LIVE @ ISE 2026 - Unleashing Immersive Sound Experiences with L-Acoustics

What if your home cinema could shift from quiet, pin‑drop dialogue to a dance‑floor moment where vocals float overhead and drums punch from the walls? We sit down with Nick from L-Acoustics at ISE to unpack how polished showroom magic becomes everyday reality, and why usability—not specs alone—wins hearts in the residential space.

We start with the pain point everyone knows: clients love a curated demo, but they need to understand how to live with it. Nick walks us through new user interface templates that make “light control for sound” feel natural. Think intuitive moods—cinema, intimate vocals, party—built for platforms integrators actually deploy, so teams can import, tune, and hand over a system that works on day one. For pros, that means fewer late-night support calls and faster, cleaner installs; for homeowners, it’s clarity and control without the engineering headache.

Hardware still matters, and L-Acoustics pairs the UI with the right amplification strategy. The LA1.16i, a 16‑channel amp in a slim 1U chassis with Audio over IP, is tuned for media rooms and multi‑use spaces where channel density and efficiency beat brute force. In larger theatres, their heavyweight options cruise at high SPL, but the real story is matching power to purpose. Nick details a demo rig with ten compact loudspeakers and a single subwoofer that demonstrates that coverage, spatial clarity, and smart processing can outperform raw volume in most homes.

Then comes the showstopper: L-Acoustics DJ. Powered by a machine‑learning engine that recognises drums, synths, vocals, and more, it separates stems from a simple stereo DJ feed and lets performers move sound around the room with tactile controls. The result is a living, spatial performance—club energy at home, using the same immersive infrastructure that powers cinema nights. It’s a bold answer to a familiar question: why settle for stereo when your room can be an instrument?

Ready to hear it for yourself? Book a demo through l‑acoustics.com, find a partner, or reach out via the contact form. If this conversation sparked ideas for your next project, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review to help others discover it.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

We're here with uh Nick from uh LAQ6 and uh Nick we're on day three at ISE 26. We are day three.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Yeah. How's the show gone for you so far? It's it's been great, actually. Uh I have to admit, it's kind of one of those things that creeps up in the calendar so quickly. It's January, and then the next thing you know, you're here. Um but yeah, it's it's been fantastic. Um, you know, we've been so busy. I'm looking forward to when we can clone ourselves because I feel like I've been in 12 different places at every time.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Well, you did say earlier about splitting yourself into like 12 different 12 different nicks, but you've got one of the busiest stands here as well on the in the in the resi uh halls. So uh anything new you've got this year, or are you just trying to what you've already uh got out there?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

So, what we're doing is we've got a bit similar to last year, we're showing uh the technologies of our high-risk, uh the showroom which you guys have been up to uh in London. So we're showing the technologies of that here. There's a new element to it though that we're showing here, okay, and that's a user interface. So we kind of discovered through the the process of doing high-risk demonstrating it, is you've been to our showroom, you've had the demos, everyone goes, that's great. It's a very automated script and very polished thing that we do, we like to think anyway. And but one thing it was like, well, how would a customer actually use this in their home? Yeah. So we've created templates which we will give to system integrators if they sell at high-risk that will work with Crestron or QSA so they can just import it in.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Uh a lot more intuitive for the engineering. Being on the phone to the integrator going, how do I do what you just did?

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Exactly. And I think you know, everyone loves the concept of where we talk about it as being like lighter control for sound, but actually being able to visually show someone like scenes or we call them moods, uh, on an iPad and saying, Yeah, you can have these. It kind of makes it more, oh, now I can understand why I'd have that in my home.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's testing to you guys, where obviously you listen to feedback based on what you've done, and obviously, as you said, you've got those fantastic demonstration facilities in London, but listening to people's feedback, you've actually implement that as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

So, you know, that's what we want to do, is what the dealers, you know. We've done a project in London with that technology, and we held the dealer's hand, of course, as we do, like through that process. But you know, wouldn't it just be easier if we could just send them a template? And so we make one and we've done it. So, yeah, we're we're showcasing that here for the first time. We're also powering that demonstration this uh this year with uh an amplifier that we launched last year.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Uh, not at ISE, we had our own keynote in London. Um, but it's uh called an LA1.16i. Uh nice catchy name, but it's a 16-channel amplifier and it's in a one U form factor. One U, wow. One U.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Is that Class D as well?

