David Byrne's 'Here Lies Love': Just the beginning of L-ISA on broadway

A decade after its debut at The Public Theater’s LuEsther Hall off-Broadway in New York City, David Byrne’s Here Lies Love is back in the Big Apple and is the first Broadway event to feature L-Acoustics’s L-ISA immersive technology. Sound designer Cody Spencer spoke to Headliner about collaborating with the Talking Heads icon on the show, and how his work with L-ISA is changing the landscape for immersive theatre as we know it…

Created by Byrne and featuring music from Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, Here Lies Love is a musical that tells the story of Filipino politician Imelda Marcos, from her rise to prominence to her eventual downfall in the Philippines. Instead of laying out on a stage before the audience, the theatre is essentially rendered a bona fide disco, with the main floor space serving as a dancefloor, with actors and audience members mingling as the story is told through music and karaoke. Achieved using more than 220 L-Acoustics loudspeakers supplied by certified partner PRG, and making extensive use of L-ISA technology, the resulting extravaganza places its audience right at the heart of the drama. Those who prefer to sit can do so via various galleries and mezzanine seating areas.

“David Byrne read long ago about Imelda Marcos and how she was in love with disco, and it was such a big part of her life, so when he came up with this idea, he wanted the audience to feel like they were at a disco, not just watching a show,” Spencer tells Headliner. “So, the main floor is a dancefloor where the audience and the actors interact, while there are also mezzanines and galleries looking down. The show is 90 minutes long and is told through karaoke and disco music, telling the story of the Marcos family.

“In my role I am a co-designer with M.L. Dogg, and typically I deal with the sound system, the cast, the mics, and he is the content person, dealing with the sound effects and playbacks,” he continues. “And this is such a massive show, with lots of playback and a lot of sound effects and layers and textures. The system we designed is very complex; it has to be in order to accomplish everything we want to accomplish. This is not a traditional show, it’s much more complicated with the audience and the actors all in the same place. Anywhere there could be an audience member there could be an actor, and anywhere there could be an actor there could be an audience member. It’s a very difficult system to put together and tune and make work without massive feedback. This design has to cover the actors and audience all at the same time, but we’ve figured it out and have a great sounding show that is replicated night after night.”

So how did Spencer and Dogg set about bringing the concept of the show to life?

“It all started with Soundvision, which is L-Acoustics’ proprietary prediction software,” Spencer explains. “So, I spent months making sure every single speaker was covering exactly where I needed it and nowhere else. We did that for months before we got to the theatre, and when we got to the theatre, we realised that things had moved, and lights were in the way. So we spent a lot of time being really precise on what every speaker is doing and knowing that every speaker has a purpose. There is no bleed from one speaker to another. That was the first step, so we knew exactly what the system was doing.

“The hard part of the show is when you’re down on the floor and the action is happening all around you, so how do you know where to look? The first part is making sure the audience knows where to look. And we need to make sure the actors can hear the other actors amongst the audience, so there is a lot of playing with acoustics to make sure the audience is receiving what it needs, and the actors have to hear each other, so there are a lot of little monitors hidden around the set to push vocals to the different areas for the cast. I’ve never tuned a system so much in my life.

“With this setup there are six different zones – the dancefloor, VIP area, front mezz, rear mezz, the galleries on the side and the mix position. So if we make a change to one we have to verify that all the other five don’t have any issues as a result.”

The Broadway Theatre’s current L-ISA installation features over 220 speakers in a full surround configuration. The fully immersive dance floor area is covered by 14 L-Acoustics A Series arrays: three hangs of one A15 Focus over two A15 Wide are flown above the two short ends of the rectangular floor space, while four hangs of two A10 Wide line each of the long sides of the floor.

Runway fill is supplied by two centrally flown arrays of A10 Wide, with a pair of X8 providing additional fill when the axis of the runway is rotated 90 degrees. A ring of 16 compact 5XT dot the perimeter of the actor walkways surrounding the dancefloor to provide additional localised fill.

In the traditional theatre audience seating area upstairs, three more A Series arrays—each comprised of four A15 or A10—hang over the first mezzanine in an LCR arrangement while three arrays of seven Kara II cover the larger rear mezzanine.

A variety of X12, X8, and X4i enclosures provide fill for other locations, including the gallery seating areas, while two dozen KS21 subs distributed around the room anchor the system’s club-like low end. A total of 50 LA4X amplified controllers, all fed via Milan AVB, drive the system. The AVB feed comes from a MADI output converted from the show’s DiGiCo Quantum 7T mixing console.

“L-ISA spatial audio gives us the tools we need to quickly and efficiently program a 360-degree experience that conveys the excitement and nuance of each musical moment in the show,” Spencer says. “Whether you’re standing on the floor or you’re sitting up in the mezzanine, you’re really feeling like you’re encompassed and you’re part of the show.”

Spencer’s relationship with L-ISA extends back almost a decade, being one of the very first professionals outside of L-Acoustics to experience the technology and be exposed to its capabilities.

“Scott Sugden from L-Acoustics is one of my best friends,” he continues, “and back in 2014 he said I should go to France and see this new thing they were working on. I went to France to see company founder Christian Heil and I got to see the first version of L-ISA. I spoke to them then about Here Lies Love and how we could use this technology for the show. We had long conversations about what the potential was in the theatre world. And today we are using it on Broadway.”

Having been hands-on with other competing spatial audio products, Spencer insists that L-ISA is currently ahead of the game.

“The ease of use is what separates L-ISA from the competition,” he asserts. “It’s so easy to use. Having used competing products, I would take L-ISA every day. You can jump around so much more quickly and easily, and the more people see it the more creative things are going to come out of it.”

As AV technology continues to evolve, Spencer is excited for the future of the theatre experience. For audiences and audio professionals alike, the limits on what can be achieved are not being pushed outward but being eroded altogether.

“There are a lot of things changing the theatre market,” he says. “In addition to this kind of audio technology, we are seeing more trackers being used for lighting and different technologies are stacking up to make immersive productions more viable. I have some directors I’ve shown L-ISA to and they are already looking to try new things with it.

“I am so excited for people to experience the sound of this show; I am confident this is just the beginning of L-ISA on Broadway.”