AUDIO
TRENDS AND INSIGHTS IN LIVE SOUND - NAMM 2025 EDITION | Jeff Hawley
I had the pleasure of co-hosting two panels at the NAMM Show in Anaheim this year — an engaging chat on Immersive Audio and another round of conversation related to the ‘ State of the Union ’ in live sound . Part of the TEC Tracks sessions in the education program at the show , attendees had a chance to hear from experts on these hot topics and ask questions of the panel . Here is an overview of the trends and insights that stood out to me .
IMMERSIVE AUDIO — BIG DEAL ? BUZZWORD ? BOONDOGGLE ?
This panel was certainly interesting as each of our guests ( me included ) seemed a bit reluctant to count themselves as an ‘ expert ’ in immersive audio . Everyone had some experience with immersive ( by various definitions of ‘ immersive ’), yet none of us thought that we had all of the answers . I think that fact signals the first big takeaway for me when we think about immersive audio in live sound ( and especially in worship )— the term itself is still slightly nebulous , and the tech hasn ’ t necessarily reached a critical mass .
I felt that most of the panelists saw the benefits of deploying a more engaging and effective mix , there wasn ’ t really much divergence of opinion there . But is the addition of an objectbased dedicated immersive audio system the best way to achieve an engaging and effective mix in all cases ? The issue of complexity and volunteer staff came up multiple times . The key issue we landed on seemed to be the overall cost of an ‘ immersive ’ rig vs . a welldesigned stereo ( or LCR ) system . If money was no object … then sure , design and deploy an immersive rig ! But when is money really no object ? If money was ( mostly ) no object , then the church probably had highly trained staff to run the system and rethink the mix approach to really make use of the immersive object-based schema . These two points seemed to run together often . Is the juice worth the squeeze with immersive ? Definitely maybe .
I don ’ t think those points are necessarily new or overly earth-shaking . The same could be said for pitch correction systems , high sample rate consoles , etc . These sorts of sonic niceties are becoming more and more common , but it is certainly possible to have a great sounding service without pitch correction ( or any outboard effects at all ) on a 48kHz system . I won ’ t go into the 96kHz debate here , but it does seem to show up as being a similar argument as the case for immersive . Immersive ( or a jump to 96kHz ) isn ’ t a silver bullet . Your bad vocalist or uneven drummer isn ’ t magically going to sound like a million bucks with immersive or 96kHz . And perhaps the added audio definition may even highlight poor musicianship or troublesome audio artefacts in the physical space ?
All of this is to say that I ’ m with panelist David
86 February 2025 Subscribe for Free ...