Immersive audio is moving from theatre, specialist productions and experimental touring into the conversation around arenas, stadiums and multi-purpose venues. But while the technology is ready, the business case, touring workflows and lack of standardisation still present major barriers.
Inavate’s Anna Mitchell speaks to Anders Jørgensen, project manager and consultant at Stouenborg, about the evolution of immersive audio, lessons from large-scale arena projects, and why venues may need to invest in spatial systems if they want to offer artists and audiences something genuinely different.
Inavate: For years, the conversation around audio in stadiums and arenas has been dominated by coverage and intelligibility. Has that evolved?
AJ: I do see an evolution. More artists, especially on large-scale tours, are engaging with what we used to call source-oriented reinforcement: the ability to localise sound and create a wider image.
For many years, TiMax from Out Board was the standard in this area. Now, with systems such as Meyer Sound’s SpaceMap Go, L-Acoustics’ L-ISA and d&b audiotechnik’s Soundscape, the product range is much wider. You are seeing more shows where audio can be spread out and positioned in the mix.
For instance, you might see five line arrays hanging above a stage. Those arrays create the possibility of positioning a vocal, a guitarist, a drummer or the sections of a symphonic orchestra much more precisely. That kind of enhancement is already happening in large-scale touring.
Theatre is a completely different story. It has been working with immersive audio for a long time. In theatre, we talk about the fourth wall between the actors and the audience, and audio has always been a key tool for breaking that down. Even when I started working in theatre in the mid-1990s, we were talking about how to make the experience more immersive.
At Stouenborg, our first immersive audio installation was at a regional theatre for around 600 people in 2011. Historically, I think theatre has been at the forefront of immersive audio and creating immersive spaces for audiences. Touring has tended to be mixed in mono or stereo because it is often a one-off show, whereas theatre has the luxury of running for weeks, months or even longer.
Inavate: Where do large venues and arenas fit into that picture? Is installing immersive capability at that scale a new development?
AJ: It is definitely a new development. The conversation around having a localised system that can be added to a touring system is becoming more frequent.
The challenge is not only whether you can install a large number of loudspeakers pointing in different directions. The bigger issue is format. There needs to be a conversation around formats before we can say the industry is harmonised and knows what it is doing.
In cinema, we are seeing solutions that are becoming standard. In live music, the question is how you create a mix in Dolby, L-ISA, SpaceMap Go or another immersive platform, then walk into a venue and adapt it. I think we will see more of that when venues are built, renovated or upgraded.
At the moment, it is not common. In Denmark, for example, we have only a couple of small venues that are capable of this. In an arena, it is rare. When touring artists and house technicians arrive at a venue and suddenly find dozens of loudspeakers in the ceiling that they can play with, the response is often: how do we deal with that?
Imagine you have been on a tour bus overnight, travelling from Berlin to Copenhagen. You arrive in the morning and have to play a show that night. You now have the possibility of preparing for an immersive audio system, but do you have the time? Do you prioritise it? Touring life is not glamorous, and the schedule is very tight.
Inavate: Does that time pressure become one of the biggest barriers?
AJ: Yes. It is a major barrier. If a company operating venues across Europe decided to install immersive audio systems based on a common approach, that would change everything.
It could also become something that differentiates one venue from another. If an artist is deciding whether to play in Copenhagen or Stockholm, for example, and one venue allows them to offer a better show because of its immersive audio system, that could become a factor.
I think we will see something like that happen in the next couple of years. It is not impossible to do, but it requires investment and consistency.
Inavate: Are audiences starting to understand immersive terminology and gravitate towards venues that can offer something more?
AJ: I think so, but there is also another effect. At some smaller concerts, people talking to each other has become a real problem. In venues where we have immersive audio and the audience is surrounded by sound, people tend to stop talking and start listening.
It creates a more concentrated and focused experience for everyone: the band on stage and the audience in the room. I hear that from technicians working in venues with immersive audio. They say the focus is completely different.
Younger audiences also have higher expectations now. It is no longer enough just to see the band and hear the songs. When I started, there was a saying that it was enough that people ‘saw the giraffe’. In other words, the band came to town, people saw them, heard a few songs and everyone was happy.
I do not think that is the case anymore. Audiences expect something special.
Inavate: If we look at immersive experiences more broadly, where does audio sit alongside LED, projection, lighting and interactivity?
AJ: At the very top, and not just because I come from audio.
If you go to a concert with a huge LED screen as a backdrop and you turn around, you can see the whole audience lit up. One of the most powerful things I ever saw was Roger Waters standing in front of 40,000 people in a single spotlight, with everything else completely dark. That kind of focus is incredibly powerful.
Huge LED screens can take that away. In a theatre play or concert, one of the most important tools is the ability to steer focus. If you blast the entire space with large LED screens, you can lose that.
Audio sits at the top because we react to it so quickly and emotionally. Human beings are very good at locating sound. We have always used sound to navigate space and understand what is happening around us. That makes audio an incredibly powerful immersive tool.
Inavate: So immersion really works when it is audio?
