Photo credit: MATTHEW BORRETT
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Churches are increasingly investing in immersive audio systems, not only to enhance the in-room worship experience, but to extend that experience to broadcast, overflow, and other auxiliary spaces. One of the companies at the forefront of this movement is L-Acoustics, whose L-ISA technology is helping reshape the way audio engineers think about mixing in multi-speaker environments. With the release of L-ISA 2025, the company introduced Sound Spaces—a powerful new feature designed to multiply the impact of one immersive mix across multiple locations within a church facility.
Sound Spaces lets you take the immersive mix from the sanctuary and tailor it for any room on campus—from chapels to coffee shops to control rooms—even your broadcast mix.
To understand how Sound Spaces works—and why it matters for churches of all sizes—I spoke with Josh Maichele and Alan Johnson, two leaders in L-Acoustics’ house of worship division. Josh is the global applications lead, while Alan leads global business development for the market. Together, they’re helping churches rethink what it means to deliver high-quality audio not just in the sanctuary, but everywhere sound matters.
You can now deliver spatial audio to broadcast, overflow, or under-balcony zones—without needing a separate mix or mixing engineer.
What is L-ISA?
Before diving into Sound Spaces, it’s important to understand the foundation: L-ISA is L-Acoustics’ immersive audio platform that allows for object-based mixing. In traditional stereo systems, audio sources are panned between left and right. L-ISA expands this by enabling placement of individual audio objects—vocal mics, instruments, effects returns, submixes—anywhere in a defined spatial field.
“We call it hyperreal mixing,” explains Maichele. “Objects from your mixing console come into the L-ISA Controller, and you can position them not only left and right, but also, depending on your system, in terms of width, depth, and even elevation. Whether you're using a frontal system with speakers over the stage or a full 360-degree setup with surrounds and overheads, you're painting a much more realistic sonic image for the listener.”
“In my church, we’re using the binaural output of the L-ISA Processor to give our online viewers the same immersive experience we hear in the room.” —Josh Maichele
Photo credit: MATTHEW BORRETT
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Enter Sound Spaces
With L-ISA 2025, the newest iteration of the platform, L-Acoustics introduced Sound Spaces—arguably its most versatile feature yet. The core idea? To create multiple rendered audio environments (or “spaces”) from a single L-ISA Processor, each tailored to a different physical space or function.
"Think of a sanctuary running an immersive L-ISA mix,” says Maichele. “Sound Spaces lets you take that same mix and render it for other rooms—a chapel, a broadcast control room, a lobby, a green room, or even under-balcony and front fill zones within the same auditorium.”
Each Sound Space can be individually adjusted—object levels can be increased or decreased per space, depending on acoustics or listener needs. For example, front fills might need more vocal presence to compensate for room reflections near the stage. A balcony mix might benefit from less low end. A broadcast mix might require more ambient mics to recreate the live feel for remote viewers.
“One processor, eight Sound Spaces. You can scale L-ISA from a small studio to a 1200-seat sanctuary to a 98-speaker system—without losing the mix.”
“You can think of them as submixes,” says Maichele, though the term isn’t official. “It’s really about taking the object-level detail of the L-ISA mix and giving you control to optimize it for different listening contexts.”
Eight Spaces, One Processor
Church audio engineers will be glad to know that up to eight unique Sound Spaces can be configured from a single L-ISA Processor—no additional hardware required. This capability unlocks huge potential for facilities with multiple venues or overflow spaces.
Alan Johnson gives the example of a church cafe that doubles as an overflow room. “Let’s say the cafe has a small stage with a scaled-down L-ISA system,” he says. “With Sound Spaces, you can send a mix rendered specifically for that layout—maybe with reduced bass energy or enhanced clarity—without needing a separate engineer or mix console.”
This flexibility is especially valuable for churches with limited production staff. “A lot of churches don’t have a dedicated broadcast mix position,” Maichele adds. “Sound Spaces lets them render a stereo, 5.1, 7.1, or even binaural mix for broadcast straight from the main L-ISA mix, with spatial placement preserved and key adjustments made for that output.”
Real-World Application
Maichele uses Sound Spaces in his own church to create a separate mix for their live stream. “We use the binaural output to simulate a spatial audio experience for viewers listening on headphones,” he says. “We include room mics in that mix for added realism—but of course, we don’t want those mics going through the main PA. Sound Spaces lets us turn them off for the sanctuary and on for the broadcast mix, while still preserving the spatial placement of all other audio objects.”
The implications for pre-production are equally exciting. Engineers can simulate their sanctuary’s speaker layout inside a studio or even at home. “I’ve got seven small loudspeakers and a sub in my office,” Maichele says. “I can lay out my church’s speaker placement in L-ISA Controller, mix using those, and then translate that same mix to our 1,200-seat sanctuary. What I hear at home lines up with what I’ll hear on-site, because the processor is rendering it properly for each setup.”
For churches without a studio or mix room, engineers can even work on headphones using L-ISA’s binaural rendering. One of L-Acoustics’ application engineers recently prepped an entire demo mix this way—on a plane.
Scalability for All Church Sizes
While L-ISA is often associated with high-profile installs at megachurches like Transformation Church or Resorts World, both Maichele and Johnson are quick to emphasize its scalability.
“It’s not just a premium product within a premium brand,” says Johnson. “It’s a scalable solution. Josh’s church is 1,200 seats and uses L-Acoustics’ A Series loudspeakers in a seven-array setup. Instead of using six or seven speakers per side in a stereo configuration, they use shorter three-box hangs spread across the stage. That gives them better coverage with fewer visual obstructions.”
Maichele takes it a step further. “You can build an L-ISA configuration with small X4i speakers and a single sub, all the way up to massive L-Acoustics K2 rigs with surrounds and overheads. Sound Spaces makes that flexibility even more powerful, because now you can scale your audio experience not just in the sanctuary, but across your whole campus.”
A Tool for the New Era of Church Production
Churches today are reaching people in more ways and more places than ever before. Whether it’s immersive sound for a packed sanctuary, clear audio for a satellite venue, or a compelling livestream mix for viewers around the world, Sound Spaces gives engineers the tools to translate the heart of the worship experience anywhere it needs to go.
For audio teams already working in the L-ISA ecosystem—or considering immersive audio as their next major investment—Sound Spaces represents a leap forward in creative control and operational efficiency.
“It’s not just a tech demo or a high-end feature for flagship installs,” says Johnson. “It’s a real-world solution to real-world needs—right now.”
