Summary:

• Disney’s 2026 Upfront at the North Javits Center seamlessly integrated four distinct formats—corporate presentations, live ESPN broadcast segments, cinema trailers, and a full Olivia Rodrigo concert—while overcoming the tall, hard-surfaced room's severe reverberance issues to ensure speech intelligibility across every seat.
• To meet the demand for movie-theater audio quality and precise speech PA, production partner NMR Events deployed the first full-surround L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal system at a Disney Upfront, utilizing seven Kara II Scene arrays, flown KS28 subwoofers, surround layers, and an L-ISA Processor II.
• By localizing audio sources—such as placing the ESPN broadcast audio directly over its physical desk house left and centralizing spoken vocals—L-ISA eliminated competing delay times and phase interference, directly solving the venue's acoustic challenges and establishing a benchmark for future immersive show designs.

Disney’s Upfront is not one single show. Whether it was the new CEO, ESPN coverage, cinematic trailers, or live music, the North Javits Center required movie-theater sound quality for the content and a speech PA intelligible in every seat. A full-surround L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal system provided just that.

The 2026 edition, staged on May 12, opened with Anne Hathaway introducing new CEO Josh D’Amaro, ran an ESPN college football desk live from house left, played film and series trailers at cinema level, put more than 100 names on stage across entertainment, sports, streaming and film, and closed with Olivia Rodrigo playing a full musical set. A corporate presentation, a broadcast segment, a trailer reel and a concert, back to back, in the same room and on the same system.

[Flame On! Disney's Space Mountain Becomes Projection-Mapped Canvas]

Holding all of that together on one system was only half the job. The room was the other half, and the harder one. The North Javits space is wide, tall and hard-surfaced, and reverberance is the obstacle every Upfront team meets there—particularly for speech intelligibility, which a presentation of this kind lives or dies on. “We’ve done some dampening there in the past, but it’s still very difficult,” said Nick Sarlo, head of audio at NMR Events, the production company that supplied and ran the event’s audio.

NMR Events’ designed, with support from the L-Acoustics Application team, the full-surround L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal system. It is the first L-ISA system deployed at a Disney Upfront. The design gave every style of content the same spatial treatment. “We were able to make people’s eyes and ears connect here,” said Bob McGlinchey, NMR Events’ lead audio design engineer.

The design started from the shape of the room. Stereo across a stage that wide means repeating left and right along the front, which flattens the image and leaves the audience with no sense of where anything is. L-Acoustics global application lead, spatial systems Oscar Sturup proposed a very wide frontal L-ISA configuration instead, so that any source could be placed where it belonged on stage.

That paid off most visibly on the ESPN segment. With the college football desk set up house left, the broadcast audio was placed house left too, and it reached the room from where the presenters were actually sitting. For the trailers, flying the subwoofers centrally beneath the center Scene hang kept the low end time-aligned to the stage, so cinematic content landed evenly across the hall rather than in pockets.

Drawn from NMR Events’ L-Acoustics inventory, the L-ISA Scene system comprised seven arrays of eight Kara II flown across the wide stage, with Extension arrays of eight Kara II to the far left and right of them. Low frequency came from two centrally flown adjacent hangs of four KS28 each in cardioid configuration, paired with three more KS28 in a line in front of center stage below.

Out-fill arrays of eight Kara II per side were flown between the Scene and Extension systems, with smaller arrays of six Kara II out in the room for far left- and right-side delay. The surround layer comprised six rear arrays of six Kara II. Eleven coaxial X8 in an arc along the lip of the main stage carried spatialized front-fill, with six more X8, three per side outboard of them, as mono front-fills. LA12X amplified controllers powered the system, with a pair of LA7.16 driving the spatialized front-fills, while an L-ISA Processor II handled the object-based mix.

An Upfront sits between genres. It is part corporate presentation, part product launch, part broadcast, part theater, and this year part concert, and the audio has to carry all of it without the room appearing to change character. Adrian D. Rivas, brought in by NMR Events as L-ISA systems engineer, set out to let the audience have the most organic immersive experience possible across the whole running order.

Part of that was fidelity to the source. Content mixed in 5.1 for cinema or broadcast was played back in the room in 5.1 rather than folded down. “With L-ISA, from an audio perspective, we were able to faithfully reproduce and present that original content to the audience in the room the way it was intended to be heard,” Rivas said.

The rest was consistency of seat. Wherever an audience member sat, the intent was a fifth-row-center experience, with every element still arriving from where it sat on stage. “The audience absolutely had an experience that sounded more natural, specifically because of how the system was designed,” Rivas said. “But there were also times that, because of the style of production we were trying to achieve, I feel we exceeded just immersive sound, and really made it an immersive moment.”

Quick view:

• The Cincinnati Open—the oldest professional tennis tournament in the US—underwent a massive campus transformation, doubling its footprint to feature 10 match courts, 21 practice courts, five new buildings, and 54 total zones to establish a world-class, year-round sports facility.
• Integrator Industrial Communication & Sound (ICS) designed and deployed a massive Dante-based network audio system under an extremely tight deadline.
• ICS utilized IoT and Dante-enabled LEA Connect Series amplifiers and LEA's SharkWare/Cloud management software, allowing space-saving rack integration, remote cloud monitoring, and flexible, high-performance audio routing across every zone on the property.

Held annually since 1899, the Cincinnati Open is the longest-running professional tennis tournament in the United States. It recently launched a massive $250 million campus transformation—which included a new LEA Professional-backed sound system—that has doubled the facility’s footprint by adding new courts, hospitality spaces, public gathering areas, indoor facilities, and year-round attractions designed to secure the tournament’s future in Cincinnati for decades to come.

[Cosm: Take Me Into the Ballgame]

The expanded campus required a fully integrated network-based audio platform spanning 10 match courts, 21 practice courts, five new buildings, multiple renovated facilities, and updated common areas. The system needed to support match court audio, site-wide paging, indoor and outdoor background music, broadcast audio distribution, Hawk-Eye officiating system integration, emergency paging, pre-recorded messaging, zoned and all-call communications, and centralized system-wide control. Beyond monitoring the system from a single location, the venue’s AV team required complete control over volume and routing for each zone across the property.

With a long history of providing ongoing AV support to the venue, venue staff contacted Industrial Communication & Sound (ICS) to design the new audio system. Compounding the challenge was the compressed timeline. The ICS integration team had about 60 days to design the changes and approximately five months to complete installation, testing, balancing, programming, and troubleshooting before the start of the tournament. To achieve all the client’s requirements, the design team collaborated to recommend a Dante-based audio ecosystem powered by LEA Professional amplifiers.

“We started using LEA amplifiers about five years ago, and we haven't looked back,” said Carl Heck, business development specialist at ICS. “We knew they’d be an ideal platform for a world-class tournament environment, given their product catalog, combined with their competitive pricing and robust long-term reliability.”

ICS installed a range of Dante-enabled LEA Connect Series amplifiers to support the diverse needs of the 54 zones within the tennis complex, including the Connect Series 84D, Connect Series 164D, Connect Series 168D, Connect Series 352D, Connect Series 354D, Connect Series 702D, Connect Series 704D, and Connect Series 1504D amplifiers.

ICS’s technical team used LEA’s free SharkWare software to configure a base profile and push it to all pre-staged LEA amplifiers. SharkWare—which includes amplifier grouping, offline design, granular user access control levels, locked speaker tunings, and a graphical EQ—allows users to monitor the status of every amplifier connected to the network, as well as the status and performance of individual channels. In addition, with LEA Cloud a part of the Connect Series, AV integrators like ICS can remotely control and monitor amplifiers from anywhere.

LEA’s compact single-rack-space amplifier designs enabled ICS’s team to maximize available infrastructure space by integrating equipment directly into existing switch racks, eliminating the need for large, dedicated amplifier racks. The resulting infrastructure allowed virtually any audio source to be routed to any zone throughout the facility. Multiple locations were also equipped to integrate live music directly into the Dante network for localized or zoned distribution as needed.

With year-round programming and a significantly enhanced fan experience, the facility has evolved into a multi-purpose sports and entertainment destination designed to maximize long-term return on investment while reinforcing Cincinnati’s role on the global tennis stage.

“By all accounts from the attendee experience, the player experience, and media response, the Cincinnati Open is now widely considered one of the premier tennis facilities in the world,” said Heck. “That’s definitely in part thanks to LEA amplifiers. We can’t say enough good things about them.”

Quick view:

• St. Jude’s Catholic Church in Southern California upgraded its 20-year-old sound system to deliver consistent clarity and coverage for its 5,000–6,000 parishioners with four Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) AC6 ADAPTIve column loudspeakers (forming dual 7-foot arrays) and two 18-inch subwoofers.
• The previous system relied on a center speaker cluster that obstructed a stained-glass window.
• Using EAW's Resolution software, engineers fine-tuned coverage patterns in real-time to mitigate unwanted glass reflections, ensuring uniform sound quality throughout every seat in the sanctuary.

When St. Jude’s Catholic Church in Southern California set out to modernize its aging audio system, the parish leadership knew the upgrade needed to deliver clarity, consistency and long‑term reliability for its 5,000–6,000 parishioners. To achieve this, they turned to DayTech Consulting, led by owner and operator Andrew Day and audio engineer Brian Stanley, who partnered with Rat Sound Systems, EAW’s dealer for the region. Together, they designed and installed a transformative new system anchored by Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) AC6 ADAPTive column loudspeakers.

[EAW Sings High Praise at Freedom Church’s New Worship Space]

For Day, the choice was clear. “The AC6 with its ADAPTive technology delivers. It’s not a secret sauce; it’s real engineering that you can rely on,” he said. “We could tell that during commissioning, when we made even tiny adjustments in the software, you could instantly hear the difference.”

St. Jude’s previous system, four loudspeakers and two large subs, had served the parish for more than two decades. But the center cluster obstructed a stained‑glass window, coverage was inconsistent and the system lacked the precision needed for today’s worship environments.

The new EAW‑based design centers on four AC6 ADAPTive column loudspeakers, two per side, forming dual seven‑foot arrays with a compact 12x12-inch footprint. These are supported by a pair of EAW 18‑inch subwoofers, one on each side, positioned just outside the AC6 arrays to provide balanced low‑frequency reinforcement.

The AC6’s compact footprint and ADAPTive coverage control allowed DayTech and Rat Sound to eliminate the center cluster entirely, preserving the church’s architecture and highlighting its stained-glass window, while improving coverage. “They wanted that center cluster gone,” Day explained. “To do that, we had to bring the speakers in a bit and find the right compromise. But once they were up, the results spoke for themselves.”

One of the most striking outcomes was the improvement in coverage uniformity. “Brian was walking around with an iPad tuning the room," Day recalled a moment during the first full Sunday Mass after commissioning. "We were sitting in the back corner, which originally was one of the worst seats in the house. He leaned over and said, ‘Wow, this is a really good seat.’”

“It now sounds the same, no matter where you choose to sit in the room,” adds Stanley. There is not a bad seat anywhere.”

During commissioning, EAW’s Resolution software was used to make micro‑adjustments to the system’s coverage pattern. At one point, reflections from a rear glass window were causing unwanted energy in the space. “He snapped a line in the software and lowered it less than a foot,” Day says. “We could hear the difference instantly.”

Beyond sound quality, long‑term serviceability was a major factor in choosing EAW. The AC6’s modular design allows the system to continue operating even if one module fails. “One of the biggest selling points was that if one module goes down, the other two make up for it,” Day noted. “You can keep going and not have to take the system down immediately.”

Parishioners have commented on the clarity, musicians are more confident and the music director reports a noticeable reduction in stress. The success of the installation has sparked new ideas for how the church can use the space. “They want to do jazz quartets, special performances, etc. They want to kick the tires on the system,” Day concluded. “When you have singers who can take the roof off the place, it’s great to finally have a system that lets them shine.”

Quick view:

• To enhance the match-day atmosphere at the 10,600-capacity SMH Group Stadium, Chesterfield FC replaced their original 2010 audio setup with a high-performance system designed to deliver crystal-clear emergency announcements, foreground music, and tailored area paging.
• Audio integrator TG Baker designed and installed 26 all-weather JBL AWC159 loudspeakers powered via a 100V battery-backed system, providing high reliability, speech clarity, and seamless operation without needing an external UPS.
• The upgrade significantly elevates the match-day experience, with club director Ashley Kirk confirming that the new system successfully creates the vibrant, premium atmosphere expected by Spireites supporters.

The SMH Group Stadium located in Whittington Moor, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, is the home of Chesterfield Football Club. A 10,600-capacity all-seater venue, it was completed in 2010 to replace the club’s historic Saltergate ground which had been in use since 1871. The Club’s owners are committed to strong investment in the club’s infrastructure in order to provide fans with a premium match-day experience, and recently took the decision to upgrade the Stadium’s audio with a JBL sound system.

[Tackling a New HQ]

Established for more than fifty years, TG Baker has a wealth of experience in the field of public address and voice alarm systems, having completed many similar scale stadium projects across the U.K., and was engaged to design, supply, and install a new system which would meet every requirement and expectation of the modern football experience including emergency public address communications, enhanced match-day entertainment audio in the stadium bowl, flexible audio routing and control, foreground music, and paging announcements to individual areas.

To meet the Club’s requirements and provide high quality and reliable audio content to every seat in the Stadium, the TG Baker team designed and installed a JBL system, based on the IP-56 rated AWC159, all-weather compact 2-way coaxial 15-inch loudspeaker. TG Baker installed a total of 26 JBL AWC159 units, with eight each in the East and West stands and five each in the North and South stands. JBL systems are distributed in the U.K. by Live Technology.

“We’ve completed numerous highly successful stadium installations with the JBL AWC159," said Barry Paterson, managing director at TG Baker. "It has excellent clarity for speech and music, and we’ve found that using 100V loudspeakers has advantages including cable length, monitoring and reliability. In addition to this, the loudspeakers can be powered from the battery backed PAVA system amplifiers, negating the requirement for high voltage power amplifiers which would require a separate UPS.”

“It had been an issue for some time that the PA system we had wasn’t up to scratch," director Ashley Kirk added. "It was something close to my heart and something that fans had repeatedly raised. We want to create a great atmosphere in the build-up and during games, and the PA and music is a big part of that. TG Baker has done a great job of the installation and the new system has made a huge improvement to the match-day experience at the SMH Group Stadium.”

For decades, the practice of designing and deploying professional sound systems was largely an exercise in experience and sometimes luck. It was common to hang the loudspeakers where you thought they would work best, then plug them in, and see how well the sound actually traveled. Since expectations have a way of not living up to reality, this approach resulted in a lot of extra work for sound designers and installers alike.

Today, thanks to audio mapping software, this grueling task is a thing of the past. Audio mapping software is a predictive 3D simulation tool that lets you test out loudspeaker placements and performance without actually having to move them.

Instead, you position specific speakers in a virtual space and test their performance using the software's mapping capabilities. The result: By the time it comes to physically install the speakers, the best locations and performance targets have already been determined.

That being said, these tools do not replace the seasoned acoustic engineer; rather, they give these professionals a superpower—the ability to see the invisible behavior of a room.

"At its core, it's predictive modeling for sound," explained Ryan John, director of product management, software, for L-Acoustics, which offers the Soundvision 3D simulation and sound system design platform. "Instead of guessing how a room will behave, or finding problems on load-in day, Soundvision allows you to see hot spots, gaps, and delay issues on screen and fix them before anyone touches a cable."

Trading Guesswork for Data

When a lighting engineer sets up lights, they can put them in place, turn them on, and see where the light actually goes. But this isn't true for sound engineers. They can put the speakers in place, but they can't see the sound waves they are trying to control.

"Sound is subjective and mostly invisible other than visual clues such as ripples on a T-shirt while standing near a subwoofer," noted Rudd Lance, d&b audiotechnik's advanced systems specialist for immersive systems, whose ArrayCalc software handles precise SPL and localization mapping. "Without being able to predict what a system is going to do, the result would be days of putting loudspeakers in place only to measure them and change the deployment time and time again."

The fundamental beauty of audio mapping software is that it makes sound waves visible, at least on a computer screen. Not only does this approach save time and frustration, but it also saves money because deployments can be completed more quickly and effectively.

"Rather than relying on assumptions or extensive on-site adjustments, designers can model a venue in 3D, place loudspeakers, evaluate coverage, and verify mechanical configurations in a virtual environment," said George Georgallis, product management for performance audio, HARMAN Professional Solutions. "This gives designers a detailed understanding of how a system is expected to perform before any equipment is deployed." HARMAN produces JBL Venue Synthesis, a comprehensive 3D acoustic simulation and mechanical analysis tool.

By using audio mapping and predictive data, integrators no longer have to ask clients to simply trust their expertise.

"Decisions stop being about how many speakers do we think we need and start being about what do we need to achieve our design goals for this event," John said. "It also allows integrators and consultants to defend their design to a client with data instead of opinion, which changes the whole buying conversation. Nobody wants to over-spec a system just to be safe, and nobody wants a callback because a section came in six dB hot or cold."

Being able to provide this form of visual proof to a client is a significant improvement over using traditional spec sheets. Andy Davies, Meyer Sound's senior director of product management—the team behind the MAPP 3D high-resolution audio prediction tool—emphasized this point. "The data in MAPP 3D provides far more information than any datasheet ever could," he said, "providing a visual representation of the output of a loudspeaker, helping users understand which products are the right functional fit for any given application."

Virtual Limits

Audio mapping software is not a magic wand, and it operates on a strict "garbage in, garbage out" principle. In plain language, a digital map cannot fix poor input data, nor can it entirely replace the critical listening skills of an experienced engineer.

"A simulation is only as good as the accuracy of the model you build, and the assumptions in the room acoustics—reflections, absorption, HVAC noise, and audience attenuation—are genuinely hard to capture with precision, especially in complex or unusual architecture," John cautioned. "I always tell people to treat the map as your design foundation, not your final QC."

Also, no matter how good the audio mapping software may be, the physical environment has the last word in this discussion. "While the software provides an excellent representation of direct sound, room acoustics and environmental conditions can still influence the final system performance," Georgallis told SCN. "Ultimately, room acoustics and tuning the system on site remain essential parts of achieving the best possible performance."

One area where audio mapping software is an absolute must is immersive environments. Trying to execute these installations by ear alone is practically impossible. "Considering the cost of equipment and the amount of time required to complete a proper installation, I believe it is imperative that audio mapping be employed when designing any immersive audio space," said Lance.

Conversely, budget-sized installations in schools and municipal buildings also benefit significantly from audio mapping. Because these projects don't have the funds to absorb costly errors, integrators have to get the design right the first time. "These projects may not always involve large-scale systems, but acoustic modeling can still help designers make better decisions, avoid unnecessary costs, and deliver a more consistent listening experience," Georgallis added.

The Next Frontier

The science of audio mapping is already well established, so the future of this software is less about tweaking basic algorithms and more about improving workflow efficiency, supporting smart automation, and working in collaborative cloud environments. Software developers are focusing on making these tools more accessible to a wider range of stakeholders.

Davies noted that Meyer Sound is launching Aperture, an add-on visualization tool "aimed at giving system designers enhanced tools to share designs, enabling presentation options and graphic resources from a simple, online tool." L-Acoustics has offered a similar capability for the past year through Soundvision Connect, a browser-based companion that lets architects, consultants, and clients step into the same 3D model and SPL data without opening the software themselves.

Manufacturers are also using automation to strip away the most tedious, repetitive technical tasks. "As sound systems become more sophisticated, processes such as delay optimization for full-range systems and Electronic Design Synthesis [EDS] for large subwoofer arrays can become both time-consuming and technically challenging," explained Georgallis. "By automating these calculations, Venue Synthesis allows engineers to spend less time on repetitive optimization tasks and more time evaluating and refining the overall system design."

Ultimately, the future of Pro AV design is collaborative, interconnected, and increasingly intelligent. The goal is to get architects, consultants, and clients "into the same 3D data in real time, so decisions happen faster and with everyone aligned," said John. He added that machine learning will soon sharpen these tools by analyzing real-world measurement data over time.

