A scaled-up L-ISA demo held in Singapore
A scaled-up L-ISA demo held in Singapore
After successfully utilising its L-ISA Auditoria demo suite and showroom at its premises since 2020, Singaporean L-Acoustics authorised distributor Concept Systems Technologies (CST) decided the time was right for taking things to the next level. “While our L-ISA Auditoria continues to serve us well, the available space next to our office is limited,” explained CST’s project and sales director, Gerald Fong. “We wanted to demonstrate the capabilities and performance of L-Acoustics’ immersive hyperreal sound technology in a larger, more real-life setup and to a larger industry crowd.”
A ballroom at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore was chosen, where a frontal scene system comprising seven pairs of A Series constant curvature cabinets was hung across the venue’s width. For surround, seven Syva colinear source columns were placed along the back and side walls of the room, naturally all driven by the recently updated L-ISA Processor II and powered by LA amplified controllers. Two pairs of KS28 subwoofers were available on demand, as well as serving duty for two left/right stacks consisting of four K3 line array modules each.
The two demo sessions, each running for about two hours, were attended by a total of around 120 audio professionals representing local consultants, system integrators, venues such as performing arts, entertainment, education and houses of worship, as well as rental system providers.
Strong support was given by the entire team of L-Acoustics APAC, who had opened office in Singapore only a few months before and who, after an introduction by CST’s director and co-founder Jimmy Lim, took over all following presentations.
Early on, both L-Acoustics APAC CEO Tim Zhou, who introduced his team, as well as sales director, David Cooper expressed their gratitude for the progress of normalisation in spite of Covid-19 – as Cooper put it, “it’s amazing to be back in a room full of people after a quite tough two years for all of us.”
“While overall global revenue was greatly impacted in 2020 and 2021,” Cooper continued, “for the Asia-Pacific market, sales remained almost exactly the same as in 2019 because our installation business in the region grew during the pandemic.” And he had more encouraging words: “Live entertainment is definitely back. The industry in America and Europe is recovering quickly, and it's definitely coming your way very soon, too.”
Describing L-Acoustics’ outlook, Cooper added: “Our sales as of the first quarter plus order backlog are already exceeding the best ever year in our history. We knew 2022 is going to be a big year for L-Acoustics globally, and so we hired around 150 additional people since July last year to meet the expected increase in demand. By mid of 2022, we will have doubled our production capacity from last year.”
Prestigious projects around the globe helped the French brand through 2021, Cooper reported before Alvin Koh, L-Acoustics APAC application project director, elaborated on two large-scale examples: the Al Wasl Dome at Expo 2020 in Dubai with several hundreds of loudspeakers, and the YouTube Theatre at Resort World in Las Vegas with an L-ISA Processor II and 98 K2, 24 KARA II, 16 KS28 and almost 80 A Series and 5XT enclosures.
Given the opportunity of this event, L-Acoustics APAC application project engineer Damien Juhasz took to the stage to explain the newest member of the K Series, the K3, and to make them heard with some demo tracks, fullrange as well as with KS28 subwoofers.
Greg Henderson, like Juhasz L-Acoustics APAC application project engineer who had come from Australia for the event, then went on to introduce L-ISA. Features, processing and performance parameters, workflow, hardware and software product family members, the turnkey approach as well as integration with mixing consoles, AoIP and tracking systems were explained. Under the motto “what you hear is what you see”, Henderson played sound and video tracks demonstrating for both of what L-Acoustics is naming “Hyperreal Sound” (frontal system only) and “Immersive Hyperreal Sound” (frontal system with surround and, where present, overhead complement), highlighting improved experience for spectators of stage performances, live entertainment and concerts, places of worship, exhibitions and museums. Cooper said: “The future is very bright for immersive audio, we believe it is the future, and we are investing a lot of our expertise and time into L-ISA technology.”
Henderson used his stage appearance to demonstrate real-time source localisation thanks to integration with a Zactrack system, provided on-site by local distributor, Total Solution Marketing. In his closing words, L-Acoustics APAC CEO Tim Zhou sent a strong message in reply to the ever-recurring question since the APAC office had opened in Singapore: “Is L-Acoustics selling direct?”
“I believe in the pro audio industry everyone has their own roles and responsibilities, and partnership is critical,” Zhou said. “We as a manufacturer need to focus on making the best products and providing future-proof technologies, while distributors are responsible for helping us to bring these products to our customers, to do installations, to service them. With these different responsibilities, for us the answer is very clear: we value our distributors and all of you as our partners, and your work, so in APAC we will not go direct.”
“Think globally, act locally,” he continued. “You'll be seeing more Asian people in our team, more Asian elements in our strategy, here locally in Singapore and across the APAC region.”