the theatre needed a solution that could guarantee consistent audio quality for every seat, moving beyond the previous limitations of a left/right system, which resulted in poor audio quality near the aisles,” explained Resident Sound Designer and Sound Department Manager, Michelle Ohumukini. “The immersive object-based mixing of Soundscape was deemed the far superior option for manipulating and placing sound in the theatre’s in-the-round geometry.”
The new system, featuring d&b loudspeakers and subwoofers (including xS-Series 24S-D mains, XSLi-SUB, 21S-SUB, and xS-Series 44S fills flown in the round), was selected for its capabilities in creating fully immersive, story-driven audio experiences made possible via Soundscape. “We use Soundscape as a fundamental tool for our sonic storytelling,” Ohumukini continues. “En-Space and En-Scene help us build worlds that align with the visuals and staging to create immersive, story-driven effects.”
“My favorite thing that I’ve done with Soundscape so far, was the iconic parting of the Red Sea in Prince of Egypt,” said Ohumukini. “I split our speakers down the middle, and we used EnScene to change levels and placements of objects to make it sound like the Sea was actually parting. It was very dramatic.”
In Beauty and the Beast, En-Scene was enlisted to create an unnerving, moving echo for the Beast’s roar. “We took the actor’s real growl and then sent it through DSP effects assigned as a different object, then moved that object around, so the growl repeated further and further away as it echoed,” said Ohumukini.
For Sister Act, HCT tapped En-Space to apply a cathedral reverb that intensified the moment the character, Dolores recognized the acoustics of the space she was in. “The character notices that there’s reverb and makes her voice louder,” shared Ohumukini. “We simultaneously brought up the levels in En-Space to really emphasize this.”
“Soundscape was also deployed in our smaller Jewel Box theatre, and with it, I was able to meet our CEO’s playful challenge to ‘scare the children.’ When we used En-Space to move Marley’s ghost and a carriage around the audience, we may have scared them a little too much!” laughs Ohumukini. Soundscape was also utilized to solve a notoriously challenging acoustic space at the Hale Centre Theatre, its eight-seat VIP box.
“This secluded box seat area, positioned slightly higher than the regular seating, had the most challenging sound in the house. It was almost unusable for me as a sound designer and a poor experience for the major donors and diplomats who sat there,” shared Ohumukini. “To remedy this, we installed a dedicated d&b Soundscape rig exclusively for the box. This system operates independently, running on its own DS100 processor, and it replicates everything the Soundscape system is doing in the main theatre.”
The all-d&b configuration for the VIP box includes three mains along the front, six surrounds, and an infrasub positioned below the seats. “The occupants feel everything,” shares Ohumukini. “And the VIP box now contains the best seats in the house. They’re coveted, and everybody wants to sit there.”
Throughout the venue, the d&b Soundscape installation has resulted in a highly engaged and natural listening experience for audiences, regardless of the performance. But ultimately, for Hale Centre Theatre, these technical feats serve a greater purpose.
“We’re here to tell stories. All the amazing technologies that have been installed don’t mean anything to our attendees. What they care about is that they feel a certain way when they come here… that the story moves them,” stresses Quinn Dietlein, Hale Centre’s Executive Director. “Soundscape accentuates our ability to enhance the narrative. So, from a storytelling perspective, that’s the greatest payoff for the theatre.”