In the end, audio mapping has fundamentally transformed how sound systems are conceived and delivered. In an industry where time is money and precision is paramount, turning guesswork into a guaranteed result is the ultimate payoff.

Quick view:

• Sacramento Production Services overhauled Sutter Health Park's wireless audio system to handle the increased RF congestion and demands brought on by Major League Baseball broadcasts during the Athletics' residency.
• The new system utilizes 10 Wisycom antennas—including MAT244 RF combiners, LFA wideband antennas, ADFA active directional antennas, and BFL antenna-over-fiber links—placed strategically across the outfield, home side stands, roof, and concourse to ensure complete stadium coverage.
• The fiber-based RF architecture resolved severe previous issues with signal dropouts, dense crowd congestion, concrete pillar interference, and long-distance coverage.

Sacramento Production Services has completed a major wireless audio overhaul at Sutter Health Park, current home of the Athletics (A’s) professional baseball team during its three‑year residency in Sacramento. By deploying a Wisycom antenna and fiber‑based RF distribution system, day‑to‑day operations have fundamentally changed for the stadium’s production team. The upgrade, driven by the arrival of Major League Baseball (MLB) broadcasts and the increased RF congestion that accompanies national media, replaced the park’s previous wireless setup with a fully integrated Wisycom solution designed for reliability, coverage, and remote management across the entire facility.

[Take Me Into the Ballgame]

The installation features a full suite of Wisycom RF components, including the brand’s MAT244 RF combiners, LFA wideband antennas, and ADFA active directional antennas, as well as BFL-T2 and BFL-R2 antenna‑over‑fiber links. In total, 10 Wisycom antennas now cover Sutter Health Park, including four antennas deployed in the outfield via fiber and six others positioned in three pairs across the home side stands, roof and concourse.

“This was game‑changing for us,” said Anthony Brown, project manager for Sacramento Production Services. “We have wanted tools like this for years, and suddenly the technology caught up. The fact that the antennas have telemetry, remote control capabilities, and built-in fiber links is excellent; it’s all just there, ready to go.”

Before the upgrade, the stadium’s minor‑league‑era wireless system struggled under the demands of professional-caliber broadcasts. Numerous frequency scans, dropouts and unpredictable RF behavior were the norm, especially in the concourse, a notoriously difficult RF environment due to dense crowds and concrete pillars every 24 feet.

“When the A’s came in, it very quickly became clear that the existing wireless frequencies were a pretty bad choice,” added Keith Wackford, sales and production manager at Sacramento Production Services. “Minor league games never had the RF congestion that major league broadcasts bring. Things looked fine in rehearsal, but come game time, everything changed.”

The outfield was an even bigger challenge. “They told us, ‘We want our wireless microphones to work in the outfield,’ ” Wackford noted. “That’s about 460 feet from the nearest antenna. Without fiber, it would’ve been impossible.”

One of the most impactful features has been Wisycom’s remote antenna control and filtering. “With the Wisycom antennas, we were able to narrow the bandwidth and lower the noise floor,” adds Brown. “That made the system bulletproof.”

For Brian Webber, who led deployment and configuration, the networking capabilities were a revelation. “The system is rock-solid all the way around the park. The coolest part is the networking. It blew my mind how easy it is to remotely manage all the antennas.”

The result is a wireless system that simply works. “We went from wireless being a problem every other day to it not being an issue at all,” concluded Brown. “Producers and talent can move freely throughout the park, do interviews anywhere and focus on the production instead of the RF.”

Summary:

• Built as the new home of the Salt Lake Bees in South Jordan, Utah, The Ballpark at America First Square features a complete, integrated AV ecosystem by OneRevel engineered to seamlessly support concerts, movies, and community events alongside Triple-A baseball.
• To deliver consistent sound across suites, concourses, and outdoor gathering spaces without bulk, OneRevel utilized Powersoft's UNICA amplifier platform, providing high power density in compact rack spaces, native Dante networking, and integrated DSP optimization for Fulcrum Acoustics speakers.
• The audio infrastructure allows centralized monitoring via Powersoft's Armonía software and offers ongoing flexibility to refine sound coverage and comply with local ordinances as surrounding commercial and residential developments grow around the venue.

The Ballpark at America First Square is the new home of the Salt Lake Bees, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels. Opened in 2025 in South Jordan, UT, the venue was designed to support Minor League Baseball alongside concerts, community events and other year-round programming. OneRevel selected Powersoft’s UNICA to support the venue's distributed system architecture across a wide range of event types designed for flexibility as much as performance.

[Friday Night Lights, Camera, Action!]

"What made this project unique was that we weren't just designing for baseball," said Shay Taylor, chief operations officer for OneRevel. "The vision from the beginning was to create a venue that could host concerts, movies in the park, and community events alongside baseball. That meant every technology decision had to support a much broader range of experiences."

The Ballpark at America First Square was one of OneRevel's first baseball venues where it provided the complete technology solution. Delivering audio, LED displays, and digital signage under a single integration strategy allowed the team to coordinate system design across every aspect of the guest experience.

The audio design presented its own set of challenges. Unlike many ballparks where sound reinforcement primarily focuses on the seating bowl, the new venue required consistent coverage throughout suites, concourses, concession areas and outdoor gathering spaces. Because the facility was designed to host year-round programming beyond baseball, the system also needed to support live performances, movies and public events without requiring significant reconfiguration.

The venue's long-term operating environment added another layer of complexity. As residential and commercial development continues around the stadium, the system must accommodate changing acoustical conditions while complying with local sound ordinances and neighborhood considerations.

Meeting those requirements required an amplification platform capable of delivering high output while remaining flexible enough to support a distributed system architecture. Powersoft's UNICA amplifier platform served as the foundation of the audio system, citing its combination of power density, network integration, and compatibility with Fulcrum Acoustics loudspeakers.

"The entire project was built around the UNICA platform," said Taylor. "The power-to-size ratio was a major factor because much of the stadium is served from centralized equipment racks. We needed a platform that delivered significant output while minimizing rack space."

While portions of the stadium are supported from centralized equipment rooms, distributed rack locations throughout the facility required seamless networking and reliable control. Powersoft's Dante integration and onboard processing allowed OneRevel to maintain system performance while simplifying management across multiple equipment locations.

"Reliability was another major consideration," Taylor said. "If power is interrupted, we don't lose our control or DSP settings. Having that level of stability is extremely important for a venue that's expected to operate continuously."

Beyond the hardware itself, Powersoft's Armonía software simplified system management across more than 20 amplifiers deployed throughout the venue. "When you're managing a system of this size, having everything visible in one platform makes a tremendous difference," explained Taylor. "Instead of moving between multiple applications, we can monitor and manage the entire system from a single interface."

Since opening in 2025, The Ballpark at America First Square has expanded beyond a baseball venue, hosting community celebrations, themed events and other public programming alongside the Salt Lake Bees' season. According to OneRevel, the flexibility designed into the audiovisual system has allowed the venue to support that broader mission without compromising performance.

"The feedback has been incredible," noted Taylor. "People walk into the venue expecting a Triple-A ballpark and leave feeling like they've experienced a Major League facility. That's exactly what the client wanted to achieve."

Summary:

• The Box at Trilith LIVE installed a d&b audiotechnik Soundscape 180-degree spatial audio system powered by SL-Series, A-Series arrays, and the DS100 Signal Engine, using En-Scene object positioning and En-Space room emulation to maintain exceptional speech intelligibility, high clarity, and natural spatial perception without overwhelming the intimate room.
• The 2,200-seat, three-tiered venue wraps the audience up to 180 degrees around a thrust stage.
• Visiting sound engineers can supply standard Left/Right console mixes without needing specialized training in spatial audio.

Trilith LIVE, a premier entertainment complex within the visionary Town at Trilith in Fayetteville, GA, has completed a landmark acoustics and audiovisual installation at its crown-jewel venue, The Box. With architectural Acoustics and Audio-Video systems designed by Threshold Acoustics and AV integrated by 3G Productions, the multi-purpose theater features a comprehensive d&b audiotechnik Soundscape 180-degree system. Combining SL-Series line array loudspeakers and subwoofers, A-Series augmented arrays, and the DS100 Signal Engine running both En-Scene and En-Space software, the system delivers an incredibly pristine, intimate auditory experience that effortlessly adapts from high-energy rock shows to spoken word conferences and weekly worship services.

[MORE IMMERSION IN ATLANTA: Cosm: Take Me Into the Ballgame]

The Box was inspired by Austin's legendary Moody Theater. The intimate, three-tier 2,200-seat venue features a stage thrust wrapping audience members 180 degrees, ensuring no seat is further than 75 feet away. To serve its diverse programming and primary Sunday tenant, Passion City Church, Trilith Live required a highly versatile, rider-friendly sound solution.

"We wanted to ensure that no matter where you sit, your experience is at the highest level," said Matt McClain, general manager and executive director of Trilith LIVE. "d&b audiotechnik stood out as the right provider. They are highly respected, and having this caliber of gear immediately puts touring engineers at ease."

Threshold's scope spanned the room itself and the systems within it to shape the theater's acoustics alongside the audio, video, and control infrastructure. To achieve complete coverage without overpowering the intimate room, the team specified a d&b Soundscape system. En-Scene object-based positioning aligns what the eyes see with what the ears hear, while En-Space room emulation adds natural sounding acoustics.

"The request for clarity and intimacy stretched from concerts to worship," said Maddie Daily, principal consultant at Threshold Acoustics. "Soundscape offers robust coverage regardless of SPL and we optimized the space using room mics fed through En-Space so congregants and audience members can hear each other singing along, fostering a community-oriented energy.“ Because Soundscape systems are producing audio from multiple loudspeakers simultaneously using both level and delay, the perception of loudness is very high while the measured SPL is lower than a traditional system.

Daily also noted that the system's exceptional broadband directivity control also helps mitigate reflections in the untreated theater, resulting in improved musical clarity and speech intelligibility for the listening audience.

The venue's physical versatility added further complexity. The Box features multiple mechanical stage lifts that transition from a proscenium stage to various thrust layouts allowing the venue to transition into a variety of configurations. Because these shifts alter the performance boundaries, front fills are built directly into the lifts. To address this, Threshold developed 15 distinct ArrayCalc files to map out coverage, allowing the staff to instantly reconfigure the PA profile via presets in d&b R1 Remote control software. The same flexibility guided the venue's video and control design, so a single room can serve a touring concert, a film screening, a corporate general session, or a Sunday service without reconfiguration becoming a production in itself.

"The nice thing about Soundscape is that visiting engineers don't need a crash course in spatial mixing," explained Jerrod Cring, director of integration at 3G Productions. "They can easily feed a standard left-right mix on the front end, and the DS100 processor handles the Soundscape distribution seamlessly so acts immediately get perfect, even coverage. The ultimate compliment is when a major touring act rolls up with five trucks of gear, and all of their P.A. equipment stays on the trucks. That’s one of the benefits of choosing d&b audiotechnik.”

The most important input in any room is usually the hardest one to protect. A pastor steps onto a platform while the band is still playing. A presenter closes a session over a musical tag. A vocalist works the front of a stage, a few feet from a loudspeaker that is already running hot.

In every one of those moments, the microphone is doing exactly what we asked it to do, and exactly what we wish it wouldn't: Capture the person and everything around them. Stage bleed, PA spill, room reflections, crowd noise, the scrape of a headset against a collar. The engineer needs more level. The room says no.

For most of my career as a front-of-house engineer, the answer to that problem was a collection of compromises. EQ notching to pull down the frequencies most likely to ring. Gating and expansion to shut the microphone when no one was talking. Careful mic selection, disciplined stage volume, and a whole lot of fader-riding.

Each of those tools works a little bit, and each of them costs something, usually a piece of the voice you were trying to protect in the first place. Our technology, Source Intelligence, changes that, because we approached the problem differently.

The Threshold Problem

To understand why this is different, it helps to look at how conventional noise control actually behaves. The majority of voice noise reduction tools in live sound are built around a threshold. When the signal sits above the threshold, it passes; when it falls below, it is reduced.

That logic works cleanly when the only thing in front of the microphone is the speaker or singer. It breaks down the moment the environment gets loud, because crowd wash or a drum kit next to a singer crosses the same threshold the voice does. When the voice is open, the noise rides through with it. An engineer ends up chasing the threshold all night: one setting for the quiet verse, another for the loud chorus, another for the moment the room erupts.

That is the limitation Source Intelligence is built to address. Rather than deciding whether to open or close a channel, machine learning source separation identifies the voice within the signal and reduces what is not voice—and it keeps reducing the non-voice content while the voice is active. That is the meaningful distinction. The drums next to the vocal mic stay suppressed even as the singer is singing. There is no threshold to set and nothing to chase as the show evolves.

This is not the same thing as feedback suppression, and it is worth keeping the terms straight for spec purposes. Feedback tools target the ring. Source separation targets the entire field of unwanted sound around the voice: bleed, spill, ambience, handling noise, and reflections. The reduction in feedback risk is a consequence of a cleaner source, not the mechanism itself.

What 'Cleaner' Buys an Integrator

The number people latch onto with Source Intelligence is 40 dB … of non-voice content removed from a speech or vocal microphone. I would gently steer integrators away from fixating on that figure, because the ceiling is rarely the point.

In a real room, the win is often a handful of extra decibels of gain before feedback on a spoken word channel—the difference between a presenter sitting comfortably in the system and an operator feeling like the mic is living on the edge.

At North Point Community Church in Atlanta, the team described needing only a little more margin on the speech bus, and finding that the extra dB or two was exactly what closed the gap. Modest on paper, decisive in the room.

The second benefit matters more for installed systems than people expect: what happens when you clean up several open microphones at once. Four vocal mics in front of a live drum kit each carry some bleed, and collectively that bleed reshapes the mix. Remove it from all four and the result is a markedly cleaner mix with the tonal character of the voices intact, but more importantly, notably higher intelligibility. That transparency precision and clarity is the property installers should test for first.

For show-critical and install work, the platform question is as important as the audio. Source Intelligence runs as a licensed application on a dedicated, closed audio processor rather than on a general purpose computer exposed to the internet, automatic updates, and software conflicts.

For an integrator that has to warranty uptime, that distinction is a practical maintenance and reliability decision. It also means the same processing can be deployed across mono, stereo, distributed, or immersive configurations. It's not tied to any one room geometry.

What It Is Not

Latency is the other gating spec. Machine learning inference has historically traded latency for quality, which is acceptable in a studio and disqualifying on a live stage, where the tolerance is measured in single-digit milliseconds before performers perceive a disconnect. Total input-to-output latency for Source Intelligence, including conversion and processing, is under 8.5 ms. We treated that figure as a fixed ceiling: Every improvement to the model had to stay under it before we would ship it.

Here is the honest part. We spent more than 18 months testing this in the field, including on major touring productions for Harry Styles, Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, and Rosalía, before we called it a product. Even so, Source Intelligence works alongside good system design, sound mic technique, appropriate stage volume, trained operators, and acoustic judgment, rather than standing in for any of them.

It is not a rescue for a room that was never tuned. It is a new kind of margin in the moments where margin has always been hardest to find: when someone needs to be heard clearly while the room around them refuses to be quiet.

For most events, the voice carries the message—the information, the emotion, sometimes the entire reason the room is full. Source separation, whatever badge it wears, is finally giving us a way to protect that source without trading away the thing that makes it worth protecting.

d&b audiotechnik has introduced vCore, a new standalone Soundscape software processing engine. Available free of charge, vCore offers a new way to access d&b’s immersive Soundscape solution, enabling preproduction without the need for a physical processing engine. Using the d&b Create.Control software together with a pair of headphones, users can create and experience binaural output that delivers realistic spatial audio wherever they are.

[The SCN Audio Issue Is Available for Download]

“With vCore, the Soundscape ecosystem gains a new tool that allows audio professionals to plan and prelisten to their projects without requiring a physical Soundscape processing engine or a loudspeaker system,” said Robb Allan, head of product management, Soundscape at d&b audiotechnik. “Work can happen anywhere: in the living room, in a cafe, or on a tour bus. All that is needed is the latest version of Create.Control and a pair of headphones.”

vCore supports up to 64 inputs and provides a two-channel binaural rendering that can be experienced via headphones as well as streamed in applications such as webinars and broadcasts. FoH engineers and sound designers can now design and prepare Soundscape shows without requiring a complete system. Integrated within Create.Control v1.4, vCore becomes part of an intuitive workflow, allowing users not only to prepare but also to audition their mixes from their preferred DAW in binaural. This enables a realistic listening experience during preproduction, long before arriving on site.

“Immersive experiences are everywhere and we want to make Soundscape free, easy to use and fun,” concluded Allan. “We want artists, designers and mixers who are interested in creating Soundscape projects to be able to use our technology wherever they are and whatever project they’re working on.”

Quick view:

• The Puerto Rico Capitol grounds was covered using four hangs of dBTechnologies VIO L1610 line arrays—combining main hangs for long-throw distance with out-fill hangs to address wide horizontal coverage.
• During the outdoor event, fluctuating temperature, humidity, wind, and heavy rain altered how high frequencies travel through the air. The team maintained even frequency coverage during a low-pressure weather system by utilizing Aurora Net software to perform real-time adjustments to EQ, delay, and levels directly from front of house.
• System designer Juan Fuentes felt what stood out about VIO is its ability to produce a strong, coherent result across systems of very different sizes.

Led by Puerto Rican evangelist Jorge Raschke, the 53rd edition of Clamor a Dios brought Christian worship music, prayer and messages of faith to the Capitol grounds. Held on the north side of the Puerto Rico Capitol in San Juan, JF Sound deployed a large-format dBTechnologies VIO system to cover a 300-foot-wide outdoor audience area on the Capitol grounds, extending approximately 300 feet in depth from the Capitol steps.

[Listen Up: The SCN Audio Issue Is Available for Download]

Led by system designer and front-of-house engineer Juan Fuentes, the system was built around 24 VIO L1610 three-way line-array modules distributed across four hangs. Two served as the main system, providing the throw required to reach the rear of the audience area, while two additional hangs addressed its considerable width as out-fills. Four of the new VIO L1608 three-way line-array modules provided front-fill coverage for the first rows, supported by eight VIO S218 subwoofers.

On stage, four ultra-compact VIO X206 loudspeakers were flown from the truss as low-profile stage fills, minimizing visual obstruction around the performance area. Four of the latest VIO W12T active coaxial wedges provided stage monitoring. A Yamaha CL5 was used at front of house, with a Yamaha DM7 handling the monitor mixes.

“The site required both distance and considerable horizontal coverage, so we designed the system as four VIO L1610 hangs,” said Fuentes. “The two main arrays carried the program to the rear of the audience area, while the out-fill hangs extended coverage across its full width. The VIO L1608s allowed us to cover the first rows with a compact system that integrated naturally with the larger arrays.”

Changing temperature, humidity, and wind conditions during an outdoor event can affect the way sound travels over distance, particularly at higher frequencies. Throughout the low-pressure weather system and heavy rain, the VIO system-maintained even coverage across the audience area. Aurora Net software provided real-time system monitoring and control of EQ, delay and levels, giving the JF Sound team the ability to respond to changing atmospheric conditions from front of house.

JF Sound has worked with dBTechnologies VIO systems for approximately two years and maintains an extensive inventory spanning the VIO touring portfolio, including VIO L1610 and L1608 line arrays, VIO X206 and X205 point-source systems, VIO subwoofers and VIO stage monitors.

“What stands out to me about VIO is its ability to produce a strong, coherent result across systems of very different sizes,” Fuentes added. “We can combine the different elements of the VIO family to address the venue, the audience area and the requirements on stage while maintaining the same overall sonic character.”

NOW AVAILABLE! AV Technology Manager’s Guide to All Things Audio

24 AV/IT Industry Thought Leaders share insights and trends on audio developments for enterprise, higher ed, live events and other markets. Check out what they said.

AV/IT Team: Meet the team behind the new line array system that recently made its debut at the New York Philharmonic, bringing an elevated acoustic experience to audiences at one of the world’s most storied performing arts institutions.

