Two Decades of Sound Innovation

Novatech Continues Their Two Decade L-Acoustics Journey With L2 And L-ISA

Adelaide’s Novatech Creative Event Technology are celebrating 20 years of their enduring relationship with French PA manufacturer L-Acoustics by… buying more L-Acoustics! “We did a count of all the L-Acoustics loudspeakers that we’ve purchased over the years, and the total came out to over 1,300!” says Novatech’s Managing Director Leko Novakovic. “We still have the very first L-Acoustics products we purchased in our inventory; it’s a testament to their quality.”

The first part of their purchasing plan kicked off late last year with the addition of an “extensive” amount of KS28 dual 18” subwoofers, KARA II dual 8” line array elements, and updated LA-RAK II power and control racks to run them.

L Series

The headline news is delivery into their hire stock of the new L Series “Progressive Ultra-Dense Line Source” (PULS), in the form of eight L2 and four L2D units. Kicking out a more-than-healthy 155dB, an L Series hang can consist of one or more of the standard ‘flat’ shape L2 unit, with the curved L2D unit hung at the bottom, its shape providing nearfield coverage.

The L Series offers similar or better performance than L-Acoustics’ previous flagship array elements while weighing less, taking up less space, and being much simpler to rig. Each L Series cabinet upends the traditional line array model by packing 20 drivers into one cabinet, making them the equivalent of four traditional line array elements.

Not long after Novatech secured their L2 system, L-Acoustics announced their flagship L1 long-throw PULS array at their Hollywood Bowl Keynote event in May. It’s an absolute beast, outputting 160dB per enclosure from 35Hz to 20kHz, and is supported by the new CS1 natively cardioid subwoofer. This product launch confirmed that L-Acoustics considers the PULS model the way forward for high-SPL sound reinforcement.

“We had the advantage of touching, feeling, using, and being trained on L2 when we installed a system into the Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre,” explains Leko. “We had already had an L-Acoustics K2 system in the Theatre and L-Acoustics claimed that one L2 cabinet was equivalent to four K2. When we hung the L2, we verified that they were absolutely correct; we got to compare apples with apples. We also got to understand how easy it is to rig, how it fits in the truck, and how easy deployment was. It validated all the marketing; we tried, we tested, we rigged, we transported, we tuned, and it does what the brochure says, and more.”

With L2 now in rental, Novatech are benefiting from a system that takes up less truck space, weighs less, and rigs faster and easier than older systems. With eight L2s and four L2Ds, Novatech can run a full arena rig with mains and sides, or split the inventory into two smaller standalone rigs for use on two festival stages, for example.

The design of L Series means that directionality and optimisation are no longer a matter of physical angles and rigging pins; it’s all handled in software. “Understanding the software workflow is what the training really helped with,” confirms Leko. “With traditional line arrays, if you weren’t happy, sometimes you’d have to drop the array and re-pin the angles or play with your louvres.

Whereas with L2, you don’t. All you really have to do is get your height and your top angle set, and once that’s done, everything else can largely be done in the software. We feel it’s a pretty revolutionary step forward, possibly as significant as adopting line arrays 20 years ago.”

L-ISA II Processor

Not done with adding things to their L-Acoustics collection, Novatech are now the first Australian production company with an L-ISA immersive audio processor in hire. L-ISA can be used to deliver L-Acoustics’ unique Hyperreal frontal spatialisation, immersive object-based mixing, Ambiance acoustic enhancement, and, just announced at Keynote along with L1, Source Intelligence.

Source Intelligence is a real-time vocal enhancement technology that isolates the human voice from background noise, using a unique source separation algorithm to remove crowd noise, instrument bleed, PA spill, and room reflections.

“Novatech ran the first L-ISA Hyperreal PA in the southern hemisphere with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra back in 2018,” relates Leko. “We’re now seeing L-ISA come into its own globally, and we’re ready to work with our clients to deploy it.”

“We’re seeing L-ISA used in more and more installations,” continues Leko. “Theatres are putting it in to future-proof their venues. It’s also going in to a lot of worship installations in Hyperreal configurations because of coverage improvements, consistency of experience across the audience, sightlines, and, surprisingly, cost factors.”

The Full Lineup

Novatech’s L-Acoustics inventory spans the range from the tiny X4i two-way 4”, weighing in at 1kg, up to the mighty K1 line array element, at 106kg, and pretty much everything in between. “We know we’ve got the right tool for any job,” states Leko. “When a client says, ‘Here’s what I’m trying to achieve’, we have a product that will achieve a perfect outcome, and off it goes. SYVA can be on a street doing PA for the Tour Down Under, but it can also be in a theatre, museum, or fashion show. The little X8 can be used in an immersive mixing room, a fancy home hi-fi system, as a front-fill, an orchestral conductor box, or as a quality low-profile wedge.”

Over two decades, Novatech have developed deep relationships with staff at L-Acoustics headquarters in Marcoussis, France. “A lot of the people that we work with have been there for the full 20 years,” marvels Leko. “We’re both invested in the brand that much. Back when the relationship started, they were clear that they wanted to become the global leader in the field, and they’ve done that. At Novatech, we don’t believe in exclusively having one brand of any product. If you look in our other ranges, they’re diverse. Sound desks; we’ve got five brands.

Moving lights; we’ve got 12. But when you’ve got this quality of audio across that wide a range, we don’t need it; L-Acoustics just does everything.”