Hibino Sound designs and deploys an immersive sound experience with the expertise of system engineer Masaaki Nagayasu.
The Japanese rock band My Hair is Bad recently ended their Ultimate Homerun Tour with final arena series L-ISA concerts in the Osaka-Jo Hall and Tokyo arena.
The band’s sound engineer, Hironori Ochi, had learned of L-ISA technology from Masaaki Nagayasu, systems engineer at L-Acoustics certified rental agent Hibino Sound.
Nagayasu remarked: “I received L-ISA training with L-Acoustics in the spring of 2022. The impact of the pandemic meant that it would be some time until I could work on an L-ISA concert. When Ochi approached me with the My Hair is Bad concert project, I felt confident that this would be the right one, at the perfect time to introduce L-ISA to live music fans in Japan.”
Following the decision to deploy immersive audio for the concerts, Nagayasu then considered technical specifications for a system design that would adhere to loading and rigging limits of the venue.
The final L-ISA configuration consisted of a main scene system of five hangs of twelve L-Acoustics K2 each, with a cluster of twelve KS28 subwoofers flown behind the main system. Out-fill consisted of fifteen Kara II per side while eleven L- Acoustics A10 Focus served as front-fill. Additionally, six KS28 subwoofers were evenly distributed across the front of the stage to provide more low-end rumble to the concert arena. Forty LA12X amplified controllers drove the entire system.
L-ISA Processor II received MADI signals from a DiGiCo SD10 mixing board via Luminex GigaCore while an L-Acoustics LS10 distributed audio and control signals over Milan AVB. The system was calibrated using an L-Acoustics P1 AVB processor.
Ochi commented: “It was a very enjoyable experience for me to mix on L-ISA. We took advantage of its capabilities and presented the music in a new way for the fans and concert goers.”
Nagayasu commented: “For the first time that L-ISA technology is used in Japan, it was undoubtedly a success and was fully accepted, especially by the artists. We managed to fully express the band’s musicality through an immersive sound mix in the large arena. I foresee L-ISA to be commonplace in a variety of concerts in the near future, no matter the genre.”