Pop music icon Katy Perry has been playing to packed houses during her residency at the Resorts World Theatre in Las Vegas. Many think the Santa Barbara singer/songwriter’s show was over the top with its elaborate choreography, and sets.
But, it also featured what’s being called a revolutionary new sound system developed by a Conejo Valley based company. It basically works to give you the same full sound whether you are sitting front row center in a theater, or in a rear corner.
"Right now, you're going to have content on the left side, and content in the right side...and if you're right in the middle of the two speakers, it's going to sound really full," said Jordan Tani. He's a Product and Technology Marketing Engineer with Westlake Village based L-Acoustics
"However, once you move to one side of the room, you're going to lose that dimensionality."
Tani says in the early days of live concerts in the 1950’s and 60’s, the sound was terrible because performers used amplifiers and speakers really meant for studio recording. The equipment became more powerful, but going to a concert was still like listening to a stereo system, with right and left speakers.
"Every instrument, and every singer is important. If you panned that guitar to the left, or to the right, you take that experience away from 50% of the audience. which you can't do.
"With L-ISA, we have enough resolution, all of the instruments live where they physically where they are on stage, and no matter where you walk in the venue, you can tell where everything is.
"It's that next dimension...L-ISA is three dimensional."
It’s software which creates what the company calls immersive sound. It allows sound engineers to mix and move sound in a way which can give people sitting off to the side of a theater, or in the back the same experience as someone sitting dead center.
"We can pan, and move this sound seamlessly and smoothly across the loudspeaker system," said Tani. He said they can push it back, or make it wider, to be larger than life.
Some venues, like Resorts World in Las Vegas, are using the technology. And, some major bands are using L-ISA on tour.
It’s the latest cutting edge development by L-Acoustics, which was founded in France, and now has offices in London, Singapore and Westlake Village.
"The way we perceive sound is unconscious," said Laurent Vaissié, who is the CEO of L-Acoustics.
"With L-ISA, audiences say there us a better intimacy and connection," said Vaissie. But, he said they can't explain why. He says they recreate the connection with the visual and the auditory.
Technology has raised the bar on the visual experience of movies, and television. Vaissie said it’s natural the same thing should be happening with sound.
"I think it's an evolution of sound, and the role of sound in our lives."
L-Acoustics engineer Jordan Tani says sound technology will continue to evolve in ways we couldn’t even begin to imagine a half-century ago. He think it will even change the approach some artists take in creating new music:
"We believe this is the future of sound...and as we see all production elements getting more engaging and more immersive, sound should also be a part of that conversation."
Tani says perhaps the most exciting part of the technology is that it may allow artists and audiences to connect at a much deeper level, because more people will be able to experience the music as it was intended.