7 Case Studies Worth a Listen: Exceptional Speech Intelligibility | With Invisible AV, The Focus is On the Fitness | Immersive Portable Studio | Beachfront Destination Gets Luxury Audio Upgrade | Two Solutions, ONE Goal: Accessible Audio for All | Acoustic Tiles Give Everyone A Front-Row Seat | Audio Designed for a Historic Space

31 Products That Resonate: Ceiling and pendant speakers, IPMX-compliant audio monitor, Dante-enabled in-ceiling loudspeaker, digital UHF wireless system, PoE-powered four-channel audio power amplifier, multilingual translations, portable RF-Over-Fiber box, network-based ecosystem, ceiling array microphone, collaboration bar, AV-over-IP platform, active subwoofers, cable connectors, audio control, and so much more!

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Not too long ago, Pro AV and broadcast equipment occupied two separate worlds, defined by very different production goals and budgets. Today, those separate worlds are merging into one.

This convergence is dramatically reshaping the expectations surrounding wireless microphone deployments. Whether outfitting a corporate boardroom, university lecture hall, or major league sports stadium, end users now demand broadcast-tier reliability from all of their wireless mics.

Mark Donovan, director of commercial applications at Audio-Technica U.S., noted that wireless microphones have transitioned from being event-driven tools to becoming core infrastructure in installed AV systems. "Corporate, education, and government environments now expect wireless audio to perform with the same consistency as networked systems," he said.

Unfortunately, delivering pristine, uninterrupted audio via wireless is becoming exponentially more difficult. As the demand for wireless connectivity in Pro AV spaces skyrockets, the spectrum it uses is becoming more crowded. Navigating this increasingly congested RF environment requires a deep understanding of new transmission technologies, rigorous security protocols, spectrum policy, and strict deployment best practices.

More with Less

The most pressing trend affecting the state of wireless microphones today is the severe congestion within licensed frequency bands. The available real estate for wireless audio is disappearing, putting immense pressure on systems integrators to deliver reliable results.

Jens Pilz, Sennheiser’s spectrum policy and standards manager, points to a frustrating disparity between Pro AV and other technology sectors. "Other wireless industries ask for new spectrum with each generation of their technology," he said. "The Pro AV industry is forced to stick to the same spectrum resources—or lose spectrum while other industries gain it, like Digital Dividend 1 and 2 in Europe [when broadcast TV moved from analog to digital, freeing up spectrum] or 600 MHz in the U.S. [the same]."

Consequently, as governments globally reallocate valuable RF spectrum, often to support mobile data, wireless microphone operators are being squeezed into smaller frequency bands. This reallocation makes finding clear frequencies incredibly difficult, said René Moerch, group director of wireless for DPA Microphones and Wisycom. "The ability to find usable spectrum, what I often describe as 'parking spots,' is becoming one of the most critical challenges in Pro AV today," he explained.

Integrators are facing the same spectrum squeeze. “We [have to] find more channels in less space, both physically and in bandwidth loading," said Jason Jacquemain, design engineer for American Sound’s Venue and Entertainment Division. "Refining the quality and agility of systems to cope with more crowded RF environments is a frequent challenge that we must overcome."

According to Donovan, this reduction in available spectrum has forced a shift from convenience to intentional design. "Wireless systems can no longer be deployed casually in professional environments; they require planning, awareness, and a clear understanding of RF tradeoffs," he said. Donovan noted the industry has been driven to greater adoption of alternative frequency bands, recognizing there is no longer a single "best" solution.

Pushing Limits and Technological Shifts

Is there a hard limit to the number of wireless microphones that can be operated in the same space? No one knows for sure.

"There’s no universal number," admitted Ben Escobedo, Shure’s account executive for professional audio. "The limit is determined by available spectrum, system efficiency, regulatory rules, and RF conditions in the specific location. Ten channels might be easy in one room and impossible in another due to outside RF interference."

Lacking access to such a number, the best choice for Pro AV operators is to employ a mix of prudent signal coordination, system choices, and disciplined deployments that don’t use more wireless microphones than necessary. “That’s why planning and testing matter more than channel count on a spec sheet,” Escobedo told SCN. “Performing an RF site survey is essential to ensuring one can deliver the channel count and performance that the user expects."

To maximize channel counts within these tight constraints, manufacturers are focusing heavily on RF efficiency and RF agility. RF efficiency refers to how many channels can be packed into a single channel (typically 6 MHz in the U.S.). RF agility refers to wideband tuning, which allows wireless systems to scan a massive range of frequencies to avoid interference and congested areas.

Thanks to digital’s better spectral efficiency and advanced security features, the wireless microphone industry’s move from analog to digital has made room for more channels. Plus, manufacturers are introducing novel transmission standards to bypass UHF congestion entirely.

For example, Sennheiser is championing both WMAS and DECT NR+. Short for wireless multichannel audio systems, WMAS is a wideband, bidirectional approach that allows wireless microphones and in-ear monitors (IEMs) to operate within the same section of RF spectrum. DECT NR+ uses the 1.9 GHz range—a band largely exclusive to DECT technologies—to support bidirectional communication adapted for higher audio fidelity.

Pilz views WMAS and DECT NR+ as being complementary to each other, rather than competitive technologies. "In the core Pro AV world, these are more like tools in a toolbox, and for the right application, you need to select the right tool," he explained. "You shouldn't buy a product based on technology—you should buy the product based on your use case."

"Manufacturers are addressing RF complexity by both adding capability and reducing user burden," added Donovan. "On one hand, systems are becoming more sophisticated, with improved tuning control and coordination tools. On the other, they are becoming more automated, with features that simplify setup and ongoing operation."

Securing the Signal

Because Pro AV and broadcast applications are converging into unified, IP-centric environments, AV systems now routinely reside on corporate IT networks. This shift has raised security demands for wireless audio applications.

"Unencrypted wireless audio is no longer acceptable in many cases for both security and privacy reasons," said Escobedo. "Whether it's a major financial institution hosting a town hall in NYC or a pop star about to perform at a halftime show, digital wireless systems often provide AES-256 encryption to ensure secure transmission."

In this heightened security realm, users must understand the distinction between fully digital systems and digital hybrid systems. While fully digital platforms support AES-256 encryption, digital hybrid platforms prioritize absolute RF robustness and long-range resilience over encryption.

As a result, “digital hybrid technology does not support encryption," Moerch explained. "For that reason, Wisycom solutions are typically deployed in applications where RF performance and audio quality are the top priorities, while environments requiring encrypted transmission, such as corporate or government use, are better suited to fully digital systems with built-in encryption, like the DPA N-Series."

"Manufacturers are addressing RF complexity by both adding capability and reducing user burden," Donovan observed. "On one hand, systems are becoming more sophisticated, with improved tuning control and coordination tools. On the other, they are becoming more automated, with features that simplify setup and ongoing operation."

Interference and Disruption

Even the most advanced, heavily encrypted wireless technology will fail if deployed without paying attention to today’s congested RF spectrum. "It seems most designers are having to truly relearn the best practices as a result of said overcrowding, limits, and security concerns," said Jacquemain.

To ensure consistent and reliable service, end users and integrators need to adhere to strict deployment strategies.

Assess your real needs first. "A great starting point is a quick reality check on true channel count needs," Jacquemain advised.

Check the spectrum. Never rely on guesswork when deploying wireless microphones. "Knowing what spectrum is available where you’re working is critical, including avoiding DTV stations," Escobedo said. Using software tools like Shure’s Wireless Workbench or built-in system scanners can help find the most useful frequencies.

Place antennas properly. Maintaining strict line-of-sight between the transmitter and the receiver antennas is crucial, because human bodies and structural obstacles absorb RF energy. "Proper antenna spacing is also important for true diversity performance, which is typically around half a wavelength [approximately 20 inches in UHF ranges]," Moerch added.

Be smart about transmission power. Higher transmit power does not automatically equal better performance—it often just raises the noise floor. "In many cases we are finding it is preferred to use lower output power but have a more robust antenna receiving system,” Escobedo said. “Keeping the output power low may allow one to multiplex [reuse] the same frequency elsewhere in the deployment."

Know when not to use wireless. In those situations where microphone mobility is not necessary, it makes sense to use wires rather than going wireless. "A mentor of mine often pointed out that setting up a wireless microphone involves deploying four cables: power, two antenna cables, and an audio cable," said Escobedo. "Sometimes a simple XLR cable to a wired mic can suffice for the intended application."

Despite all this, it's still possible to use wireless microphones successfully through the use of planning, spectrum checking before going live, and leveraging innovative technologies like WMAS and DECT NR+. Just plugging in a wireless microphone system and hoping it works—especially if it's part of a system that's old and outdated—is a risky choice in today’s congested RF spectrum.

Ultimately, as Donovan said, "The most reliable systems are those designed with realism in mind, anticipating challenges rather than reacting to failures."

Summary:

• Texas A&M's University Center and Special Events team deploys portable audio racks throughout campus, often moving equipment from one event directly to the next, relying on LEA Professional amplifiers.
• Connect Series 354 amplifiers now serve as the team's go-to solution for most events, and when additional low-frequency reinforcement is required, Connect Series 702 amplifiers answer the call.
• For a department responsible for transporting equipment across a large campus, reducing rack weight has been one of LEA Professional's biggest advantages.

Texas A&M University serves more than 70,000 students across its sprawling College Station campus. Managing audio for lectures, commencement activities, donor receptions, performances, banquets, and student celebrations requires equipment that can easily adapt to different venues, audiences, and production requirements. Texas A&M's University Center and Special Events team deploys portable audio racks throughout campus, often moving equipment from one event directly to the next, relying on LEA Professional amplifiers, whose combination of power, onboard DSP, portability, and reliability has become essential to daily operations.

[Cornhuskers Coverage Conversion]

"We're deploying them on a near-daily basis during the busy months," said Corey Klinger, event technician at Texas A&M. "As soon as one event ends, the equipment is being shipped to the next one. There are times when some of our amps don't come back home for more than a week because they're constantly moving from event to event."

The portable systems support virtually every type of campus gathering imaginable, from intimate ribbon-cutting ceremonies with a podium and two loudspeakers to banquets and galas serving more than 900 attendees. By using LEA’s onboard DSP rather than external processors, the university keeps each portable rack simple, compact, and ready for immediate deployment.

Connect Series 354 amplifiers now serve as the team's go-to solution for most events, easily scaling from small presentations to powering six JBL VRX loudspeakers for large banquet spaces. When additional low-frequency reinforcement is required, Connect Series 702 amplifiers provide dedicated power for subwoofers using onboard DSP presets.

The IoT-enabled 4-channel CS354 delivers 350 watts per channel, while the 2-channel CS702 delivers 700 watts per channel. The Connect Series also includes 96kHz DSP as a standard feature, providing a range of benefits that greatly enhance audio performance and system versatility. And with LEA Cloud, AV teams can remotely control and monitor amplifiers from anywhere.

Since first adopting LEA Professional amplifiers in 2021, Texas A&M has placed the systems under demanding real-world conditions. The amplifiers are transported across campus, loaded into vehicles, assembled at venues, and frequently operate outdoors. Despite that rigorous schedule, reliability has remained exceptional.

"In the five years we've used them, I think we've only had one instance where an amp acted a little strange," Klinger said. "LEA helped us troubleshoot it, and we haven't had a problem since."

For a department responsible for transporting equipment across a large campus, reducing rack weight has been one of LEA Professional's biggest advantages. Compared to the university's previous amplifier inventory, Connect Series amplifiers dramatically reduced both weight and physical effort required during setup. The reduced weight has also improved overall event efficiency, allowing staff to move quickly between venues while minimizing setup time.

"The first thing that stood out was how light they were compared to the older amplifiers," said Benjamin Leonido, event manager at Texas A&M. "The old racks often required two or three people to move. Now a single person can roll a rack into place without worrying about injuries or finding enough people to help."

With thousands of events occurring across campus throughout the year, the ability to deploy reliable, powerful audio systems at a moment's notice has become essential. Whether reinforcing a campus lecture, supporting a student performance, or powering audio for hundreds of guests at a formal gala, the university's event production team knows the same portable amplifier racks are ready for the next assignment.

"The LEA amps have been going strong for us ever since we got them,” said Klinger. “They've proven themselves every step of the way."

DiGiCo has expanded its Quantum Range with the launch of the Quantum638 mixing console alongside an optional Quantum638T model tailored specifically for theatrical applications. The desk fills the space held by the SD7 and SD5, merging design elements from those legacy platforms with seventh-generation FPGA processing power to deliver a surface focused on speed, compact control, and operational redundancy.

[When Sound Becomes Architecture]

The surface incorporates three 17-inch high-resolution touchscreens, 38 touch-sensitive motorized faders divided across three sections, two dedicated Master faders, and three 6.8-inch TFT screens near the fader bays. Visual feedback is further expanded through three 14-inch meterbridge LCDs, three bank switcher screens, and 53 full-color 1.5-inch TFT displays. An integrated InfoBar provides constant visual tracking for snapshots, timecode, status warnings, and operational state. The physical layout closely mirrors the SD7 footprint while updating ergonomics, featuring top-strip Gain and Trim encoders, customizable Next buttons, assignable Macroder rotary encoders, and channel-assigned Macros that move dynamically with channel layouts.

Processing capacity includes 256 input channels, 128 aux or sub-group busses, and a 48x48 matrix, all featuring full processing. The engine suite provides 128 Nodal Processing instances, 64 Mustard Processing strips, 16 Spice Rack slots, True Solo capability, 32 32-band graphic EQs, and an internal FX rack supporting up to 48 stereo effects. Control management includes 36 VCA or mute groups, two solo busses, and Master busses for stereo, surround, and immersive formats.

For the first time in a Quantum product, DiGiCo offers a choice between single-engine and dual-engine architectures within the same chassis, with the dual-engine version capable of running in single-engine mode. Both variants feature dual DMI slots and hot-swappable power supplies. Upgrading to the Quantum638T adds specialized theatre software functions, including Auto Update, Aliases, Players, advanced control group tools, and Matrix Nodal Delays. Dual headphone outputs allow a sound designer and audio engineer to monitor independent feeds simultaneously.

Built for touring and permanent installation across theatres, live venues, festivals, and houses of worship, the console measures 61 inches (1555mm) wide, 38 inches (957mm) deep, and 21 inches (535mm) high, with a total weight of 93 kilograms.

Hear ye, hear ye. SCN's October issue is ready to download for FREE. Get your FREE copy of the Audio Issue today (did we mention it was free?).

This month, James Careless dives into spectrum concerns which continue to impact the state of wireless microphones in Pro AV, with experts from Shure, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, and DPA Microphones chiming in.

Also in October, L-Acoustics Ryan John thinks source separation is the next frontier in live and installed audio, and Sennheiser's Jens Pilz opines that the future is heard, not seen.

Don't forget to also checkout:

• Not one, but TWO, products reviews from our very own Mark J. Pescatore.
• A look at lithium-ion batteries and how they can improve your investment.
• Why having your cameras on during meetings is not an option, but the right thing to do.
• The Integration Guide to NDI.
• Audio mapping software, the new MoMoney museum, people on the move, new products, and much more.

Don't miss out; download your issue today.

Summary:

• An aging sound system was causing disruptions by unpleasant microphone feedback caused by reflections off the projection screen and paneled walls.
• SCN Top 50 systems integrator, Solotech, recommended the Renkus-Heinz ICONYX Gen 5 loudspeaker series.
• There’s no more feedback when presenters speak into the microphones and the entire audience can hear even the most subtle details.

The iconic Griffith Observatory overlooks the city of Los Angeles, renowned as an educational and entertainment landmark. Part of that observatory is the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater, a 190-seat auditorium which hosts public programs, presentations, and panels every day to explore the latest in science and astronomy. It recently got an audio upgrade from SCN Top 50 systems integrator Solotech and consultant TheatreDNA, who recommended Renkus-Heinz as the ideal loudspeaker solution for the space.

[Hearing Every Word]

The existing sound system was becoming increasingly difficult to manage. All too often, events were being disrupted by unpleasant microphone feedback caused by reflections off the projection screen and paneled walls.

“From the beginning, we recognized the need for a solution that could address the unwanted reflections and uncontrolled audio challenges, without disrupting the theater’s strict aesthetic values,” said Patrick So, theater programs manager at Griffith Observatory. “We worked closely with Solotech and TheatreDNA, who guided us through a range of potential options while assessing coverage, clarity, and visual impact.”

A digitally steerable line array was considered the most suitable option, leading to the recommendation of the Renkus-Heinz ICONYX Gen 5 loudspeaker series. “A single ICONYX IC16-RD model was installed behind the projection screen upstage of where speakers stand to present,” said Marc Nutter, business development representative for Solotech. While the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater retained a dedicated playback system for film screenings, the IC16-RD was introduced exclusively for spoken word events. “The beam steering capabilities allow for precise vertical coverage control, directing sound towards the audience while reducing energy on the reflective surfaces, ultimately helping to improve speech intelligibility and maintain consistent SPL from the front of the auditorium to the back.”

By positioning the loudspeaker behind the screen, audiences can focus on the presentations and speakers without distraction from the room’s technology. The wider AV system is built around a QSC network that brings audio, video, and control into a streamlined interface, allowing museum staff to prepare and operate daily programs and special events with greater ease and consistency.

Since the debut of the new audio system, the audience experience inside the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater has improved noticeably. “The upgrade from the old system was immediately clear,” So concluded. “With the IC16-RD, there’s no more feedback when presenters speak into the microphones and the entire audience can hear even the most subtle details. The immense effort that everyone has put in has led to a far more immersive and engaging experience that fully lives up to the expectations of the Griffith Observatory."

Located in the northern suburbs of Chicago, the Saint Gilbert Catholic Church serves a community of parishioners, families, friends, and visitors. With both a main church and a chapel on its campus, the parish is committed to offering meaningful, accessible worship experiences for all attendees, including those who rely on assistive listening technologies to fully participate in mass, homilies, and announcements. Auracast helps deliver every word today and in the future.

[Accessibility on Campus]

While the church’s standard sound system worked well for many in the congregation, others struggled to clearly understand the clergy during homilies or guest presenters during announcements. Although a hearing loop system had been installed, it did not fully resolve these issues. Some listeners still reported difficulty, and the system’s performance depended heavily on the precise positioning of T‑coil hearing aids or receivers. These limitations made it clear that a more flexible, reliable, and future‑ready solution was needed.

The parish had previously installed an Ampetronic hearing loop, which remains in use today. However, after consulting with Thunder Hearing and Sound in Elgin, IL, the team learned about Auracast broadcast audio. Based on this recommendation, the church chose to install Auri TX2N transmitters in both the main church and the chapel.

Thunder Hearing and Sound conducted a thorough survey of both spaces and designed the system to ensure strong coverage across each worship area. The system supplements the existing loop, allowing the parish to continue supporting current T‑coil users while preparing for the growing number of devices (hearing aids, earbuds, smartphones, etc.) that will soon include native Auracast support.

The deployment process was smooth and exceeded expectations in several areas. “I was particularly impressed with the clarity, fidelity, and propagation of the Auracast signal,” said Mark Meyer, Saint Gilbert Catholic Church’s sound system caretaker. “Auracast broadcast audio delivers even, consistent coverage across the entire worship space and even into areas beyond the loop’s reach. It also eliminates the need for precise receiver positioning, reducing a common source of frustration for T‑coil users.”

The system is already delivering value. Its coverage quality ensures that as more members transition to Auracast enabled devices, the church is fully prepared. Meanwhile, the existing hearing loop continues to serve current users, creating a dual‑system environment that supports today’s needs while embracing the future.

The church’s early adoption of Auracast broadcast audio positions it well for long‑term accessibility improvements. As more hearing aids, smartphones, and consumer audio devices begin offering native Auracast compatibility, the parish will be ready to offer seamless assistive listening to a broader audience.

In courtrooms, lecture halls, museums, and houses of worship, clear audio is essential. Assistive listening systems have long been associated with ADA compliance for people with hearing loss, but today the category is expanding well beyond regulation. From multilingual museum tours to smartphone streaming and emerging Auracast integrations, assistive listening is increasingly about accessibility, engagement, and improving the overall audience experience.

