29/09/2026
The MBZ Majlis Lecture Hall in Abu Dhabi uses active acoustics to change the way the room behaves before, during and after its lectures.
Working with our client People Creative, we designed the audio and acoustic systems for the purpose-built venue, including three separate systems for voice lift, AV playback and acoustic enhancement.
During a lecture, the room is designed around speech, with a short reverberation time helping maintain intelligibility. Before and after the lecture, however, those same acoustics aren't necessarily ideal for conversation.
L-Acoustics Ambience was introduced to change that. Using 20 Schoeps microphones and 42 L-Acoustics 5XT loudspeakers, the system increases the reverberation time by approximately 0.5 seconds before and after lectures, creating a different acoustic environment for guests to interact. During the lecture itself, Ambience is switched off.
Speech reinforcement was approached differently again. Rather than relying on higher-level reinforcement from a conventional loudspeaker system, we designed a near-field voice lift system using 126 L-Acoustics X4i loudspeakers custom-mounted into the rear of the sofas.
Spread across 70 individual circuits, the system allows delay, level and EQ to be controlled locally, providing low-level reinforcement close to each listener while keeping the technology largely out of sight.