AJ: Yes, but there is a practical challenge at arena scale.
Having a front system with five line arrays is not a big problem. It is just a question of how much you can hang in the front rig. The difficult part is adding immersive points around the audience, from above, behind and to the sides, and doing that consistently for every audience area and every seat.
That is rarely seen on touring productions because it takes a lot of trucks, time, crew and money. For a very large artist, it might make sense, but for most productions it is difficult.
That is why venue investment is important. If the immersive part of the system is already built into the venue, touring artists can bring their own PA and add to what is already there. For that to really work, we also need some kind of standard. Right now, each manufacturer has its own vision and its own approach.
Inavate: What lessons from large-scale immersive arena projects can be applied to other venues?
AJ: The biggest lesson is that touring productions do not have much time. A front-of-house engineer or system engineer might have 15 minutes to adapt to an immersive system. On a good day, they might have an hour. Most of the time, it will be somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes.
It means you have to design a system that works within that reality. If it takes too long to use, it will not be used.
There is also a mindset issue. Some production managers prioritise consistency above everything else. If one venue offers an immersive opportunity that the previous venue did not have, they might decide not to use it because they want the show to be the same every night.
So, the venue has to make the system easy enough and useful enough that it becomes worth using.
Inavate: Venues are also being asked to do more. Stadiums and arenas want to host sport, concerts, corporate events and other formats. How do you design audio systems that can handle all of that?
AJ: It starts with defining what the venue actually needs to do. Before designing a system, we create an adjustment of expectations. Sometimes that becomes a 40-page document breaking down the use cases.
You might find that 40% of the venue’s activity is concerts, but those concerts could be split into eight different types. Then there might be sport, conferences, theatre-style events and other uses. Once you see that clearly, you can decide whether it is truly a multi-purpose venue or whether it should be optimised for two or three main uses, with the ability to support smaller secondary uses.
If you want an immersive audio experience in an arena, that can require a significant number of loudspeakers. Those loudspeakers would not necessarily be installed for a conventional system. That is why the use case has to be understood from the beginning.
We normally look at an installed system lasting around 10 to 15 years, so you also have to consider what is worth installing permanently and what is better to hire in when needed.
Inavate: What do you see changing next?
AJ: The technology is already here. The amount of work required to make it practical for touring artists is the bigger issue.
For arena-scale immersive audio to become more common, we need venue operators to invest and we need consistency between venues. If artists know they can use similar capabilities across multiple arenas, it becomes much easier to justify preparing content and workflows.
At the moment, immersive audio is happening mainly in theatres, selected shows and smaller venues. For a 1,200-capacity venue, it is much more realistic to expect an immersive experience than it is in a large arena. Every scale has different possibilities and different challenges: 200-capacity, 500-capacity, 1,200-capacity, 5,000-capacity, 10,000-capacity and arena scale all have to be treated differently.
Education will also play an important role. In Denmark, we have installed immersive audio systems in educational environments for music and production. That means young technicians and producers get used to working with it. It becomes part of their toolkit.
Dolby Atmos for music may also help drive this forward. Outside Denmark, many artists now expect to create Atmos mixes when they release music. If that becomes normal for recorded music, the question becomes: why should the live experience be different?
Inavate: How realistic is the idea of a single-seat immersive experience in venues?
AJ: It is realistic in some environments. Theatre has tested this for years, and it can work beautifully. There have been shows where loudspeakers were built into seats, creating a very localised experience.
But for an arena concert, with people standing, moving, drinking and reacting physically, it becomes much harder. In that context, it is more realistic to create zones and immersive layers across the venue rather than trying to deliver a unique experience to every seat.
There is also value in the shared experience. Immersive audio works because of contrast and dynamics. It is not immersive if everything is immersive all the time. You need moments of focus, moments of silence and moments where the room opens up.
One of the most powerful concert experiences is when an artist can bring a large audience down to silence, then use the full scale of the system again. That dynamic is what makes immersion work.
Inavate: Could immersive audio become part of how venues compete for artists and audiences?
AJ: Yes. Touring is expensive, and every truck costs money. It needs a driver, people to unload it, people to set it up and people to pack it again. Every truck you can save helps the economics of a tour.
That is one reason why more artists are playing multiple nights in one city rather than moving constantly. The competition becomes: which city is most attractive, and which venue offers the best platform for the show?
If a venue can offer an immersive system that improves the show and reduces what the artist has to bring, that becomes a real advantage.
Inavate: What needs to happen for immersive audio to move beyond selected shows and specialist venues?
AJ: Major venue operators need to invest. If they want to drive development forward rather than stand still, they will need to put these systems into some of their venues.
Cost is the challenge. If you want to do it properly across many arenas, the investment is significant. But reaching critical mass is important. If only one venue has the system, some artists may choose not to use it because they cannot use it elsewhere. If a network of venues has similar capability, it becomes much more useful.
Right now, immersive audio and immersive experiences are strongest in theatres, selected productions and smaller venues. The next step is making them practical, consistent and financially realistic at arena scale. That is where the opportunity is.