Assistive listening systems have historically been thought of in relation to regulation. Public venues with amplified audio systems were (and still are) required to provide listening assistance for individuals who were hearing impaired, and many facilities relied on the minimum number of receivers necessary to satisfy requirements established by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990.

But the market is experiencing a shift.

AV professionals, integrators and facility owners increasingly recognize that accessibility should not be treated as an afterthought. Instead, it's becoming part of the overall user experience strategy—not simply as an accommodation, but rather a way to create more inclusive and effective communication experiences for everyone.

Beyond ADA Requirements

Today, assistive listening does not only benefit people with diagnosed hearing loss, but also aging populations, non-native language speakers, and even individuals who are seated too far from a sound source to clearly understand what’s being said in acoustically challenging spaces. Interference from background noise, reverberation, and even distance can impact intelligibility even in well-designed environments.

“It’s not always about hearing loss,” explained Kim Franklin, chief marketing officer with Ampetronic | Listen Technologies. “Sometimes it’s just the environment—because of how the building is designed, or the size of the crowd, the language that’s being spoken, or the surrounding noise. Having that audio clarity just helps everyone have an overall better experience.”

To that end, technology leaders in assistive listening such as Listen Technologies (founded in 1998) and Williams AV (celebrating its 50th anniversary) have considerably expanded their offerings over the years and now feature a variety of solutions that address almost every type of scenario. Solutions range from RF, IR, and Wi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth and induction loop systems. Another company, Bettear, launched commercially in 2020 and entered the U.S. market earlier this year.

While the conversation around assistive listening has expanded, compliance remains a critical consideration in many installations. ADA requirements are generally tied to occupancy levels and seating capacity, with the number of receivers increasing based on the size of the venue. Typically, a percentage of those receivers must be hearing aid compatible, often through the use of neck loops or other telecoil-compatible solutions that allow users to connect directly with hearing aids or cochlear implants.

While assistive listening requirements can apply across a wide range of facilities and environments, it doesn't typically include houses of worship. “It’s true, houses of worship generally aren’t required to meet ADA assistive listening requirements unless they function as public assembly spaces,” explained Tony Braun, VP of North American sales and marketing at Williams AV. “But accessibility is about more than compliance—it’s about making sure everyone can fully participate. And that’s where the moral part of it comes in. It's about doing the right thing and making spaces accessible, whether or not they're required to be.”

Braun said many conversations begin with customers seeking an inexpensive ADA-compliant solution, but often evolve into broader discussions about audience demographics, venue experience, and whether users should rely on venue-provided devices or their own smartphones.

Accessibility Systems

One of the biggest shifts occurring within the market is the growing distinction between accessibility systems and experience systems. While the technologies may sometimes overlap, the intended purpose of each integration can be very different.

Accessibility-focused systems are designed primarily to support people with hearing loss or auditory processing challenges, and are installed to satisfy ADA requirements. These solutions are typically induction loop systems, RF systems, infrared assistive listening systems, and neck loops and telecoil-compatible devices.

“For a long time, we really only had a few options,” explained Marty Fornelli, senior design engineer at Diversified. However, he noted that traditional options each come with tradeoffs. For example, induction loops can be costly and disruptive to install, since they are placed inside of the concrete flooring, and RF systems require infrastructure. Infrared is often favored in environments such as courtrooms where security is key, because it’s a line-of-sight solution that limits its expanse.

Accessibility systems are particularly important in spaces where speech clarity is essential, such as courtrooms, lecture halls, houses of worship, and theaters. For many users, these systems can dramatically improve participation and comprehension by delivering audio directly to a receiver, headset, or compatible hearing device while minimizing the effects of background noise and distance.

Listen Technologies offers a range of solutions, including its T-Loop hearing loop (or induction loop) system for those with hearing loss via their hearing aid or cochlear implant. Its Listen RF system wires audio sources to a transmitter, while listeners use ListenRF receivers to tune in to the audio source. And for applications where security is essential, its ListenIR (infrared) system transmits audio to anyone with a receiver in the line of sight of the emitter.

Similarly, Williams AV offers diverse loop systems for visitors with T-Coil-enabled hearing aids and cochlear implants, including its Digi-Loop counter, perimeter, and dual-loop systems. The company also offers wireless RF systems such as its FM+ systems and its SoundPlus IR systems for small and medium-sized areas as well as its IR+ systems for larger environments.

Experience Systems

A broader category of listening technologies has emerged that focuses less on accessibility compliance and more on enhancing the visitor experience. These systems are designed for all users, not just individuals with hearing loss, where audio becomes part of the storytelling experience itself.

This includes self-guided tour solutions, multilingual interpretation systems, group tour communication platforms, smartphone-based audio streaming, and newer Bluetooth broadcast audio technologies. The biggest shift comes from the latest Auracast technology, built on Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) audio that allows one audio source to transmit to many compatible receivers at the same time.

One of the most significant trends shaping the category is the movement toward personal device audio delivery. Rather than relying exclusively on dedicated receivers distributed on site, the newer systems increasingly allow users to stream audio directly to smartphones, earbuds, hearing devices, or other Bluetooth-enabled products they already own.

This approach offers several advantages. For venues, it can reduce the operational burden associated with managing, charging, cleaning, and distributing dedicated hardware. For users, it creates a more familiar and personalized experience, allowing individuals to control volume and listening preferences directly from their own devices.

Dawn of Auracast

Technologies such as Auracast broadcast audio are helping accelerate this transition. Because it enables audio broadcasts to be transmitted to multiple compatible devices simultaneously, Auracast solutions can potentially create new opportunities for public audio accessibility and engagement. Similarly, Wi-Fi-based streaming platforms allow facilities to deliver audio content directly to visitor smartphones through apps or browser-based interfaces.

“There were certain technologies that we had been using for years,” said Braun. “But what's changed over the last 10 years, and even more recently, is that we asked how we can make the experience even better by bringing that audio directly to somebody's own device.”

Braun said Wi-Fi streaming introduced the concept of personal device audio, but latency and deployment complexity limited adoption. Auracast improves on that with low-latency Bluetooth LE audio that doesn’t require pairing and supports broad interoperability. “Any compatible device can tune in,” Braun noted.

Williams AV offers its Infinium Auracast system, while Listen has its Auri solution and Bettear has a line of Auracast products. Some of the benefits of these Auracast solutions include improved audio quality, reduced power consumption, improved interoperability, easier development of hearing aids and TWS earbuds, new audio device types, and a much larger transmission range.

“The beauty of Auracast is that it has really long-term implications,” added Franklin. “The more devices that come on the market, including AirPods, earbuds, headphones and smartphones, the more people will be able to use Auracast. You can simply walk into any venue that has it, look for the channel you want to listen to, and you can connect your earbuds. We really do think that over the next five to 10 years, it's going to be the most widely adopted audio system because it offers such easy access.”

“Auracast checks all the boxes,” said Fornelli. “While you still need to think about every scenario as unique, Auracast has become the default for me. It offers the best coverage for most applications.”

RTI has introduced four new models to the RTI Commercial Amplifier Series, including three models that feature Dante connectivity. The Commercial Amplifier Series delivers versatile, configurable high-performance 2-channel, 4-channel, and 8-channel audio amplification that integrators can rely upon for commercial, residential, and entertainment applications.

Also new from RTI, a wall-mounted PoE Zone Controller provides effortless control of volume and source selection when a control system is not present. Designed exclusively for the RTI-AMP Series, each controller mounts in a standard single-gang in-wall box (a version of this controller is available for international applications) and connects fully powered to the amplifier over a single Cat5e cable and any standard PoE switch.

Built around UMAC Class D output circuitry and a UREC universal switch-mode power supply with power factor correction, every model in the series operates equally well driving conventional low-impedance (Lo-Z, 4Ω/8Ω) loudspeakers and high-impedance (Hi-Z, 70V/100V) transformer-coupled distributed audio systems. This eliminates the need for external transformers or separate product SKUs across mixed-topology projects. Lo-Z power output is 125-Watts per channel, and Hi-Z output is 250-Watts.

Dante-enabled models (denoted by the “D” in the nomenclature) integrate into existing professional IP audio networks with AES67 interoperability, enabling long-distance routing and daisy-chaining without the bulk and added cost of dedicated audio cabling. For setup, configuration is handled entirely through a browser-based interface accessible over wired Ethernet or built-in Wi-Fi, with no dedicated software required. Installers have granular control over inputs, output zones, parametric EQ per-channel, crossover, delay, limiter, polarity, signal routing, and GPIO-based external control from any networked device. Presets can be locked, exported, and shared across projects, reducing commissioning time and ensuring consistent tuning.

Overview:

• Change North Adelaide offers a diverse range of facilities, each of which requires distinct acoustic solutions.
• An array of Biamp Desono speakers and Apprimo Wall Controllers are part of the ecosystem now in place.
• The end result is an audio system to deliver clear sound for high-energy training classes while providing discreet background music in its wellness and spa areas.

South Australia's fitness and wellness destination, Change North Adelaide, has deployed a comprehensive Biamp audio system to deliver clear sound for high-energy training classes while providing discreet background music in its wellness and spa areas. Adelaide-based integrator Leedall installed the integrated solution.

[Taco Tuesday: SoundTube Brings High-Energy Sound to Rocco’s Tacos]

"The integrated Biamp ecosystem was the perfect fit for the diverse acoustic requirements at Change," said Tim Biedman, associate designer, Leedall. "We were able to commission the entire system offline before installation, which gave us tremendous confidence in the deployment. The reliability and performance of the Biamp Desono speakers, combined with the seamless integration of Biamp Voltera controllers and Apprimo wall panels, delivered exactly what the client needed."

Change North Adelaide offers a diverse range of facilities including functional training areas, a Pilates studio, cardio zone, recovery lounge, and spa facilities, each of which requires distinct acoustic solutions. In the functional training area, where high-energy classes demand clear audio, Leedall deployed Biamp Desono DP8 pendant loudspeakers. These speakers ensure instructors' voices and motivating music reach every corner of the training floor with clarity and impact.

The cardio and Pilates zones feature Biamp Desono C-IC6 marine-grade in-ceiling loudspeakers, providing consistent, high-quality audio that supports focused workouts without overwhelming the space. For the spa and wellness areas, where ambiance is paramount, Leedall specified additional Desono C-IC6 speakers to deliver discreet background music that enhances relaxation without intrusion. The result is a sophisticated audio experience that complements the premium wellness environment.

The addition of Biamp Apprimo Wall Controllers enables staff and instructors to intuitively manage the audio zone controls while Parlé microphones provide for clear voice reinforcement for instructors during fitness classes.

The offline commissioning capability allowed Leedall to configure and test the entire installation before deployment, significantly reducing on-site installation time and ensuring flawless performance from day one. “This installation demonstrates the power of an integrated ecosystem approach,” said Biedman. “We have complete confidence in the system's long-term reliability and performance.”

dBTechnologies has introduced its OPERA NONA Series, a new artist-focused addition to its expanding OPERA family. Available in dual-10-inch and dual-12-inch models, OPERA NONA combines dual woofers with a coaxial mid-high section to create a quasi-three-way acoustic design. A two-channel onboard preamp and flexible cabinet geometry allow NONA to work as a main loudspeaker, floor monitor, or mounted system.

[A New Aspect for Pro AV]

Flexibility is the core of the NONA. Each cabinet has two balanced combo XLR/TRS inputs with independent level controls. Channel 1 accepts mic or line signals; Channel 2 accepts line signals or a high-impedance instrument source. A balanced XLR output can carry either a direct Channel 1 link or the complete onboard mix, allowing a performer to connect a microphone and instrument directly, set the levels at the cabinet and feed a second loudspeaker without adding a mixer to a simple system. The performer can then use the same cabinet as a floor monitor when the application changes.

The acoustic section pairs two low-frequency drivers, one with a brand new true coaxial HF section design, creating a quasi-three-way configuration. The system crosses over at 1,900 Hz and produces a 90-degree by 60-degree coverage pattern. This more controlled dispersion supports portable systems working in tighter rooms, on compact stages or in applications where energy must be kept off nearby walls and other performance areas.

The Class-D amplifier supplies 1,000 W RMS and 2,000 W peak through an auto-range power supply. Its two-amplifier layout delivers 500 W RMS to each section. The dual-10-inch configuration provides 39% more LF radiating surface than a single 12-inch woofer, while the dual-12-inch configuration provides 28% more than a single 15-inch woofer, adding greater low-frequency presence while retaining the same operating concept. This gives NONA the output and low-frequency capacity needed for live event sound applications— in a compact portable format.

OPERA NONA 210 implements two 10-inch woofers with 2.5-inch voice coils and reaches a maximum SPL of 131.5dB. Its frequency response extends from 55 Hz to 20 kHz at -10 dB and from 60 Hz to 20 kHz at -6dB. The cabinet weighs 42.3 lb. Its more compact footprint suits vocals, instruments, smaller event systems and monitor duty.

OPERA NONA 212 utilizes two 12-inch woofers with 2.5-inch voice coils, reaches 132.5 dB maximum SPL and extends from 48 Hz to 20 kHz at -10dB and from 52 Hz to 20 kHz at -6dB. It weighs 49.6 lb. The added low-frequency extension is intended for full-range playback, DJ systems, larger rooms and main-speaker use.

Neumann has introduced its new KK 104 A and KK 105 A condenser capsule heads. Designed for Sennheiser wireless systems, the new A-Series capsules combine condenser technology with an updated design, reduced handling noise, and seamless compatibility with the latest Sennheiser wireless ecosystems.

[The State of AV/IT 2026: Sennheiser]

Designed for Sennheiser Spectera, EW-D, EW-DX, and Digital 6000/9000 handheld transmitters, the KK 104 A and KK 105 A give performers and engineers access to clarity, detail, and natural vocal reproduction. “The KK 204 and KK 205 set a new standard for wireless vocal performance by bringing true condenser sound to the stage,” Stephan Mauer, director product management at Neumann, added. “With the KK 104 A and KK 105 A, we've pushed that concept even further. These new capsule heads are optimized for today's wireless workflows while preserving the unmistakable Neumann character that artists and engineers trust to deliver their best performances.”

Unlike conventional dynamic capsules, both models employ true condenser technology, delivering transparency, fast transient response, and a level of vocal detail that captures every nuance of a performance. The result is a sound that feels immediate, open, and effortlessly natural, allowing vocals to rise above dense mixes while preserving every nuance of the performance. At the same time, their consistent, frequency-independent directionality offers excellent feedback resistance, rivaling the best dynamic capsules.

Both capsule heads feature pop protection, SPL capability, and gain before feedback, while designed to handle noise rejection. Their smooth, balanced frequency response allows engineers to achieve polished vocal mixes with minimal processing while preserving clarity and effortless intelligibility.

Engineered for modern stage performance, the KK 104 A and KK 105 A include a fixed low cut filter that controls proximity effect during close mic use, ensuring consistent low frequency reproduction. A hardened steel grille with an integrated pop screen protects the capsule from moisture and helps reduce plosives and sibilance under demanding live conditions.

It is important to note that while sharing the same premium condenser technology, the KK 104 A and KK 105 A offer different pickup patterns to cater to performers of every type. The KK 104 A features a cardioid polar pattern that combines excellent feedback resistance with greater freedom of movement. Its slightly more open pickup characteristic creates a natural, spacious sound that inspires expressive vocalists. The KK 105 A utilizes a supercardioid pickup pattern for maximum isolation and control. By focusing more tightly on the source and rejecting off axis sound more effectively, it delivers an intimate, highly defined vocal presentation that excels on crowded stages and in challenging monitoring environments.

Summary:

• The 450-seat Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre got an audio upgrade with a Renkus-Heinz beam-steering solution.
• The front of the room saw two IC16 digitally steerable column arrays wall-mounted on the left and right of the projection screen, while the second half of the room had two of the more compact IC8 steerable line arrays.
• With the success of this upgrade, The University of Birmingham’s long-term plan is to upgrade 15 lecture theaters across its campus using a range of products from Renkus-Heinz's Iconyx Gen5, UBX Series, and CX Series.

AV technology is a major part of the University of Birmingham's practical learning methods. The school, which welcomes a cohort of more than 400 students each year to its Medical School, recently reviewed its approach to AV, realizing that some facilities were deemed in need of an upgrade, including the 450-seat Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre. Audio quality was a particular concern, with poor speech intelligibility and limited coverage disrupting the listening experience for students and lecturers. A Renkus-Heinz beam-steering solution would prove to be the answer to delivering clearer, more consistent audio.

[Cornhuskers Coverage Conversion]

The Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre features two distinct acoustic areas: a semi-circular stage at the front of the room, and the tiered seating area that extends to the rear of the theater. “The acoustics at each end of the room presented several challenges,” said Mark Bromfield, director of system solution sales for CUK, the distribution company supporting the project from early conversations through to implementation. “The stage was highly reflective, largely due to its hard wooden flooring and projection screen, while the seating area incorporated more absorptive finishes, meaning both areas presented very different conditions within the same space.”

Combining wall-mounted and ceiling loudspeakers, the existing system operated as a single line without time alignment. Bromfield explained that listeners could hear sound coming from multiple directions with noticeable delays between loudspeakers, compromising intelligibility and contributing to listener fatigue.

To determine the ideal sound solution for the Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre, CUK conducted acoustic modeling, followed by a live demonstration of the Renkus-Heinz Iconyx system in the venue. “The university’s AV team was incredibly impressed with the precise directionality and consistency provided by the Iconyx Series, which led to the specification of four of these beam-steering arrays,” Bromfield continued.

GVAV, an AV integrator with extensive experience in education-based deployments, was tasked with installing the new system. To manage the distinct acoustic conditions of the stage and the seating area, the theater was treated as two separate zones. The front of the room saw two IC16 digitally steerable column arrays wall-mounted on the left and right of the projection screen. For the second half of the room, two of the more compact IC8 steerable line arrays were installed behind panels on each side, providing controlled coverage all the way to the back of the theater.

Once the installation was complete, the new system delivered an immediate improvement in speech intelligibility and the overall listening experience. “The system provided controlled, focused coverage from a significantly smaller number of loudspeakers compared to the previous system,” concluded Bromfield. “Delighted by the performance of the system and how it addressed previous challenges, the university’s AV department began looking at other areas of campus that would benefit from a similar upgrade.”

With the success of this installation, The University of Birmingham’s long-term plan is to upgrade 15 lecture theaters across its campus using a range of products from Renkus-Heinz's Iconyx Gen5, UBX Series, and CX Series.

During the commemoration of America's 250th birthday, this past July 4, the 555-foot-tall Washington Monument was illuminated, turning it into a canvas for a narrated projection show that launched America’s year-long semiquincentennial celebration. The projection show ran for six nights and displayed emblematic symbols of America’s pioneering and innovative spirit, from wooden ships crossing the Atlantic and covered wagons heading West to the Empire State Building and Apollo moon landing. LMG provided both audio, via an L-Acoustics K and L Series system, and the advanced projection mapping technology that combined for truly historic audiovisual storytelling.

[Massive LED Display Brings Exterior of the NBA's Phoenix Suns Home Arena to Life]

LMG Audio systems director Robby Schlegel explained that the company deployed Barco projectors driven by a Ross Vertex media server ecosystem for the New Year’s Eve celebrations this year, to great success. Schlegel said that the initial sound design for the event, which took place on June 24 and integrated playback, live music, and a rally, prompted LMG to deploy L-Acoustics K Series arrays, with L Series arrays used as delay extensions for a concert taking place on the East side of the monument. The audio setup for the projection was designed using L-Acoustics Soundvision software, with the expectation that the crowds would be kept outside an oval-shaped, 600x400-foot perimeter around the obelisk, an optimum distance to enjoy the visuals.

