On China’s live-vocal music shows there is nowhere to hide. Audiences expect every note delivered live and unedited, and the sound system has to carry that promise to thousands in the studio and millions more at home. Three of the country’s most closely watched programmes meet that demand using L-Acoustics: the long-running Singer, the new cross-generational showcase Guo Yue Wu Shuang, and the collaborative The Treasured Voice.
Across all three, sound director He Biao specified L-Acoustics professional sound systems, deployed by L-Acoustics Certified Parter, Beijing Dadong Huahan Audio Visual Equipment with product and technical support from L-Acoustics Certified Provider Distributor, Rightway Audio Consultants (Racpro).
He Biao is one of the most sought-after sound designers in Chinese television. He has built the acoustic backbone of these flagship shows season after season, and he keeps returning to the same tools.
He says: “Today, Chinese artists and audiences are demanding that music variety shows push the boundaries of audiovisual production. Our solutions have to meet these needs."
Singer is the show that set the template. More than a decade after it first put established vocalists head-to-head in a fully live contest, Hunan TV’s flagship remains the benchmark against which other Chinese music shows are measured. Broadcast live, its 2026 season brought nine leading voices to one stage, from Taiwanese Mandopop and folk singer Chyi Yu to Albanian-American artist Stanaj.
For a live broadcast spanning so many styles, Singer has been built on L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound since its 2024 return. For 2026, He Biao’s team expanded the deployment, enlarging the main hangs and widening coverage so the immersive effect reached more of the studio audience.
L-ISA moves the mix beyond a traditional stereo model, using object-based mapping to place each voice and instrument at a precise point in space. During Chyi Yu’s performance of the folk song “The Olive Tree”, her textured vocal held its own position rather than folding into the arrangement; on Zhang Bichen’s “Interstellar”, the ultra-wide sound field carried the emotional weight of the percussion while keeping the high frequencies transparent rather than harsh.
The main system comprised five hangs of two L2 and one L2D each, with Panflex and cardioid low-frequency control holding SPL across the front while limiting onstage spill. Four flown cardioid KS28 arrays anchored the low end, seven A10 provided spatial in-fill, and two dV-DOSC hangs covered the box seats. Six 115XT HiQ served as stage monitors.
He commented: “L-ISA lets us deliver the same clear imaging to every seat in the studio. Audiences tell us it feels like the singer is performing directly to them, and that response feeds straight back into the artist’s performance.”
Guo Yue Wu Shuang takes a different path. Co-produced by CCTV-6 and Zhejiang Satellite TV and premiered in May 2026, it is built on a single idea: one melody, two lives. Rather than a competition, it pairs artists to perform the same classic song first in Mandarin and then in Cantonese, illustrating how differently the two languages shape the same music. Its cross-generational guest list runs from international film icon Jackie Chan to Mandopop star Chris Lee (Li Yuchun), performing alongside traditional Chinese instrumentation.
The concept placed resolution above everything: the system had to render fine tonal shifts cleanly and stand up to the production’s three-dimensional visuals built with XR virtual production and holographic projection. He Biao’s team turned to K2, the same array that carries the world’s biggest tours, to give the studio genuine concert sound. Two arrays of ten K2 covered the audience, holding their clarity from the quietest phrase to the fullest arrangement.
He said: “K2 gives us the precision to place every consonant and every pitch change. It carries the Mandarin and the Cantonese reading of a song with equal clarity.”
Now in its seventh season, The Treasured Voice takes yet another approach, pairing established singers with a new generation of artists for one-off collaborative stages. Its 2026 line-up ranges from veterans Sun Nan, Chen Chusheng, and Zhou Bichang to emerging voices including Tan Songyun, Zeng Shunxi, and Mu Zhicheng.
With the musical style changing from one collaboration to the next, the show needed a system that could stay composed through constant shifts and reproduce fine vocal and arrangement detail. He Biao’s team built the PA on two arrays of eight K2, added two arrays of four KS28 for a clean low-frequency foundation, and placed two groups of two Kara II across the front rows. It is a configuration the team has refined across successive seasons of the show.
He stated: “This setup has been refined season after season, and it doesn’t need reinventing each year. What matters is that it keeps delivering, whatever the stage throws at it.”
Across three very different formats, the common thread is a sound system the production teams no longer have to think about and a partnership that keeps pace as each show evolves. As Guo Yue Wu Shuang finds its audience, and Singer and The Treasured Voice move through their latest seasons, He Biao, Dadong Huahan and L-Acoustics expect their work with Chinese-language live music to keep growing.
He concluded: “Every one of these shows asks something different of the technology, but the response from audiences and artists tells us we keep getting it right. As Chinese-language music variety shows keep raising the bar for live production, we will keep evolving right alongside them.”