On Amsterdam's North Side, a special 3D Audio presentation took place. L-Acoustics, the developer responsible for spatial audio technology, together with Polygon Productions, filled the Amsterdam club ‘The.Other.Side’ hosting a conference about the future of spatial audio. In a three part program full of technology, audience members were wowed with brand new insights into the future of music experiences.


The first chapter of the conference explained the musical development through a timeline. From mono to stereo, through binaural audio up to the current state of spatial audio. Using Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as a perfect audio example, the group performed a demonstration of how such a packed song can be experienced in three dimensional space. The result blew the audience members away, who expressed it felt ‘like having singer Freddie Mercury right there in the room’. Thanks to the 21-speaker spatial installation, the sound moved through the venue, bringing a new dynamic to life.

After a technical breakdown of the technology and an adjacent philosophical discussion about the future of music, questions from the audience helped clear up the quite technical story L-Acoustics expressed. Where Dolby focuses mostly on standardized spatial audio situations, Polygon takes the crown when it comes to specialized, tailormade experiences. Their engineers showed an example where a tower of speakers fires audio towards the listener in three separate layers. “Doing that simply isn’t possible with standardized software. It requires tweaking and a unique build,” the engineers confessed proudly.

During the presentation, a total of at least six spatial demos were performed, varying from Ambient House to bass-enriched pop music. All demo songs felt more vibrant within their spacious presentation. For the final demo, the technical team assigned song melodies to various corners in the room, truly mimicking the effect of having multiple bandmembers in the room. “Keep an eye out for this technology,” one of the sound experts emphasized. “This is the future of experiencing music.”