But Soundvision was also an invaluable tool when last-minute modifications were made on-site. “We were told that there weren’t going to be people inside that oval area, so we designed the system to cover outside of that boundary, which was where LMG had large shipping containers that housed the projectors and where everyone was going to stand back behind and watch the projection,” he explained. “But the sheer number of people that showed up forced those plans to change significantly. Near the start of the event, the client realized that there were going to be a lot more people inside the oval than outside, so we ended up spinning some of the arrays 180 degrees, with the north and south towers facing inside toward the monument, and the larger towers on the west side covering the rest of the mall. Acting fast was imperative, and the reoriented design was able to easily give us the coverage we needed.”

The final Mall East system configurations featured main arrays of eight K1 over six K2 per side, with six KS28 subs below each main in two stacks of three, while Mall East out-fills were served by arrays of three L2 per side, with six KS28 subs below each main, also in two stacks of three. The Mall North and South fills were identical: arrays of three L2 per side, with eight K1-SB subs below each main, in two stacks of four. The Mall East system fired facing away from the monument, flanking the Washington Monument Lodge, while the Mall North and South systems fired in toward the center, with the K1-SB subs conversely firing away from the monument. All K Series elements were powered by LA12X amplified controllers, while LA7.16 drove all of the L2 delay components, and processing was via a pair of P1 processors. In addition, an L-Acoustics LC16D network audio converter was used to route feeds directly from the live-concert front-of-house area to the Mall West speaker arrays. The entire system was linked via a redundant Milan-AVB network that worked seamlessly, despite some incredibly long fiber runs between the locations, Schlegel recalled.

“This project was a testament to Soundvision’s ability to pivot and to recalculate designs very quickly, giving the technicians the ability to make those changes based on the needs of the show,” he concluded. “It went phenomenally well and we heard nothing but great responses from our client. It was one of LMG's most innovative projects yet, and L-Acoustics speakers and software were essential to the event’s success.”

Quick view:

• Joey Stuckey upgraded his Macon studio by adding AKG C414 microphones and standardizing all headphone monitoring around the AKG K371.
• AKG tools have been central to his work throughout his career, starting with AKG C451 mics used across heavy metal, classical, gospel, and spoken word sessions.
• With AKG K371 headphones now serving as the studio’s standard tracking and monitoring platform, C414 microphones expanding the microphone locker and C451 microphones continuing to serve across recording applications, Shadow Sound Studio enters its 30th year with a consistent set of tools supporting Stuckey’s approach to capturing and evaluating performances.

As Shadow Sound Studio owner Joey Stuckey marks 30 years in the recording industry, the producer, engineer, musician, and educator has completed a series of upgrades to his Macon facility, including standardizing the studio’s headphone monitoring around AKG K371 professional studio headphones and adding AKG C414 microphones to his extensive microphone collection. The additions support recording, mixing, and quality-control workflows while giving Stuckey and visiting artists a consistent monitoring reference throughout the studio.

[A Combination of Contemplation and 'Wow']

In 2026, Stuckey marked 30 years since his first session in a dedicated recording space. As a blind artist, producer, and accessibility consultant, Stuckey has also made accessibility an important part of his approach to the music industry. His relationship with sound is particularly personal; as he describes it, sound is “literally my universe,” shaping not only how he experiences music but also how he approaches recording, production and the environments he creates for other artists. Accessibility also influenced his decision to establish his own studio early in his career, creating a professional environment where the tools, workflow and space could support the way he works.

AKG products have been part of Stuckey’s work for much of that career. His early professional microphone collection included AKG C451 microphones, which became longtime go-to tools across sessions spanning heavy metal, classical, gospel, and spoken word. That experience with AKG continued during a recent visit to HARMAN headquarters, where Stuckey auditioned several headphones using music he knew well. For studio work, his priority was a monitoring reference that would reproduce the source transparently rather than emphasize particular frequencies. The AKG K371 stood out for its ability to provide the accuracy he needed for both tracking and mix evaluation.

“The sound that we’re hearing in the headphones is much more transparent, honest and realistic, which is really important when you’re tracking,” said Stuckey. “With these headphones, it’s so much easier to make judgment calls. What I will say is the only pair of headphones that you will find in my studio now are the AKG K371s.”

Stuckey replaced the headphones throughout Shadow Sound Studio with AKG K371 models for tracking and monitoring. During mixing, he uses the K371 as an additional quality-control reference alongside multiple sets of studio monitors, listening for issues that may not be immediately apparent through the primary loudspeaker system. Their transparent response allows Stuckey to evaluate whether elements such as bass, midrange and high frequencies are actually present in the mix rather than being introduced or diminished by the headphones.

For tracking, that accuracy becomes particularly important for musicians and vocalists making real-time decisions about their performances. A clear monitoring reference allows performers to evaluate pitch, timing, articulation and tone while recording, while the K371’s lightweight construction and fit support sessions that can extend for several hours. Stuckey also highlighted the detachable cable, locking adapter and foldable design as practical advantages for everyday studio and travel use.

“They sound phenomenal, they are portable, they are comfortable, they are accurate,” Stuckey said. “I mean, I just don’t know what else you could possibly want from a headphone. It’s got to be the greatest headphone I’ve ever worn.”

The headphone upgrade coincided with the addition of a pair of AKG C414 microphones to Shadow Sound Studio’s microphone collection. For Stuckey, who describes microphone selection and placement as one of the central parts of his work as a producer and engineer, the C414 adds another option for capturing vocals and instruments alongside his longstanding collection of C451 microphones. Before bringing the new microphones into an extended session, he evaluated them on acoustic guitar, piano and drums.

Stuckey then put the C414 microphones through their first full session with two vocalists who wanted to perform together in the same room. Rather than prioritizing isolation, he configured the session around the performers’ preference to remain close to one another, allowing the technical setup to support the environment in which they felt most comfortable performing. The session gave Stuckey an opportunity to evaluate the C414 extensively on vocals after years of encountering the microphone in applications including piano, acoustic guitar, drum overheads and vocals.

“I knew the AKG C414 was going to be good. It’s one of the most legendary microphones in our industry,” Stuckey said. “They sound fantastic on pretty much everything. I’ve used them a lot on piano, acoustic guitar and as drum overheads, but I was not prepared for how well they suited these clients’ voices. I mean, just gob smacked. I was so excited and so pleased. I just couldn’t believe those sounds were coming out of my console."

Riedel Communications unveiled its new OnAir headset platform. This new family of professional intercom headsets were designed for broadcast, live entertainment, sports, and other live production applications. The platform includes the OnAir 200, 400, and 500 Series, covering applications from lightweight single-ear communication to dual-ear headsets for high-noise environments.

[Tech Perspectives: Mulling Your Management Platform Options]

Riedel developed the OnAir platform with a focus on speech intelligibility, ergonomics, integration, and serviceability. Speakers and microphones are optimized for intercom audio, while the 500 Series also provides passive isolation for use in demanding environments. The 400 and 500 Series also feature integrated Push-to-Talk (PTT) controls, allowing users to respond directly from the headset rather than operating a key on the connected intercom device.

“With OnAir, we wanted to rethink our headset portfolio around the practical requirements we see in live production every day,” said Kristina Uhlitz, product manager at Riedel Communications. “A headset is something operators may wear and interact with for hours, so audio quality and comfort were just as important to us as intuitive control and flexibility. Features such as integrated PTT, the reversible design, and exchangeable cables on the 400 and 500 Series allow the headset to adapt to different users, devices, and workflows.”

The OnAir 200 Series is designed for lightweight, single-ear communication. It is available in two versions: an analog model with a fixed XLR4F connection and a digital model with a fixed USB-C connection. Both versions feature mic mute, reversible designs, and easily replaceable parts.

The OnAir 400 Series is available in single and dual-ear versions and adds integrated controls, and flexible connectivity. An integrated PTT button on the mic boom allows users to respond directly from the headset. The 400 Series also features a reversible design, a pressure-reducing headband cutout, and an exchangeable Mini XLR7 connection at the ear cup, allowing cables to be changed for use with different devices.

The OnAir 500 Series is designed for demanding high-noise environments such as motorsports. Its dual-ear design combines high passive isolation with expanded controls directly on the headset. In addition to the reply key on the mic boom, two PTT buttons on the ear cup provide additional access to intercom communication. A dedicated radio mode enables the buttons to operate with radios. Like the 400 Series, the 500 Series features a reversible design and an exchangeable Mini XLR7 connection.

Riedel has also designed the OnAir platform with serviceability in mind. On the 400 and 500 Series, components including the ear and head cushions, dust protection, mic boom module, and cable can be replaced individually, while the 200 Series features replaceable ear and side cushions. Beyond serviceability, OnAir has been conceived as a platform with room to evolve as production needs continue to change.

Summary:

• Waterproof contact transducer designed to capture impact and surface vibrations, including when submerged in water or ice, installed in flooring, or buried underground.
• Ideal for sports broadcasting, film and video production, Foley, field recording, theater and other professional audio application.
• Corrosion-resistant DZR brass body and waterproof cable designed for demanding environments, including deployment in water, ice, and earth.

Audio-Technica has introduced the BP880R Contact Transducer, a specialized microphone with waterproof performance consistent with IPX7 standards, designed to capture impact and surface vibrations that can add an entirely new dimension to sports broadcasts, film productions, field recording, theater and other professional audio applications. The BP880R addresses an increasingly important part of modern production: Capturing the sounds that help audiences not only see the action but experience its physical impact.

[Friday Night Lights, Camera, Action!]

Unlike conventional microphones designed primarily to capture airborne sound, the BP880R uses a high-sensitivity piezoelectric sensor to detect vibrations traveling through surfaces and structures and convert them into audio. This makes it possible to capture the distinctive sounds generated by a skate blade cutting across ice, a skier moving across a course, the impact and movement of a swimmer in a pool, the sharp metallic sound of a hockey puck making contact with the goal, or an athlete interacting with equipment and surfaces in the field of play.

Because the BP880R has very little sensitivity to airborne sound waves, it can isolate these impact and vibration sounds while minimizing surrounding ambient noise. The result gives broadcast and production teams an additional audio element that can be incorporated into a mix to create a more detailed and immersive experience for the listener.

Additionally, filmmakers and sound designers can use it to capture unique Foley and location effects, while theater and live production professionals can install the transducer in stages, flooring, scenery, and other structures to capture sonic details that may be difficult to obtain using conventional microphones.

Designed to withstand freezing and high-impact applications, the phantom-powered BP880R combines its high-sensitivity piezoelectric sensor with an internal preamplifier, allowing it to deliver clear signals over long cable runs. Its fixed 20 m (65.6-foot) waterproof cable terminates in a conventional XLR-M output connector and provides a low-impedance output allowing the benefits of using balanced audio cable.

The BP880R is housed in a low-profile, dezincification-resistant (DZR) brass body with a protective coating designed to resist corrosion from chlorinated water. Its rugged construction and waterproof cable allow the transducer to be deployed in challenging locations where conventional microphones may not be practical. It can be submerged in water or ice, buried underground, installed in flooring, or attached to foul poles and other structures or objects within the field of play.

Flexible mounting options make it easier for production teams to adapt the BP880R to the requirements of each application. Four through-holes allow the transducer to be secured using screws and nuts or zip ties, while a 1/4-inch threaded hole provides an additional option for mounting with a single screw.

Get your free copy of SCN's Integration Guide to Dante Solutions.

Building on 20 Years of Networking Innovation

As Audinate celebrates the 20th anniversary of Dante, the solution has evolved beyond its digital audio networking roots. Aidan Williams, co-founder and CEO of Audinate, shares a bit of company history, explains the vision behind the Dante platform, and shares plans for the expanding ecosystem.

At Issue

Industry experts from AJA Video Systems, AtlasIED, Audio-Technica, and Cobalt Digital explore why Dante’s approach to networked audio and video has made such an impact in Pro AV.

Download the Integration Guide to Dante Solutions.

Read the September issue of Systems Contractor News.

Yamaha introduced its new RUio16FLX-D. The flexible 16-channel rack I/O solution was designed to provide adaptable connectivity for commercial installation, business audio, and live sound applications. Featuring Phoenix connectors, the RUio16FLX-D allows each pair of channels to be configured as analog inputs, analog outputs, or AES/EBU outputs, giving integrators and system designers the flexibility to configure I/O according to the needs of each application.

[All About the Overlap]

“Commercial audio systems often require a combination of different I/O types, and those requirements can change depending on the application,” said Amy Kelly, product marketing manager, pro audio, Yamaha. “The RUio16FLX-D gives integrators the flexibility to configure the I/O they need in a single device, while Dante connectivity makes it easy to integrate into a broader networked audio system. It’s a practical solution for expanding systems without adding unnecessary complexity.”

The RUio16FLX-D is especially useful in commercial installations and business audio environments, where system designers may need to connect microphones, amplifiers, and other audio equipment across a networked system. For existing systems utilizing the new Yamaha DME5 and DME3 Digital Signal Processors, the RUio16FLX-D provides an additional option for expanding system connectivity when additional analog I/O is required.

Additional highlights include 16 flexible channels in a compact rack I/O solution; selectable Analog In, Analog Out, or AES/EBU Out for each two-channel pair; Dante network connectivity; Phoenix connectors suited to commercial installation environments; and channel configuration selectable from the onboard LCD display.

AVT Question: Please share insights on the ongoing transition to networked AV and the role the cloud and AI play.

Thought Leader: Josh Blalock, Global Director, Alliances & Engagement at Shure

The conversation around AI has matured. A year ago, everyone was talking about AI theoretically. Today, the real question is whether the infrastructure underneath it is actually ready to support the outcomes organizations expect, and if their AI roadmap matches their business roadmap.

As more companies rely on AI to summarize meetings, assign actions, automate workflows, and collaborate with agents, good enough isn’t good enough anymore. Every meeting is creating data that those systems depend on. If the audio isn’t captured accurately or your collaboration environment is fragmented across disconnected platforms, those small gaps become much bigger problems once AI agents start making decisions from that information.

Organizations shouldn’t think about meeting rooms as just places where conversations happen; they should be thought of as spaces where business data is generated, and decisions are taken. The same way organizations wouldn’t accept missing records in CRM or gaps in email history, the same should apply to incomplete or inaccurate meeting data.

The cloud plays a critical role by giving IT teams centralized visibility and management across their collaboration environments, while AI unlocks new ways to turn meeting content into action.

But neither delivers value without a strong foundation. The organizations that will benefit most are those that build an ecosystem that captures the highest-quality data from the very beginning. That’s what enables AI to deliver meaningful business outcomes.

Quick view:

• WAVETOOL 4 is designed to support audio teams throughout the entire production lifecycle, from setup and mic checks through live performance and post-event review.
• Enhancements include Global Instant Replay, support for 192 channels, a fully scalable interface, and more.
• The software also expands access to WAVETOOL through subscription licensing managed via ShureCloud.

Shure has unveiled WAVETOOL 4, the latest evolution of its professional audio monitoring and listening software. Designed for theater, live sound, broadcast, and houses of worship, WAVETOOL 4 enables teams to monitor, replay, and verify live audio across their entire system in real time. By combining direct listening, instant replay, and team collaboration, WAVETOOL 4 gives engineers greater confidence to troubleshoot issues faster and keep productions running smoothly.

[Shure Welcomes a New Sales Channel Leader]

WAVETOOL 4 builds on the platform’s listening-first foundation with new capabilities that expand visibility across complex productions. New features include full-system Global Instant Replay with up to 30 minutes of history, expanded channel capacity, a customizable user interface, and enhanced collaboration tools that give teams the context to investigate unexpected events, coordinate responses, and maintain awareness throughout every production.

“WAVETOOL has changed how we monitor productions, quite fundamentally," said Dominic Bilkey, head of sound and video for the National Theatre in London. "The ability to roam freely backstage, working the wigs, makeup, and costume teams, with the chat function going into that as well. It’s that set of tools that enables the team to accurately do their job."

Unlike traditional monitoring tools that rely solely on looking at the meters, WAVETOOL 4 allows engineers to listen directly to live audio channels while maintaining visibility across wired and wireless sources. The platform brings audio, replay, alerts, and communication into a single shared environment, turning monitoring into a common reference point for the entire production team.

Executive Summary

• Physical spaces are becoming connected environments that integrate touchpoints into a seamless customer journey.
• This "Connected Customer Experience" turns locations into strategic assets that shape perceptions and strengthen relationships.
• Future competitive advantage depends on intelligently integrating technology to create memorable experiences and drive sustainable growth.

For decades, organizations have invested heavily in making digital experiences smarter. Websites became interactive. Mobile apps became personalized. Loyalty programs became data-driven. Artificial intelligence is accelerating every aspect of customer engagement.

Today, an equally important transformation is underway, not on our screens but inside the physical places where customers shop, dine, stay, relax, and receive care.

Restaurants, hotels, retailers, medical practices, spas, fitness centers, and other customer-facing businesses are no longer simply physical locations. They are becoming digitally intelligent, connected environments capable of communicating, personalizing, measuring, and continuously improving the customer experience.

I believe this transformation will define the next era of customer engagement.

For years, businesses managed the customer journey in pieces. Marketing attracted customers before the visit. Operations owned the experience during the visit. Loyalty programs worked to bring customers back afterward. Each stage evolved independently because the technologies supporting them evolved independently.

Customers, however, never experienced those divisions. They experienced one relationship with one brand. The disconnect was never in the customer journey; it was in the technology behind it.

That limitation is finally disappearing. Cloud platforms, APIs, AI and intelligent integrations now make it possible to connect systems that once operated in isolation. For the first time, physical spaces themselves can participate intelligently in building customer relationships.

This is what I call the Connected Customer Experience.

A Connected Customer Experience is created when a digitally intelligent physical environment connects every customer touchpoint before, during, and after the visit into one seamless, measurable journey that consistently reinforces the brand, strengthens customer relationships, builds loyalty, and drives long-term business growth.

Music, messaging, signage, loyalty, AI, and analytics are no longer separate technologies. Together, they become one coordinated, strategically managed experience that customers remember and return for.

Where Brands Are Built

The Connected Customer Experience comes to life in the moments that matter most. A guest walks into a restaurant expecting more than a good meal. A traveler enters a hotel looking for comfort and confidence. A shopper steps into a retail store hoping to discover something new. A patient arrives at a medical practice seeking reassurance and trust. A guest enters a spa expecting relaxation and renewal. In every case, the customer isn't simply purchasing a product or service. They're experiencing a brand.

For decades, those physical environments remained largely passive. Music played in the background. Digital displays communicated information. Loyalty programs lived inside mobile apps. Customer messaging occurred before or after the visit. Each element served a purpose but rarely worked together as part of a unified strategy.

Today, that's changing. Physical spaces are no longer just places where transactions occur. They are becoming intelligent, connected environments that help shape perceptions, strengthen relationships, and actively reinforce the brand at every stage of the customer journey.

The next competitive advantage won't come from simply deploying more technology. It will come from transforming physical spaces into strategic, brand-building environments that create stronger customer experiences, deepen loyalty and drive sustainable business growth.

The Opportunity for Customer-Facing Businesses

Restaurants, hotels, retailers, healthcare providers, spas, fitness centers, and other customer-facing organizations all face the same opportunity: transforming physical spaces into connected customer experiences that consistently express the brand while strengthening loyalty and supporting long-term growth.

For companies operating in this space, the opportunity is increasingly about connecting technologies that have traditionally been managed separately. Branded music and AI-powered messaging can shape how a physical space sounds and feels, while integrations with loyalty programs and digital signage platforms can bring those touchpoints together into a single connected experience. The broader goal is not simply to connect technologies, but to help organizations create experiences customers remember, relationships customers value, and brands they choose repeatedly.

The Next Competitive Advantage

The Connected Customer Experience is not another technology trend. It is a new blueprint for customer-facing businesses.

Organizations won't distinguish themselves by deploying more technology than their competitors. They'll distinguish themselves by connecting technology more intelligently to create physical environments that actively build brands, deepen customer loyalty, and drive sustainable business growth.

That future is no longer theoretical. It's already taking shape, one connected customer experience at a time.

Executive Summary

• Nature sound recordist Thomas Rex Beverly conducted expeditions in Hawaii and French Polynesia, developing a custom 3D-hydrophone array to capture high-definition, spatialized audio of humpback whales.
• Sennheiser played a critical role in the project: the HD 300 PROtect headphones ensured Beverly could safely monitor extreme acoustic soundscapes during long overnight sessions, while the MKH 8020 microphones captured ambient surface-level sounds to create an immersive blend of the underwater and above-water worlds.