The LA1.16i Amplifier

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Or sorry? Is that Class D? Oh, you're testing me now. Uh they say yes. It's class. Uh we use some very clever technology in there and it's audio over IP into it as well. So really good for like media rooms, smaller rooms where you don't need to have the full SBL because the LA7i, that's 1300 watts per channel. Good grief. That thing's a beast. And if you've got a big cinema room, like that's just going to cruise all day long. It's more than one year. That's two years.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Still, still pretty important.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Exactly. Um, but the one's just really good for where it's more of like a media room. And you guys have been talking on the podcast recently, you know, media rooms, what's the definition, all that stuff. And so it's it's really good to kind of have that lower cost point and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Uh yeah, especially the moment and the sort of current climate. Sometimes you do need that to uh to get your foot in the door. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

And the room we're showing in there, I mean, it's got uh 10 of these XXI's in it, I think. Um, and one C V sub, which is over there. We're not gonna see that on camera. Um, and it absolutely kicks in there. Yeah, you know, this it's a little bit bigger than last year, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

It's a bit more open and exactly. It just shows you what what you can achieve in any size room. Exactly.

Media Rooms And System Design

L Acoustics DJ And AI Stems

SPEAKER_01 3:54

So there is a reduction in SPL on that system, but in a space that size, yeah, you're not gonna notice. No, no. So yeah, it's good to have that amplifier. And then in our uh big demo room in Hall A, that's where we've got something really cool. We also launched in May something called L Acoustics DJ. Thinking, okay, is that right for the Resi market? Well, we think it is. Obviously, it was designed for nightclubs first and foremost. But what it does is it uses some of the technologies that we've got in the showroom in London. It takes two-channel stereo feed from a mixing uh DJ mixer, can be any brand, can be vinyl, can be CDs, can be C DJs, even though they don't use CDs anymore, it could be mini-discs. Bring back the minidiscs. SACD? Uh it could be SACD, it could be whatever you want. We take that and we put it into our processor, and then our processor from our we've got a machine learning team, and they've been teaching it. Wow. What's this AI or is it? Yep, so it's teaching it about what a drum sounds like, what uh synthesizer sounds like, what vocals sound like, and then other, and then the DJ, we have a control interface which is knobs and buttons, which DJs are used to, and it splits those all into individual stems, and the DJs can mix them around the room and around the space. So in our big demo room in Hawley, we've actually got a professional DJ in there who is rinsing out the tunes all day long. Fantastic. Um, and yeah, we think that's why wouldn't someone want that in their house? You've got your immersive cinema room, now why not have your immersive nightclub as well?

Booking Demos And Getting Support

SPEAKER_00 5:23

But even in the uh the London showroom that you've got, you've got like a sequence where it does turn the whole room into a DJ zone. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

And now we can bring those DJ decks in, which you saw when you came there, we can actually bring them in there and use that technology within that space as well. So it's super cool. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

So Nick, what's the best way for uh integrators and end users to get hold of you and book a demonstration at your great facility?

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Uh you can go to lhyphenacoustics.com, uh, scroll right to the bottom. You can go to find a partner if you're looking for one of our dealers, or of course, just click the contact us form, reach out to us, and we'd be happy to help.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Simple as that. Simple as that. We try and keep it easy. Try and keep it easy. No, I definitely recommend it. It's definitely uh worthwhile going. It's one of the best ones I've personally experienced in the last three years. So um thanks for your time. Enjoy the rest of the show. I'm off to hall eight because that sounds fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Yeah, go and treat your feet to a walk. Cheers, Nick, take care. Cheers, take care. Bye-bye.