L-ISA powers Shenzhen’s Longgang International Arts Centre

China:

The Longgang International Arts Centre has selected an L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal sound system for its opera house and concert hall. The venue engaged Kunkel, Germany-headquartered consulting engineers with an established project portfolio across China and Asia. Kunkel developed the system concept in collaboration with Rightway Audio Consultants (Racpro), who had an existing working relationship with the venue.

The centre opened in January 2026 as the flagship venue of Shenzhen’s 14th Five-Year Plan, the centrepiece of the city’s drive to position itself as an international capital of performing arts. The 110,000m² building consists of a 1,501-seat opera theatre, a 552-seat drama theatre and a 305-seat concert hall, and within weeks of opening staged the Asian premiere of the Verbier Festival.

The brief consisted of two elements: the sound system had to fill some of the most architecturally intricate spaces and it had to do so without a single loudspeaker being visible to the audience. Every element would need to be concealed behind fabric grilles and integrated into the fabric of the building, protecting extensive painted artwork and working within tight tolerances. In the opera theatre, that meant achieving full coverage with just 80cm of clearance above the ceiling panels.

“The venue’s architects set an extraordinary challenge,” said Shawn Yu, senior system engineer, Racpro. “The building is itself an instrument where every surface and every curve carries meaning. The sound system had to serve that vision completely, which meant disappearing into it. L-ISA gave us the object-based resolution to fill spaces of this scale and complexity while keeping every element of the system out of sight.”

The 1,501-seat opera theatre is the most technically ambitious space in the centre. Seven independent, equally spaced Kara II line source arrays have been deployed above the stage in a scene and extension layout, supported by KS28 subwoofers. With limited rigging clearance above the ceiling panels, Panflex variable directivity technology has been used to direct sound energy into the audience area and away from the reflective side walls.

The full 360° surround network relies on 5XT coaxial loudspeakers installed at high density along balcony railings and walls, giving every seat a sound field with a distinct sense of direction and distance. Compact X8 coaxial loudspeakers provide near-field coverage, while overhead X12 and KS21i units complete the three-dimensional picture. The result is a system that can simulate acoustic environments from the intimacy of a chamber space to the reverberance of a cathedral directly from the dedicated control room, where the engineering team uses Sound Spaces within L-ISA to monitor and mix in immersive audio and refine the experience for each production.

The 305-seat concert hall had a lower rigging height, a more intimate acoustic environment and a programme weighted towards instrumental performance. During the design phase, the team recognised that an object-based approach would serve the space as well as it served the opera theatre. The main system is built around a Scene System of X12 coaxial loudspeakers, six Compact X8 coaxial loudspeakers for near-field fill and surround duties, and six 5XT overheads.