Nature sound recordist Thomas Rex Beverly has spent years chasing the sounds of the natural world, from Patagonian mountain ranges to glaciers of Greenland to the ancient redwood canopies of California. Now he has gone further than ever before, plunging beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean to capture the extraordinary songs of humpback whales. Armed with a trusted set of Sennheiser HD 300 PROtect headphones, his long-standing companions, MKH 8020 microphones, and a bespoke 3D hydrophone array, Beverly undertook two expeditions, first to Hawaii and then to French Polynesia, in pursuit of high-definition, spatialized recordings that no researcher had previously made.

Beverly has followed three core themes in his field recording expeditions; glaciers, weather and ancient trees, and has now added a fourth, whales. He found that while the existing recordings were interesting, he felt he could do more to really capture their other-worldly songs and the essence of their habitat, specifically with a more accurate recording of the vast spatial nature of the underwater world. His adventure began in Hawaii, where he recorded the unique underwater world of the wildlife around the Big Island, and ended in French Polynesia where, with the help of Sennheiser, he listened to the enticing songs of humpback whales.

Typically, existing recordings of whale song have been recorded for research purposes and are optimized by scientists for ultra-long recordings of up to six months. This makes the results factually accurate, but not of high enough resolution to be suitable for spatialised sound or high-definition listening. As a field recordist, Beverly strives for perfection. His sound libraries are used by sound designers for film, TV, video games, and museums, with his clients including Oscar, Emmy, and Golden Globe-winning sound designers and sound editors.

“I started recording whales in Hawaii during February 2025. This was my first whale project, and I did a huge amount of learning,” Beverly recalls. “I got some great recordings, but for my French Polynesia trip in October 2025, I was able to really improve on that experience, refining my techniques and immersive hydrophone arrays.”

Building a Robust Gear Pack

Capturing the unique and almost alien environments of the sea requires robust and reliable equipment. For his latest adventure, Beverly relied on the accuracy and safety of his Sennheiser HD 300 PROtect headphones, alongside a complex and completely bespoke 3D-recording hydrophone rig. The HD 300 PROtect are fitted with Sennheiser’s ActiveGard technology, which protects the wearer’s hearing from sudden sound bursts without interrupting the audio signal, an added safety feature that differs from traditional acoustic shock clipping circuitry. The headphones proved critical for long overnight sessions spent immersed in some of the ocean’s loudest and most dynamic soundscapes.

Beverly recounts, “I’m sitting in the dark, rocking gently on a catamaran off the coast of an island that looks like Jurassic Park. I’m in French Polynesia and the humpbacks have all gone quiet. They’re hiding to protect their calves from a pod of Orcas that have been hunting. It’s been eerily quiet for almost an hour. I start to hear a sound like distant machine guns firing constantly. Then I hear a whistle. I realize something magical is about to happen, so I start scanning the horizon.

I see the first spinner jump. They really spin as their whole body flies out of the water. So neat. The dolphin pod was curious about why we are floating out in the open ocean with hydrophones and decided to check us out. The giant cube of 8 hydrophones captures them swimming in three dimensions. Some of their sounds are in the audible range, but I know there’s a wild world of ultrasonics happening at the moment. I could feel my headphones screaming to reproduce them and got this weird ear fatigue all of a sudden...but luckily the HD 300 PROtect headphones protected my hearing and let me enjoy the moment. It was a beautiful wildlife encounter that I’ll remember when I’m 80.”

Beverly discovered that the Arctic population of humpback whales spend their summers in Alaska, but when winter begins, they migrate to Hawaii. Their food sources are in Alaska, so the whole journey is spent fasting. They congregate to mate, rear their calves and, importantly for Beverly, sing.

“The Humpback soundscapes in French Polynesia are wildly different from the ones I recorded previously. In Hawaii, it’s a chorus of twenty to fifty whales singing at the same time. And in French Polynesia, it’s usually a solo humpback echoing to infinity.

I’m pretty sure the male humpbacks pick locations that are optimized for acoustic sound quality...like singing in an underwater canyon so their echoes sound better. At least that’s what I was imagining when lying on the deck of a sailboat in the dark in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, listening to the magical underwater soundscapes of these massive whales.”

“Not all environments benefit from a 3D recording, but the whales really do,” he expands. “They are spread around and often glide up and down, anywhere from 100- 500 meters in depth, so capturing that dynamic was important. The hydrophones were custom-built. We got some cool, very dense recordings in Hawaii. It’s something that very few people have done, so figuring it out was always going to be tricky, but we learnt a lot of lessons.”

The designer of the hydrophones Beverly uses is Jules Ryckebusch. He is a retired US Navy veteran with 20 years of experience as a submariner. He has a passion for recording and, while serving, he developed expertise on how the Navy uses hydrophones. After retiring from the Navy, he quickly got interested in all the sounds he could hear, and it made him want hydrophones of his own, leading him into custom design. He now shares those designs, as well as his audio expertise, widely on sites like Instructables.com, showing how these remarkable hydrophones can be made for the reasonable outlay of around $250 each. Beverly first used the Gladys hydrophone in 2019 and has had them as an essential part of his toolkit ever since.

“The speed of sound is different under water, it is roughly 4.5 times faster than in air, depending on the depth and temperature,” Beverly explains. “So, this affects the size of the array. On land, I would aim for about 40cm, minimum, for an omni array, but the minimum distance to achieve a stereo image under water is going to be about two meters.”

Building a Seven-meter Cube Beneath Mo’orea

For his work in French Polynesia, Beverly expanded the size of his array to seven meters cubed. Here, the whales are from a range of species, so the songs they sing occupy a huge frequency range. The real stars were the humpbacks, with their distinctive calls, but there were also fin whales, which make much deeper, more bass sounding calls and songs. In the upper ranges, high frequency clicks from dolphins and orca were also audible, with the presence of orca pods having a surprising effect on his recordings.

“Orcas hunt humpback whales,” Beverly explains. “A transient pod would move through the area we were recording in, chasing after the calves. When they were around, the humpback whales stopped singing and started hiding. It was interesting because the fin whales did not stop singing. That could be because they were farther away, but it could also be that they were just not bothered by the orcas.”

Beverly often recorded at night, when noise pollution from other vessels was limited. He found a willing local guide who was excited by his endeavors and owned a sailboat. The guide agreed to take him out, in return he got to listen to the remarkable songs too, something that his lifetime on the sea had not given him the opportunity to do before. His base was the beautiful island Mo’orea about 10 miles west of Tahiti.

With his experience from Hawaii, Beverly engineered a modified array system, with a central recording position. A stereo cable ran from here to each corner of the boat, with two hydrophones attached to each cable, the first at 25 meters, with the second seven meters below that. The result was a seven-meter cube, submerged 25 meters under water to reduce surface noise, with far less handling noise and much faster deployment than the Hawaii frame method.

Monitoring at Depth with the Sennheiser HD 300 PRO

“The whole setup was much easier with me sitting in the middle of the boat,” Beverly continues. “I’d got the HD 300 PROtect’s SPL limiting enabled, so I was much happier about listening for long periods of time with the volume cranked up. It is a limiter rather than a cut-out, so it just gave me peace of mind. There was a moment when I was listening to the sounds of the coral reef, half asleep, when a male humpback started singing loudly to the left of the sailboat. This came suddenly out of a quiet, subtle soundscape. I had the volume cranked way up, so I might have damaged my hearing without the limiters on the HD 300 PROtect.

Another dramatic sound came from snapping shrimp: powerful miniature creatures that use a high-pressure burst of water to stun prey and communicate. Despite their tiny size, their sounds are as loud as a dolphin’s and dominate the reef soundscape.

Overnight, Beverly also heard sharks and rays stalking their prey. As he moved into deeper water, these sounds faded into the background, like cicadas fading on summer evenings on land. Left in the foreground were the mournful, echoing calls of the humpback.

Nicknaming the producers of these calls “the subwoofer whales”, the calls of the humpback can go as low as 20 Hertz. At these frequencies Beverly was feeling more than hearing the sounds, but his headphones were able to reproduce enough of the sound for him to truly experience these vocalizations.

“I had no idea how far away the whales were, because the sounds travel so far,” he says. “They could be fin whales, humpbacks, or even blue whales, whose sounds are more like a low-frequency pulse. These sounds create amazing layers, going down to around 20-80 Hertz, with singing in every layer, added to by the background noise of the reef with shrimp clicks and animals that live in the coral. In the middle ground areas, you get these cool reflections from the underwater canyons. I really wouldn’t have been able to enjoy all these sounds as fully without the limiter on my headphones. During the night, I would be lying on the deck of the boat at night, maybe sipping rum, and if I didn’t have that added protection, I wouldn’t be as comfortable. The limiter on the HD 300 PROtects is a useful feature for people recording in the field.”

Sennheiser MKH 8020 Bridges Two Worlds

Beverly also experimented with layering in above-water sounds. In his experience, there was a real juxtaposition between the calm, still nighttime air and the cacophony of sound just below the waves. The stillness was occasionally broken by the emergence of humpback whales, slapping their flukes and playing as they came up for air.

For these moments, Beverly turned to his Sennheiser MKH 8000 Series microphones, specifically the MKH 8020, the same omnidirectional RF condensers that have accompanied him on every expedition, from the ice of Patagonia to the canopy of California’s redwoods. Their exceptionally low self-noise, flat frequency response, and ability to handle extreme conditions make them as well-suited to the salt air of the Pacific at midnight as they are to a howling Andean gale. Blending the airborne world with the alien sounds of the underwater realm gave back a sense of reality, and it was these shifts in perception that pleased Beverly.

“Under water, you have the snapping shrimp, which make an almost electric popping sort of sound,” he says. “When it starts raining on the surface of the water, you have this underwater rain sound that’s mixed with the electrical crackling, and it starts sounding like a sci-fi rain. If I mix that with the sounds captured by the 8020s and switch between the two, it gives a shift that I find really interesting. Moving from the heard world above water, to the unheard world below.”

The stereo MKH 8018, on the other hand, was used as a spot microphone, adding effects like the wind in the sails or any moving sound sources.

Other Worldly

For Beverly, this trip was more than capturing audio, it was an experiment in understanding an alien soundscape that few get to hear. His recording sessions were done from a large sailboat and he wasn’t allow to get in the water while recording. However, French Polynesia is one of the few places in the world where you can snorkel with humpback whales. You just have to charter a special boat that is permitted to do guided whale swims. So, after recording these majestic creatures from a safe distance, Beverly packed away his hydrophones and came face to face with the humpbacks during a guided swimming session. During this unique experience, he made eye contact with a humpback calf and it left a lasting impression. He discovered more about nature during his time in French Polynesia than he could have imagined.

“I think one of the main reasons I like whales so much is that you don’t have a reference for them,” he concludes. “If I go from Texas to Tanzania, I hear birdsong – it may sound very different, but they still sound like birds! You have a reference because there are birds where you live. Underwater sounds are very foreign to me. It’s just another planet down there. The whales make all sorts of crazy sounds and I’m excited to share more of them.”

As he reflects on this latest chapter, Beverly is already thinking about what comes next. His MKH 8000 Series microphones, battered by glacial winds and ocean spray across years of expeditions, remain as indispensable as ever. That is proof, if any were needed, that great field recording begins with microphones that can be trusted in the harshest and most unpredictable environments.

If you’d like to read a full technical article about hydro arrays, please read Beverly’s blog post on 3D Immersive Hydrophone Arrays.

Details:

• Santo Domingo’s new Monte de Dios recently opened its doors with an L-Acoustics K2 loudspeaker system designed by Wholestage and integrated by SVL.
• Seating nearly 8,000 worshipers, L-Acoustics-equipped Monte de Dios is now the largest Christian church in the Caribbean.
• The main system comprises 48 L-Acoustics K2 flown as four arrays of 12, paired with a central cluster of 16 KS28 subwoofers in two hangs of eight.

Monte de Dios Brings Big Sonic Upgrade to the Caribbean

When Ministerio Internacional Monte de Dios opened the doors of its new home in Santo Domingo on July 17, 2026, it did so as the largest Christian church in the Caribbean. More than a decade in the making, the new worship space rises from a 484,376-square-foot campus seats nearly 8,000 worshipers around a central stage. Its leaders were determined that the new building be matched by sound worthy of its scale: every seat, from the front row to the far end of the arc, had to receive the same clear speech and the same full-range music. To reach that standard, the choice of L-Acoustics came naturally.

[Now Available: The Integration Guide to House of Worship]

Church management set a benchmark of no more than 3 dB of level variation between any two seats in the house, an exacting target for even coverage across a nearly 180-degree audience. Speech intelligibility was the first priority, but the music had to carry equal weight. As Jonathan Del Villar, CTO and managing partner at Wholestage, an L-Acoustics certified provider distributor (CPd) for the Dominican Republic, explained, that was a challenge as the band stays on stage the whole time, and there is a lot of energy from every angle.

Miguel Bogaert Jr., son of the founding pastor and closely involved in the church’s technology decisions, is a longtime follower of L-Acoustics. “The church intentionally wanted to create a worship space that provided a high-fidelity experience,” said Del Villar. Wholestage designed the system and brought in locally based integrator SoundVideoLight (SVL), which has 15 years of audiovisual experience in the region, to handle the installation alongside the church’s lighting, rigging, and show-control infrastructure.

Church leadership “really did its homework,” Del Villar noted, studying how comparable congregations across the region had solved the same problem. With the brief set, Wholestage designed the church sound system around L-Acoustics K2, modeling coverage in L-Acoustics Soundvision to confirm even level and intelligibility across the full arc before a single enclosure was flown. L-Acoustics supported the design at every stage.

“We had strong support from L-Acoustics throughout the entire project. Josh Maichele, global application lead for house of worship, was heavily involved, especially during the design stage,” Del Villar said. It was Maichele who proposed a flown end-fire and cardioid configuration for the KS28 subwoofers. “It is an almost 180-degree seating area, so this was a very effective way to ensure there were no low-end cancellations anywhere in the auditorium,” he added.

Final calibration was carried out with L-Acoustics M1 and P1 against the Soundvision predictions, with L-Acoustics application engineer Alex Soto on-site alongside the Wholestage and SVL teams, the latter being led by SVL operations and project manager Pedro Abreu.

The main system comprises 48 K2 flown as four arrays of 12, paired with a central cluster of 16 KS28 subwoofers in two hangs of eight, set in the combined end-fire and cardioid arrangement. Eight X8 provide front-fill and hangs of one A15i Focus over two A15i Wide per side deliver side-fill, while two X12, one per side, serve as delays. Onstage, four X15 HiQ act as monitors. The K2 mains are granularly driven by 192 channels of LA7.16i amplified controller power, for paramount consistency over the audience, and the KS28 subwoofers are powered by a dozen LA12X amplified controllers. Del Villar also specified three DiGiCo Quantum3³⁸ consoles for front-of-house, monitor, and broadcast mixes.

The result is a room where the 3 dB target holds from the first row to the last, and where the low end is felt as clearly as it is heard. On its opening weekend, an auditorium of worshipers, joined by Dominican President Luis Abinader, heard both the music and the message land with the same clarity in every seat. “They wanted their members and visitors to feel the band, the drums, and with this system, they really do,” Del Villar concluded. “L-Acoustics has become the standard for houses of worship because it lets you hear the truth."

Palm Beach Aquatic Centre has completed a major redevelopment, reopening as a modern community destination designed to serve swimmers, fitness users, families, and local community groups across the southern Gold Coast. To support the expanded facility, The Prestige Group designed and integrated a venue-wide JBL Professional audio system that provides flexible, multi-zone coverage throughout indoor and outdoor spaces while accommodating the operational demands of a high-traffic aquatic environment.

[The Experience Economy, Revisited]

When the Palm Beach Aquatic Centre reopened in October 2024, it marked far more than a cosmetic upgrade. Apart from the existing 164-foot pool, the revamped facility now includes a learn-to-swim pool, hydrotherapy pool, splash pad, gymnasium, group fitness studios, café, crèche and community gathering spaces. With multiple activities occurring simultaneously throughout the day, the City of Gold Coast required an audio system capable of supporting clear communication, background music and zone-specific announcements without disrupting adjacent areas.

The Prestige Group worked alongside MadisonAV to develop a solution that extended well beyond the basic paging system originally specified during the planning phase. Instead, the team implemented a true multi-zone design capable of providing localized control across more than 40 independent audio zones, allowing staff to manage announcements and music according to the operational needs of each area.

To meet the acoustic and environmental requirements of the facility, The Prestige Group selected a range of JBL Professional loudspeakers designed for both indoor and outdoor applications. Twelve JBL CBT 70J column loudspeakers were deployed in large open areas where controlled coverage and speech intelligibility were critical. JBL AWC82 all-weather loudspeakers were installed throughout pool halls and other moisture-exposed environments, while JBL Control Series ceiling and surface-mount loudspeakers were integrated throughout fitness areas, studios and ancillary spaces to provide consistent audio coverage across the site.

The system was designed to support the unique operational requirements of an aquatic facility, where humidity, chlorine exposure and changing occupancy levels can present challenges for conventional audio systems. By combining weather-resistant loudspeakers with a distributed, zone-based architecture, the installation provides reliable performance while allowing the venue to adapt audio content to different activities occurring simultaneously throughout the complex.

“The CBT70s are very focusable, with even dispersion,” said Nathan Wright, project manager from The Prestige Group. “They integrate cleanly with the architecture, deliver strong full frequency performance, and are well suited to the environmental conditions.”

Since reopening, Palm Beach Aquatic Centre has exceeded attendance expectations with strong community engagement across its aquatic, fitness and recreational programs. The audio system has become an important part of the facility’s daily operation, supporting communication, programming and visitor experiences throughout the venue. With its flexible multi-zone JBL Professional installation, the Palm Beach Aquatic Centre is equipped to accommodate continued growth while providing reliable audio coverage across one of the Gold Coast’s most active community facilities.

There’s nothing better than a successful deployment of new AV when everything is running smoothly. New auto-framing audio and video conferencing hardware and software connect in-person and remote participants, and a control system automatically initiates a meeting and starts the presentation on display. Participants collaborate, sharing content and video that is seamlessly switched to different displays. It’s AV/IT nirvana.

Until it’s not. We asked AV/IT industry thought leaders about how their company’s products and solutions help ensure interoperability and connectivity not only on the day of deployment, but also on Day 2 and beyond. Below are some excerpts.

For the full interviews, check out the sidebar on the right.

Omer Brookstein, CEO and co-founder at Xyte, said, “The real goal isn’t simply to connect devices. It’s to make AV easier to manage, easier to support, and easier to improve over time. Open cloud connectivity helps organizations monitor mixed fleets more consistently, move data between systems, automate routine tasks, and adopt new tools without rebuilding everything around a single vendor’s stack.”

“We focus heavily on open standards and network-based solutions, said Emma Eagle, manager of Marketing at Hall Research. “When AV technology works the same way other IT systems do, it becomes easier to deploy, manage, and scale across an entire organization—from small meeting rooms to large conference spaces.

“Established customer deployments may require upgrades to maintain long-term interoperability, as the protocols themselves are often evolving,“ Amy Zhou, director of Sales at Magewell, added. “For example, the popular NDI connectivity technology has changed over the years; it’s now on version 6.3 overall, and media formats within it have gone from NDI High Bandwidth to NDI HX, NDI HX2, and NDI HX3. This makes the upgradability of our products crucial for continued interoperability and compatibility.”

Joel Mulpeter, senior director of Product Marketing at Crestron, said, “Our products always need to work with the network—not against it. When we get deployed in a facility, the network exists, and we’re part of that ecosystem, so we ensure that we’re good citizens on that network.”

