Grace Family Church installs Europe’s first L-Acoustics L-ISA system in a house of worship
Background and context
Grace Family Church, located in Bubikon in the Zürich Oberland region of Switzerland, has become the first house of worship in Europe to adopt L-Acoustics’ L-ISA immersive audio technology. The installation replaces a nearly 20-year-old sound system in the church’s distinctive “Church Dome” sanctuary.
The main worship space is a tensile fabric dome measuring roughly 24 by 26 metres, with a vaulted ceiling height of about eight metres. The venue typically hosts around 350 attendees for Sunday services and regular worship events, placing significant demands on speech intelligibility and musical clarity.
Initially, the brief to Swiss L-Acoustics distributor SDS was a straightforward like-for-like upgrade of the existing left-right loudspeaker setup. However, an on-site assessment highlighted limitations in achieving consistent imaging and localisation from the former loudspeaker positions, prompting a more fundamental rethink of the system design.
Key announcement
Following consultation with audio consultancy Soundrig AG, Grace Family Church opted for an object-based L-ISA configuration rather than a conventional stereo system. The decision followed listening sessions at the SDS Auditorium in Winterthur and a full-scale demonstration of the proposed design inside the Church Dome, allowing church leaders and congregants to experience the system in context.
The final L-ISA Scene System uses five hangs, each comprising one A15i Wide over one A15i Focus, distributed across the front of the space. Low frequencies are handled by two centre-flown hangs of two KS21i subwoofers each. Additional X8 loudspeakers flown on either side cover the lateral front areas.
Signal processing is managed by a single L-ISA Processor II, with one LA7.16i amplified controller driving all 16 main loudspeaker enclosures. Audio is mixed on a Yamaha Rivage console, which feeds the L-ISA Processor II via MADI, while Milan-AVB carries signal from the processor to the amplifier platform.
The project team also upgraded the church’s audio network infrastructure. Systems engineer Michael Graf of Impact Atelier, working with Stagelight, oversaw network design and console integration. According to the church, the new network has improved overall operational stability and provides a basis for future integration with the venue’s lighting system.
Industry impact
The installation is notable for bringing immersive, object-based audio into a mid-sized European house of worship with a largely volunteer technical team. While L-ISA has been deployed extensively in touring, theatre and premium live event environments, its use in churches has been comparatively limited in the region.
The project also illustrates how immersive systems can be adapted to challenging architectural conditions. The dome structure, central chandelier, front lighting and projection lines all constrained loudspeaker placement. L-Acoustics Soundvision software was used not only for coverage and SPL prediction, but also for virtual positioning to balance sightlines, projection angles and acoustic performance.
The building’s highly insulated shell provided a low ambient noise floor, helping maximise the benefits of the new system for both spoken word and contemporary worship music. The church and integrators report that localisation of voices and instruments now better matches their on-stage positions, a key objective for the upgrade.
Why this matters
For the wider house of worship and installation market, Grace Family Church’s move to L-ISA shows how immersive audio is beginning to filter into everyday, non-theatrical venues. The system was installed within a five-day window between Sunday services, underlining the practical constraints common to community and faith-based facilities.
Despite the complexity of object-based mixing, the church’s semi-professional volunteer team is running the system for weekly services, with workflows simplified to focus on core functions. The venue is now equipped for both its own events and potential external use, with scalable options for more advanced programming over time.
More information about L-ISA and the A15i installation platform is available on the L-Acoustics website at https://www.l-acoustics.com.
