LOOP
Immersive Sound Lounge

19 September 2019

L-Acoustics is the global leader in premium audio for many of the world’s most renowned performing arts centres and music venues. L-Acoustics Creations - a new division of the company – is developing immersive sound technologies for state-of-the-art auditoria and sensory environments. The unrivalled sonic signature and advanced Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology now also delivers the highest quality sound in residential, cultural and experiential spaces.

Originally developed for professional venues, L-Acoustics’ audio solutions have been reconfigured as The Island, a personal auditorium with a multichannel platform.

The Island’s signature edition – the LOOP – is the first collaboration between L-Acoustics Creations and Zaha Hadid Virtual Reality (ZHVR) group, a specialist research unit within Zaha Hadid Architects dedicated to exploring the new possibilities of emerging immersive technologies.

The LOOP marries the highest resolution audio of L-Acoustics’ Immersive Sound Art (L-ISA) with Zaha Hadid Architects’ signature design language and the studio’s experience working with innovative new concepts.

Concealed beneath LOOP’s fluid exterior is an array of cutting-edge hardware and software. L-ISA Bubbles technology goes back to the fundamentals of musical reproduction by ensuring that playback fully restores the richly layered, multidimensional characteristics of contemporary professional recording. Encoded in the proprietary Blu 23.1 format, BluBubbles delivers a powerful concert-level experience within a personal environment.

Listening to faultless audio of unprecedented clarity, dynamics and realism via 24 independent channels, the LOOP enables users to experience sound from the perspective of the artist or to be become totally immersed in the most realistic audio while watching a movie.

ZHVR has drawn inspiration from natural forms and contemporary engineering to define the LOOP’s curvilinear geometries which seamlessly incorporate L-Acoustics` technology while elevating the unit off the ground as if floating. Integrated lighting accentuates this effect and modulates light according to use.

The LOOP is available in a variety finishes ranging from hand-crafted wood to carbon fiber; its detailing and selection of materials designed to provide optimal acoustic performance.

A ZHVR pilot project, the LOOP’s design process involved VR workflow developed by the group; from initial sketches using immersive modelling software to mixed reality simulations allowing evaluation of the design’s ergonomics and materiality. At any point within this development process, all iterations, including the technological collaborator’s input, were presented to the client as immersive, high-definition VR demonstrations.