“By combining manufacturer-agnostic interoperability, robust management, and scalable design, Audinate’s solutions help ensure connectivity that works without friction, every day, at any scale,” said Jim Kidwell, principal product marketing manager at Audinate.“

“At ViewSonic, we approach product development with the full ecosystem in mind,” said Shane Roma, technical product manager of dvLED and Commercial Displays at ViewSonic. “A unified API structure reduces programming complexity, accelerates deployment, and minimizes support calls across diverse installations.”

Effi Goldstein, President of the HDBaseT Alliance, added, “Our commitment to an open, vendor-agnostic standard empowers businesses with exceptional flexibility. Organizations can mix and match products across multiple brands without risking compatibility issues, supporting business continuity, easier maintenance, and long-term investment protection.

“Sennheiser’s commitment to interoperability—across Dante, open APIs, alliance partnerships, and secure cloud management—helps organizations build AV ecosystems that are connected, scalable, and ready for whatever comes next,” said Jakub Kolacz, manager of Product Management Software at Sennheiser.”

Adam Sowers, senior manager of Business Development at Sony Electronics, added, “As a founding member of Open AV Cloud, we help to drive best practices around open ecosystems and interoperability for IP-based integrations, control, and monitoring that work across environments.”

“By prioritizing interoperability at every level, Shure empowers IT teams to deliver collaboration environments that are consistent, intuitive, and scalable wherever work happens,” added Justin Ramirez, senior director of Software Sales at Shure.

Crest Audio, a brand of Peavey Electronics Corporation, has introduced two new PoE++ powered loudspeakers: the CiP 26 and the CiP 5. Designed for today’s fully networked AV environments, both models combine professional sound quality with streamlined, network-cable installation—reflecting the growing shift toward smarter, more scalable commercial audio systems.

[Looking Back, Moving Forward]

As organizations increasingly adopt networked-based infrastructures, the need for loudspeakers that integrate seamlessly into AVoIP ecosystems continues to grow. The CiP Series answers that demand by delivering both power, control, and audio over a single Ethernet cable using PoE++ (IEEE 802.3bt Type 4 90W), removing the requirement for local mains power or separate amplifier racks. The result is cleaner installations, faster deployment and greater flexibility for integrators and end users alike.

“We are seeing a clear shift toward network-first audio design. Integrators want solutions that reduce infrastructure complexity while maintaining professional performance standards," said Christoph Sesseck, sales manager EMEA for Peavey Commercial Audio. "With these latest additions to our CiP speaker line, we are giving our partners scalable loudspeaker options that combine the latest networking protocols integration, PoE++ simplicity and the sonic character that Crest Audio is known for. It’s about making high-quality commercial audio easier to deploy and easier to manage.”

The CiP 26 is a compact yet high-output two-way loudspeaker designed for applications where full-range performance and musical impact matter. Featuring dual 6.5-inch woofers paired with a 1-inch dynamic tweeter, its bi-amplified architecture delivers clarity and headroom, reaching peak sound pressure levels of 103 dB at one meter.

With a frequency response spanning 65 Hz to 20 kHz and a wide 120-degree horizontal by 75-degree vertical coverage pattern, the CiP 26 is equally at home delivering dynamic foreground music in hospitality venues as it is supporting speech and presentation audio in larger collaboration spaces. A supplied wall-mount bracket simplifies installation, with connectivity coming via a single RJ-45 connector.

Complementing the CiP 26, the CiP 5 offers a compact solution tailored for a more controlled soundstage. Equipped with a premium 5.25-inch woofer and 0.75-inch tweeter in a bi-amplified configuration, it delivers up to 101 dB peak SPL with a more focused 90x60-degree sound dispersion pattern. This makes it ideally suited to boardrooms, classrooms, meeting rooms, boutique retail spaces and distributed background music systems where intelligibility and tonal balance are essential.

Like the CiP 26, the CiP 5 supports Dante and AES67 (sNET) audio networking and PoE++ power over a single Ethernet cable, with optional 24VDC external power available where required. Its compact enclosure and included U-bracket allow for quick, secure installation across a wide range of commercial settings.

Together, every loudspeaker in the CiP range shares the same design philosophy: professional performance delivered through simplified infrastructure. Whether supporting distributed background music or driving higher-energy foreground applications, the CiP Series gives integrators a cohesive, scalable solution that reflects how modern commercial audio systems are designed today—networked, efficient and ready to grow.

DECT NR+ is emerging as a new kind of 5G class wireless standard that brings high reliability and low latency into professional AV—but without relying on traditional cellular infrastructure. For those specifying wireless audio, intercom, and unified communication (UC) systems, it offers a complementary architecture to operator-driven or private cellular 5G and marks the start of an ongoing journey toward non-cellular 5G tailored to professional environments.

Crucially, DECT NR+ does not happen in a vacuum. For more than two decades, classic DECT and DECT Evolution have been quietly doing a huge amount of work in AV and UC: from cordless telephony and conference phones to business headsets and wireless presentation systems. In the professional audio world, wireless microphone systems like Sennheiser SpeechLine Digital Wireless and AVX have shown how DECT-based links can deliver robust, easy-to-deploy speech solutions in corporate, education, and video production workflows. That installed base has shaped expectations around reliability, range, and ease of use—and it provides the real-world experience on which DECT NR+ now builds.

From Classic DECT to DECT NR+

At its core, DECT NR+ is the revolutionary evolution of classic DECT, a new wireless technology standardized by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as DECT2020 NR and formally recognized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as part of the IMT2020 5G family. Often described as the world’s first noncellular 5G technology, it takes core 5G concepts—ultrareliable low-latency communication, flexible OFDM waveform design, and support for massive device densities—and adapts them to private, user-owned networks. DECT NR+ is designed to operate in frequency bands below 6 GHz, so its propagation characteristics are close to other 5G NR deployments while staying in the lower sweet spot for indoor coverage and penetration. Today, its operation is anchored in an often dedicated, protected 1.9 GHz DECT band that is, in many countries, allocated specifically to DECT and its successors. That gives AV designers a predictable, interference-managed canvas for high-performance wireless audio. While current products focus on this almost globally available 1.9 GHz allocation, the same physical layer is already being evaluated for future site-licensed operation in emerging private network blocks such as CBRS type 3.5 GHz ranges, and the 3.7–3.8 GHz and 3.8–4.2 GHz bands. This extends the concept of user-owned noncellular 5G into higher midbands. Alongside WMAS in the UHF band, DECT NR+ gives us a non-cellular 5G option in 1.9 GHz and, in the future, additional bands—extending the same design philosophy of controlled, low-latency wireless into new parts of the spectrum.

MERCI and Collaborative Innovation

Research initiatives such as the Franco-German MERCI project have helped translate the theoretical capabilities of DECT NR+—like URLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication) class performance and high device density—into concrete architectures and prototypes for demanding live and broadcast environments. MERCI’s final demonstrations, from industrial guided vehicles to the world’s first MPEG-H object-based live audio transmission over DECT NR+, show that the technology is ready for industrial and demanding audio applications and workflows.

The ecosystem around NR+ is being built as an open, collaborative effort rather than as a closed proprietary stack. The OpenerInitiative.org community has become a focal point for open implementations, tools, and documentation around DECT2020 NR / NR+, lowering the barrier for new entrants and experimental projects. In parallel, the DECT Forum’s Academic Industry Roundtable (AIR) offers a platform where manufacturers, chip vendors, universities, and research institutes can align roadmaps, run joint trials, and feed requirements back into standards. Taken together with the long history of classic DECT and DECT Evolution in telephony, conferencing, and wireless microphone systems like SpeechLine and AVX, these initiatives ensure that NR+ continues that lineage into a 5G-class, non-cellular future for AV and UC.

RF Behavior and Network Architecture

From an RF perspective, the 1.9 GHz anchor band avoids the heavy congestion of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi while sidestepping the fragmented ISM bands below 1 GHz. For AV engineers, that means starting from a cleaner spectrum environment where interference from consumer devices is reduced, and coexistence planning is more predictable. The DECT NR+ physical layer uses modern OFDM with adaptive modulation, turbo coding, and optional hybrid ARQ to maintain robust links even in challenging venues like arenas, theaters, and large broadcast compounds—all within that sub 6 GHz window.

Equally important is network topology. DECT NR+ supports point-to-point, star, and self-healing mesh configurations in license-exempt spectrum, with scheduling and routing decisions taken locally at the edge. Unlike cellular 5G, it is not tied to a centralized operator-managed core, so timing and resource allocation can be optimized directly for the venue’s requirements. This makes DECT NR+ behave more like a hardened industrial network than a consumer mobile system, suited to scenarios where latency and reliability must be guaranteed block to block rather than averaged across a wide area.

Cellular 5G, by comparison, is built around operator-run base stations, licensed spectrum, and a centralized core. That architecture excels at wide area mobility, outdoor coverage, and high throughput broadband, and it is increasingly relevant as a backhaul and contribution link technology in broadcast and live production. For many AV and UC projects, however, there is also a need for a fully self-contained, venue-owned RF fabric for the “last mile” between devices and users. DECT NR+ fills that space by providing a modern PHY and MAC that can be rolled out and controlled entirely on-premises, complementing rather than replacing cellular 5G.

What this Means for AV and UC Specifiers

The traffic profile reflects this division of roles. DECT NR+ is optimized for low to medium data rate, small packet traffic such as audio streams, control signals, and sensor telemetry across a single site. That aligns well with professional audio, intercom, and venue-wide UC ecosystems, where deterministic timing and high reliability matter more than peak throughput. Cellular 5G, on the other hand, is optimized first for broadband data, with URLLC and massive IoT capabilities available where needed. In many real-world designs, the result is a layered approach: 5G for wide area connectivity and heavy backhaul, NR+ for dense, low-latency device-level connectivity inside the venue.

[Coming Soon to Pro AV: DECT NR+]

To make NR+ practically usable across vendors and product categories, ETSI TC DECT is developing a family of application-specific profiles for DECT2020 NR, including a Generic Audio Applications profile. Building on earlier DECT audio profiles such as the Advanced Audio Profile, this work defines common behaviors and capabilities for a broad class of audio devices and use cases on top of the NR+ radio layer. The aim is that NR+ based microphones, headsets, loudspeakers, and other endpoints can follow shared expectations for latency, codec handling, and control signaling, giving specifiers more confidence that NR+ labelled solutions will meet a consistent baseline.

For AV and UC specifiers, the technology choice is already becoming a practical line item. A wireless microphone or intercom system that runs on DECT NR+ is not just “another DECT solution”; it is built on an ETSI standardized PHY/MAC engine operating in an often dedicated, protected 1.9 GHz band, with deterministic latency and high device density designed in from the start. That changes RF planning, interference management, and scalability. Instead of manually coordinating dozens of channels under tight constraints, professionals can specify a fabric that can automatically adapt while maintaining predictable performance. In UC, the same fabric can underpin headsets, speakerphones, and room control systems on a dedicated RF layer that does not compete with IT-managed WiFi.

Looking ahead, the ability of DECT NR+ to move beyond 1.9 GHz into site-licensed midbands such as CBRS-type 3.5 GHz allocations and the 3.7–3.8 GHz and 3.8–4.2 GHz ranges now opening for local networks adds another dimension for system designers. The same noncellular 5G technology that underpins license-exempt AV and UC deployments will, in the future, also be able to inhabit coordinated, locally licensed spectrum where extra isolation or capacity is needed—for example, in large campuses, broadcast hubs or critical infrastructure facilities.

In that sense, DECT NR+ is not simply “DECT with a new name,” but a new class of radio access technology that brings 5G-style performance into a spectrum and architecture tuned for professional AV and UC. As this journey continues—driven by collaboration between manufacturers, open technical communities, academic partners, and standardization bodies—DECT NR+ is set to become another proven building block on the AV designer’s shelf: a noncellular 5G foundation that aims to make “wireless as good as wired” a practical design choice in everyday audio and UC projects.

SCN: How long have you been with Peavey, and what are your responsibilities?

Courtland Gray: I’ve been working at Peavey for 24 years. I started in our finance division. I became more involved with various parts of the business as time went on, and have served as COO, CFO, and since our legendary founder, Hartley Peavey, has referred to me as CEO in a few emails to people, I claim that now as well. The responsibilities are broad and wide, covering both our Commercial Audio division and the musical instrument side of the business.

SCN: Last year, Peavey celebrated its 60th anniversary. How has the company been celebrating?

CG: From a product viewpoint, we have brought back several classic Peavey guitar amps from over the years and put them into a pedal preamp format, which have been very popular. And after many years of development, we are thrilled to release Scion, the next generation of MediaMatrix. We are immensely proud of our long-term legacy.

In September, we had an anniversary party in Bali for our APAC distributors and customers, which was a great event. We have also brought our 60th anniversary celebrations to trade shows, with both our ISE and InfoComm booths heavily leaning on our U.S. heritage with an old time Western bar theme showing our achievements over the past six decades. Like most established companies, we have had our share of ups and downs, but we continue to learn and grow as we look to the future with exciting new developments on the horizon.

SCN: I know it’s available in some of your mixers, so I have to ask: Are you for or against Auto-Tune?

CG: I’m for it. There is a big difference between the aggressive T-Pain effect of Auto Tune and its use for a tired singer trying to stay in key toward the end of a gig. Our mixers help tweak it just enough to make a pleasant experience for everyone.

SCN: What prompted Peavey to move into the Pro AV market back in the 1990s?

CG: We were approached by a startup company to distribute the technology that is MediaMatrix. At the time, there were some heated debates about doing this, as some saw Peavey as a hardware company and not a software company. But Hartley saw the opportunities this would have for the brand, and we flew people in and out of Meridian to teach them about the future of audio DSP. We were the first to market with this technology, and it proved to be a good decision that continues to give us opportunities for growth and expansion.

SCN: It’s all audio, of course, but what sort of technological overlap is there between your Pro AV products and your instrument/amp products?

CG: Peavey Commercial Audio is, essentially, made up of two halves—Crest Audio develops and manufactures products for the live performance space such as sound reinforcement, mixers, and amplifiers, while our MediaMatrix line focuses on networked audio, matrices, and sound distribution. Ultimately, it’s all about high-quality, reliable sound, so we use our extensive experience in speaker design to produce, for example, our superb Versarray speaker line.

But I will say the divisions have not overlapped as much as I would like. We need tighter integration of technology, but our engineering groups have been mostly apart and have not collaborated ideally. I see opportunity to take some of the most advanced audio technology on the market from MediaMatrix into our other sound reinforcement and MI products. The cost of driving the code has come down dramatically over the years, which could make the very different price points of each division less of an issue today.

SCN: What makes Peavey’s MediaMatrix unique in the industry?

CG: That’s an excellent question which I’m always happy to answer. Quite simply, Peavey was the very first to introduce networked audio protocols to the industry. Even Dante can trace its roots back to MediaMatrix.

SCN: Is CobraNet still an important selling point for your MediaMatrix DSP solutions, or has Dante taken over completely?

CG: We still have some customers running CobraNet and we can still, for a little longer, support them. However, anything new is moving to Dante or soon to sNET, our protocol that is backward compatible with current nWare installs as well as RAVENNA and AES67. The first CobraNet installation was with MediaMatrix.

SCN: What new Pro AV initiatives are we likely to see from your company?

CG: This is an exciting year for us as we launch the latest and greatest addition to our MediaMatrix range. It’s called Scion and is, quite simply, the most advanced and powerful media and control processor platform available. Scion is the third generation MediaMatrix DSP from Peavey and calls upon 30 years of our pro audio engineering excellence in both hardware and software design.

We have MediaMatrix systems operating in venues today that continue to run without issue for more than 20 years. This latest generation is purpose built from the ground up to meet the demands for today’s (and tomorrow’s) IP-networked installations. With proven 24/7/365 reliability in the most demanding and prestigious venues globally, we believe we are delivering the most powerful DSP based media and control system available today.

SCN: From an audio standpoint, what's next for the Pro AV market?

CG: There is little doubt that the future of all AV installations will be on the network. Across the U.S. and Europe, AVoIP solutions are now the norm, with the Middle East and Far East now embracing the technology. India continues to be a booming market for AV as a whole for both legacy and AVoIP technology.

Longer term, I wouldn’t be surprised to see zero cabling in certain projects in the years to come. Bluetooth and 6G will have almost limitless data capability, removing the need for cables altogether. I would expect many organizations to cling to their legacy infrastructure as the new technology is proven for security and reliability, but there will certainly be a lot less cabling as a whole. Similarly to the connection conundrums we have had around DVI, HDMI, and USB-C, it will be great if there was one wireless uniform connection protocol looming to make things easier for everyone, from manufacturers to end users.

Give your audiophiles the gift of a natural listening experience from Audio-Technica. The ATH-R50x professional open-back reference headphones are designed for all manner of critical-listening tasks. The headphones’ drivers are re-engineered to deliver bass that’s powerful for an open-back model, plus an accurate upper midrange to ensure the clarity of vocals and lead instruments without sacrificing overall balance.

Crafted with mixing, mastering, or creating in mind, the ATH-R50x provides precise, reliable reference across stereo, surround, and immersive formats. Whether they are for the professional or home studio, these headphones are the perfect stocking stuffer for any pro audio enthusiast.

SCN Stocking Stuffers is a seasonal series that highlights affordable Pro AV tools for industry professionals on your “nice” list.

If you've attended one of my webinars during the past six years or more, you'll know that I am a staunch advocate of high-quality audio. That sentiment goes beyond the workplace into my home. My top-of-the-line 65-inch OLED is paired with the best surround sound system I could afford.

Hear Me Out

Until three years ago, I had my interviews for articles transcribed by a woman who knew the industry. Not only did I need her to listen intently to sometimes two different people, but she also needed to discern different dialects and pick up on industry jargon. If my interview were 30 minutes long, it would take her 90 minutes to transcribe, and I'd generally receive it a day later. Two years ago, I began using an AI-generated transcription service that turns around my interviews in a few minutes with around 90 percent accuracy. Given I need to review everything, that percentage is acceptable. I'm only paying a few dollars per interview, and the speed is practically real-time. Unless 100 percent accuracy is needed, human transcriptionists are looking for a new career path.

Within the past year, companies offering highly sophisticated AI transcription services have exploded.

The floodgates have opened. In January, Future editors received a plethora of press releases that hit our inboxes announcing new products and services incorporating AI that enhance the benefits for end-users, integrators, and employees. It's an exciting time.

At Your Service

Like many of you, our company has its fair share of meetings. Every Monday at noon, ET, we have an all-hands B2B Tech Group meeting with, at last count, 53 invited guests. Future, the parent company of AV Technology, has an office in New York City, but the majority of our staff is remote, spread across the U.S. and the U.K., and in more time zones than I can keep track of. For the past few years, Google Meet has become our common meeting space. Having worked remotely since 2014, I have to admit, it's nice to see the faces of the people I work with (just not every Monday, please!).

After extensive research, internal testing, and security measures, Future deployed Gemini, part of Google's family of multimodal AI models and an AI assistant for companywide use. Like other AI assistants, Gemini's features are numerous and growing. I was skeptical because I had already tried its transcription feature and found it was not nearly as accurate as the paid service I was using.

In particular, during the past six months, I have noticed that almost every meeting I participate in, whether it's a Teams, Zoom, or Google meeting scheduled by someone outside my organization, soon after the conclusion, I often receive a meeting recap, and sometimes action items.

Much to my surprise, the summaries and action items have been mostly accurate and pretty helpful. The truth is, I can be more engaged and collaborate more effectively when I am not taking notes. That is, if the AI agent is picking up everything that all the participants are saying.

True Story

Several months ago, Future's B2B senior leadership team flew in from various locations and, along with New York City area employees, conducted a series of planning meetings. Each meeting also comprised three to six remote participants. Our NYC conference rooms are outfitted with a display, webcam/soundbar, and a microphone on the table. The meeting I participated in had approximately 10 people seated at a long conference table, with a microphone in the middle. Plain and simple, I couldn't hear everyone, and when more than one person spoke at once, it was a disaster.

It's not surprising that over the course of the 90 minutes, many sidebar conversations took place that weren't germane to the primary goal. Ironically, those were the conversations I could hear more clearly.

Gemini was not being used to capture this meeting, which was a good thing because the small group sitting together at the end of the table was discussing where to go to dinner that evening, and not everyone was invited. The problem was that I could hear that "quiet" sidebar conversation more clearly than some of the important voices during the meeting.

[Agentic AI, Cindy’s Dahlias, and a Cautionary Tale]

Cindy Predicts Agentic AI as the Top Trend for 2026

I have moderated countless webinars and written even more articles about the importance of high-quality audio in classroom and meeting spaces. As if on its own, being able to hear everyone clearly isn't enough to justify investing in high-quality audio; I firmly believe agentic AI will be the new driver.

Microsoft Copilot, Zoom AI Companion, and Google Gemini are very sophisticated AI-powered tools that have many agentic features. Some of these features have quickly become active participants, and one could argue that they are the most productive participants in a meeting.

High-quality audio in meeting spaces is no longer just about delivering "meeting equity" for the hybrid workforce and remote students. Even if there's no remote participant, using the agentic AI features in Microsoft Copilot, Zoom AI Companion, and Google Gemini can transcribe and summarize meetings and suggest action items. Think about all the time each person spends (or doesn't bother) on figuring out the salient points from a meeting and what action they need to take. More to the point, did they really listen and remember what action is required? For individuals who weren't able to attend the meeting, a summary with action items can be sent.

I believe the use of agentic AI in meetings in 2026 is going to grow exponentially. And I can attest to how much time it has saved me and how it has reminded me of the key points and actions needed.

The reality, and the real point of what has turned into a rant, is that if you don't invest in high-quality audio for your meeting spaces and classrooms, you are making a statement that you don't want to enable people to be more productive. And we all know that CFOs view productivity as the real measure of success.

In 2026, agentic AI will be the most significant driver of finally achieving buy-in for high-quality audio integrated into meeting spaces and classrooms. That's my prediction, and I am sticking to it.

There’s a new wireless transmission standard coming to the audio market: DECT NR+. Short for Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications New Radio+, DECT NR+ is poised to deliver more reliable wireless performance in challenging audio environments.

When DECT NR+ starts to be implemented in pro audio gear, AV technicians and producers will see significant performance improvements in wireless microphones, in-ear monitoring systems, intercom solutions, and professional headsets, among others. In other words, DECT NR+ is set to redefine wireless audio.

The DECT NR+ project has been spearheaded by Sennheiser and the MERCI Project. Dr. Andreas Wilzeck is Sennheiser’s head of spectrum policy and standards, as well as head of the MERCI Consortium that is driving DECT NR+.

“I have been deeply involved in the field of DECT standardization for over a decade, beginning my journey in 2014,” he told SCN. “The MERCI [Media and Event Production via Resilient Communication on IoT Infrastructure] Project is a Franco-German, government co-funded project focused on developing cutting-edge solutions for private 5G networks, particularly those powered by or building upon DECT-2020 NR [marketed by the DECT Forum as DECT NR+] technology.”

Telephone Roots

If the acronym DECT seems familiar, that’s because it is—at least to people who used home cordless telephones a few decades ago. "DECT was initially developed and introduced for cordless telephones,” said Wilzeck. “The first ETSI [European Telecommunications Standards Institute] standard was published in 1992 to enable digital cordless telephony, delivering much higher voice quality and security compared to older analog systems.”

DECT was always envisioned as a flexible digital wireless telecommunication standard that could be used for much more than cordless telephones. In fact, while cordless phones became the most recognizable application, Wilzeck said the original DECT standard was drafted to also support enterprise systems, wireless microphones, baby monitors, industrial sensors, and even public access networks. “In practice, the overwhelming early market success was in home and office phones," he noted, "but DECT’s design always allowed for, and increasingly delivers, many more applications in digital communications.”

Operating in the license-free 1880-1900 MHz range in most countries, the original DECT wireless standard still offers several advantages to audio professionals. They include interference-free operation, good range and building penetration, stable and acceptable latency (for many applications), and secure communications.

Because of its technical strengths and suitability for professional use, DECT has gained a "strong foothold in the digital audio transmission market," Wilzeck said. “Its success is attributed to a unique combination of ease of use, audio quality, low and fixed latency, reliability, and security, making it the ideal choice for demanding audio scenarios.”

Case in point: Cordless headsets in call centers benefit from DECT’s ability to support high device densities, ensuring clear and interference-free conversations in crowded environments. “For audio-for-video applications, solutions like Sennheiser AVX deliver reliable, high-quality audio essential for professional video productions,” Wilzeck added. “Meanwhile, Sennheiser SpeechLine provides a user-friendly and dependable option for corporate and educational settings, simplifying wireless microphone deployment and operation.

"Additionally, DECT technology is widely deployed in intercom systems for live events and broadcast productions, where reliable, low-latency audio transmission and straightforward setup are critical for seamless communication. These advantages have made DECT the preferred wireless solution for mission-critical, professional audio and communication needs across industries.”

What's Different?

DECT is clearly good for wireless audio communications. But DECT NR+ is better.

The reason: DECT NR+ has been specifically designed to meet the ITU’s IMT-2020 (5G) requirements for Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC).

“DECT NR+ is a complete reimagining of DECT, offering a highly flexible wireless technology foundation that can be easily adopted across diverse industry ecosystems,” Wilzeck explained. “It operates below 6 GHz, including the globally available 1.9 GHz bands, and supports reliable, scalable deployments.”

When compared to the original DECT standard, DECT NR+ provides better multipath operation, improved radio sensitivity, enhanced resistance to interference, more efficient bandwidth utilization, low latency, high reliability, scalability, and automatic interference handling. DECT NR+ also supports various network configurations, including tar topology, mesh networking, and point-to-point cable replacement.

“At its core, DECT NR+ delivers a state-of-the-art PHY and MAC layer engine built on OFDM modulation, combined with Time Division Duplex [TDD] and both Time and Frequency Division Multiple Access [TDMA/FDMA],” said Wilzeck. “These technical advances provide enhanced interference resilience, robust multipath operation, and facilitate a broad range of deployment topologies—from simple cable replacements and star networks to advanced, self-organizing mesh networks. With support for both unscheduled and scheduled services, automatic frequency management, and high security, DECT NR+ is engineered to address a wide spectrum of industrial and professional communication needs, well beyond the capabilities of classic DECT.”

Next-Level Benefits

As previously explained, the common benefits of DECT technologies include user-friendly operation, true mobility, automatic frequency and interference management, and support for high connection densities. Thanks to its advanced foundation, DECT NR+ elevates these benefits to an entirely new level.

“By introducing modern radio technologies such as OFDM, adaptive modulation, turbo coding, and self-organizing network architectures, DECT NR+ dramatically improves latency, reliability, and data throughput compared to previous generations,” Wilzeck explained. “Ultimately, DECT NR+ combines the trusted ease, mobility, and flexibility of classic DECT with the performance, scalability, and resilience demanded by next-generation digital wireless communication. What makes it truly remarkable is that DECT NR+ is an independent, openly standardized, and user-deployed 5G technology.”

Currently, DECT NR+ is making its way out of the lab and into the design of future audio products, so there's no point asking Google for DECT NR+ audio products that you can buy today. (We know; we checked.) So, how will it be deployed? Wilzeck has some ideas.

“DECT NR+ is expected to be adopted by a wide range of industries and user groups that require reliable, scalable, and user-controlled wireless connectivity, especially where low latency, high density, and autonomy are critical,” he said. “With its advanced features and flexible architecture, DECT NR+ will not only reimagine classic DECT solutions, but also expand into applications far beyond the reach of previous generations. From industrial automation and smart buildings to healthcare, live event production, and smart cities, DECT NR+ delivers the flexibility and future-readiness needed for the next wave of digital transformation."

According to Wilzeck, DECT NR+ emerged in market-ready solutions between late 2024 and 2025, initially targeting professional and industrial technology sectors. As for audio applications, especially in professional wireless and event technology, Wilzeck said these are just beginning to accelerate. Successful trial demonstrations have resulted in fresh industry interest. "This phased market rollout highlights both the versatility of DECT NR+ and the varying readiness levels across industries," he concluded, "shaping a staggered adoption curve that responds to the unique needs and innovation cycles of each sector."

At the minimum, a DI box converts unbalanced high-impedance signals. At the maximum, a powerfully versatile DI network audio interface goes beyond the box and maintains signal integrity while improving the utility/efficiency of the pro audio chain. Crest Audio’s compact Stage 2x2D is a feature-rich DI box that’s PoE capable with an AD/DA interface for virtually any performance challenge. Designed with future-proof network audio streaming connectivity (Dante/AES67) and supporting dynamic microphone, line level, and Hi-Z instrument pre-amps, the Stage 2x2D delivers audio signals without transient audio loss or acoustic artifacts. On large network audio installations such as hotels, casinos, performance arts and convention centers, the Crest Audio 2x2D provides solid performance, but it’s equally at home touring or in a recording studio. Powered via network switch or available PoE injector, it can be mounted in a 1 RU single or dual rack mount or standalone with its protective rubber casing and feet.

SCN Stocking Stuffers is a seasonal series that highlights affordable Pro AV tools for industry professionals on your “nice” list.

If you want to fill someone’s stocking with a multi-tool, you might want to skip the pliers/knife/file combo and consider the Sennheiser Profile Wireless. I gave this system a serious test drive earlier this year. It’s basically a rectangle of audio goodness (see image left). The charging bar houses two wireless transmitters and a transmitter that connects directly to your phone via USB-C or Lightning (for older iPhones). Both transmitters have integrated mics, but you can also use the locking 3.5mm connector to add a lavalier for a more traditional on-screen look. Pop on the included windscreen on the charging bar and those stored mics become a handheld mic (see image right). Attach the charging bar to a small tripod (it has a 1/4-inch thread) and now you have a tabletop mic. It might not be a great multi-tool for home improvement projects, but the Sennheiser Profile Wireless delivers plenty of flexibility for video projects.

SCN Stocking Stuffers is a seasonal series that highlights affordable Pro AV tools for industry professionals on your “nice” list.

d&b audiotechnik is set to introduce the CCLi Compact Cardioid Line Array, designed specifically for installed applications. Building on the success of the CCL system, which was launched in January 2025, CCLi offers the same technical advantages and acoustical properties, while adding distinctive features tailored for fixed installations.

[No Clean Separation for AV and IT]

The CCLi system provides exceptional performance, compact dimensions (209x593x355mm) and a sleek design, making it ideal for system integrators, consultants and venue owners who are looking for an innovative, powerful and subtle installation solution. It offers broadband directivity control (down to 60 Hz) with low-frequency cardioid behavior to focus acoustic energy onto the intended audience areas. This reduces unwanted low-frequency reflections from the side and rear walls, minimizing reverberation in acoustically challenging spaces.

CCLi delivers extended high-frequency headroom and minimized distortion to ensure greater perceived intelligibility. In terms of efficiency and scalability, the CCLi excels thanks to its single-channel amplifier operation. CCLi also offers features that cater to the needs of the installation market: an unobtrusive design with a new front grille integrated with less visible rigging elements, side panels that replace the CCL handles with flushed side grills, and an optional Phoenix Euroblock connector panel with sealed cable gland.

CCLi is a versatile solution for installed applications, where the accuracy and extent of directivity control, power density, elegant design and cost-effectiveness are key, including multi-purpose venues, theatres, houses of worship, clubs and more.

“The new CCLi system combines a dedicated install-focused design with advanced d&b technology to provide superior acoustical performance for a wide range of Installation projects, ensuring that every word and note is delivered with great precision and power,“ said Santiago Alcalá, product manager loudspeakers, d&b audiotechnik. “Another major benefit of CCLi is its budget-friendliness, which is further enhanced when the systems are combined with the new Bi12 ground subwoofers and the recently introduced 25D amplifiers. This makes CCLi more accessible for many smaller venues and spaces.”

The CCLi system is available in 80 and 120-degree horizontal dispersion models (CCLi8 and CCLi12). As with other d&b loudspeaker systems, the system package also includes a range of matching subwoofers, such as a dedicated flying subwoofer (CCLi-SUB), the installation version of the CCL-SUB. The new Bi12 multipurpose passive cardioid ground subwoofer is introduced specifically for installations. A mobile ground subwoofer version (B12) is also available for the CCL system.

STAGETEC has introduced NEX:T axio, a solution designed to bring intelligence, flexibility, and scalability to the modern production workflows. NEX:T axio integrates premium audio conversion, onboard processing, logic control, embedded STAGENET system, and network management—all within a compact, modular form factor. Available in 8, 16, and 32-channel configurations, it empowers production teams to deploy high-performance audio wherever it’s needed most—in the studio, in the field, or on stage—without compromising quality or control.

[The Power of Predictable Audio Performance]

NEX:T axio enables a smooth, step-by-step integration to AoIP I/O Networks. Existing systems, whether STAGETEC or third-party, integrate effortlessly, preserving workflows and investments. With intuitive web-based control and a familiar STAGETEC GUI, users gain centralized management, full system visibility, and maximum future readiness.

The NEX:T axio was designed for organizations modernizing their audio infrastructure, especially where there is a mix of legacy and IP audio, and where flexibility, scalability, and hybrid workflows matter. It ticks many of the “modern audio network” boxes: multiple formats, IP compatibility, centralized control, and scalable architecture where you want to invest in something that can grow rather than rebuild.

Built in embedded STAGENET browser, the NEX:T axio delivers instant, unified control through the same intuitive, browser-based interface used across all STAGETEC products. No applications, multiple GUIs, or complex setup—just seamless device discovery, routing, monitoring, and GPIO management in one system. Users can save on costs and scale precisely with the right size (8/16/32) while gaining processing and logic in one device and potentially reducing the amounts of additional devices required.  And NEX: T axio is fully compatible with NEXUS and AVATUS, while opening the path to future hybrid IP workflows. 

From broadcast studios to live stages and remote setups, NEX:T axio delivers enhanced sound quality and seamless adaptability across any workflow. The mixture of legacy plus IP formats in one box is a strong feature for organizations that are not ready to rip and replace. Supported formats include analog, AES3, MADI, and IP-audio protocols such as Dante, AES67, and ST 2110-30.

The four-stage operation of TrueMatch converters removes the necessity for analog preamplification, effectively eliminating analog overload and component noise for a pristine audio experience, achieving a previously unobtainable, unmatched dynamic range of 164dB. With integrated four-way microphone audio split and integrated processing and logic providing onboard DSP and GPIO capabilities, NEX:T axio goes beyond a standard I/O box, enabling local signal processing, routing, and automation directly within the unit for smarter, more efficient workflows.

Crest Audio has expanded the capabilities of its latest CPL+ loudspeaker series with full support for EASE (Enhanced Acoustic Simulator for Engineers) and CLF2 (Common Loudspeaker Format) data integration. The move gives AV consultants, system designers, and integrators direct access to accurate, manufacturer-verified loudspeaker data for use in predictive acoustic modelling, coverage mapping, and design validation—essential steps in today’s data-driven installation workflow.

[Blueprint for Success: No Clean Separation for AV and IT]

“EASE and CLF2 integration ensures that CPL+ is not just powerful in performance, but also predictable in design,” said Christoph Sesseck, sales manager for Peavey Commercial Audio (EMEA). “We know that consultants and system designers depend on credible data. Now, they can drop CPL+ straight into their modelling software and trust that what they see in simulation is what they’ll get in the room.”

The CPL+ range combines tour-grade components, cabinetry, and refined voicing to deliver high output, clarity, and reliability in demanding environments. Designed for both fixed installation and mobile reinforcement, the series includes a family of full-range and subwoofer models, offering coverage and configuration options for a wide variety of applications.

Now EASE and CLF2-enabled, each CPL+ loudspeaker now ships with comprehensive GLL and CF2 data files, allowing users to perform detailed design simulations within EASE 5, EASE 4, and CLF Viewer, as well as most CLF compatible simulation software, providing 3D balloon and polar plots for precise directivity analysis; frequency response and phase plots validated to industry standards; comparative overlays to match CPL+ models against other manufacturers; and accurate SPL coverage and STI mapping when deployed in EASE-modelled venues.

Bose Professional has unveiled its DesignMax Luna DML88P pendant loudspeaker system. Luna was designed to deliver high-fidelity audio for open-ceiling environments such as retail stores, restaurants, breweries, fitness studios, and similar design-conscious spaces.

[An Unsung Microphone Hero]

Luna was crafted with Bose Professional’s proprietary Ring Array configuration, which combines eight precisely positioned 2-inch mid-high drivers and an integrated 8-inch woofer to create a smooth, articulate listening experience that fills the coverage area without hot spots or dead zones. This innovative design achieves exceptional clarity and balance down to 40 Hz, which eliminates the need for external subwoofers even in open-ceiling spaces. With a maximum SPL of 111 dB and consistent 140-degree coverage, Luna delivers powerful, immersive sound that requires fewer speakers to cover large areas—preserving both aesthetics and budget.

“DesignMax Luna represents a bold leap forward in pendant loudspeaker technology,” said John Maier, CEO of Bose Professional. “We’ve reimagined what’s possible in architectural audio, delivering a product that meets the highest standards of sonic performance and visual elegance. Luna is a testament to our commitment to technical leadership and addressing our customers’ evolving needs.”

Luna was specifically engineered to address installation issues commonly found in challenging open-ceiling spaces and adapt to constraints while remaining perfectly balanced. Luna supports both single and two-point suspension, with a streamlined profile and concealed wiring that provides a clean look from every angle.

“Luna is more than another pendant loudspeaker—it sets a new standard for performance in a unique, self-contained solution,” added Shawn Watts, VP of product at Bose Professional. “Luna delivers space-filling, crystal-clear sound and deep bass from a single pendant form factor. Designed to replace the traditional pendant-and-subwoofer setup, Luna is easy to spec, easy to hang, and made to blend in visually—letting the sound take center stage. We’re proud to bring this groundbreaking product to our global customers.”

ADI introduced Episode Pro Audio’s Episode Business Music Solution (EBMS), designed to help customers continue growing and succeeding in the commercial market. EBMS is a streamlined, all-in-one offering for small-to-medium business installations, featuring a suite of interoperable professional audio products that give integrators a complete, scalable, and easy-to-deploy sound system purpose-built for commercial environments.

Until now, integrators have often had to piecemeal commercial audio systems using a mix of third-party components, leading to systems with potential for compatibility issues, and limited service visibility. EBMS solves this challenge by delivering a comprehensive, tightly integrated lineup of professional-grade DSPs, amplifiers, mixers, and accessory wall plates — all engineered to work together seamlessly and with the ADI ecosystem, including Control4, OvrC, and RYFF streaming.

“There’s long been a gap in the market for a unified, high-performance commercial audio solution that’s easy for integrators to install, manage, and expand,” said Michael Buratto, senior director product management, at ADI. “With EBMS we’re empowering our customers to capitalize on a huge opportunity by making it easier to design, deploy, and support professional-grade audio systems while leveraging familiar ADI tools and platforms.”

From fast-casual and high-end restaurants to gyms, salons, and more, EBMS components are designed for demanding real-world applications. Whether a project calls for ambient background music, zone-based audio distribution, or paging and announcements, Episode Pro Audio, the new sub-brand introduced with this launch, delivers flexibility and reliability at scale.

Integrators can select from a range of components in the EBMS line, including zone mixer / power amplifier combination units, dedicated power amplifiers, front-end processors, and POE wall plate controllers.

EBMS is a key piece of ADI’s broader “Better Together” ecosystem strategy, enabling integrators to pair Episode Pro Audio with a growing portfolio of complementary products from Araknis, Luma, Binary, and Control4, and more. This unified approach enhances performance and streamlines system design, giving professionals the tools to deliver complete, high-value solutions to commercial end-users with confidence.

Additionally, with OvrC-enabled support, integrators are able to remotely monitor and troubleshoot any issues without having to roll a truck, saving them and the end-user valuable time and resources.

“EBMS is more than just a new product line,” concluded Buratto. “By offering a complete, high-performance solution that’s easy to specify and fully backed by our ADI platforms, we’re addressing an obstacle for our customers by making it easier than ever to pursue new opportunities, win more bids, and deliver exceptional results.”