The Truth About Immersive Audio Systems: An Investigation

By Matt Woltjer

I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz lately about immersive audio systems—those fancy new PA setups that promise to revolutionize how we do church sound. But here’s the thing: nobody seems to agree on what they actually are or whether churches really need them.

So I did what any reasonable person would do. I tracked down some of the biggest names in church production to get the real story.

I talked to Luke Vogel from Fulcrum Acoustic, Lee Fields (yes, the Lee Fields who’s mixed for Hillsong United), Tyler from Black Box, and our very own Jake Gosselin here at Churchfront. I wanted their unfiltered impressions on immersive audio and what they think the future of mixing really looks like.

What I discovered might surprise you.

We’re talking about technology that could fundamentally change how we approach mixing. But there’s a catch—and it’s a big one.

First Problem: What Are We Even Talking About?

Turns out, “immersive” is kind of a problematic term.

“I got mad,” Lee Fields told me. “I was like, why are you guys using the word immersive? That is the worst thing you could have ever done with this system. It’s consistency throughout the room.”

Lee’s frustration highlights a real issue in the industry. Marketing departments have latched onto “immersive” because it sounds cutting-edge, but it’s created confusion about what these systems actually do.

Luke Vogel from Fulcrum Acoustic helped me break it down: “I think that the term immersive is probably a little overused. There’s basically two primary technologies that people refer to as immersive.”

Technology #1: Object-Based Mixing

“Object-based mixing is spatially placing your source objects—whether it’s instruments or vocals or sound effects—placing those input sources in either a 2D or a 3D space based on an arrangement of loudspeakers,” Luke explained. “I would refer to it as spatial audio. You’re spatially positioning objects and sources.”

Jake Gosselin put it more simply: “It really is a really advanced form of panning sound and kind of having a sense of space in your mix.”

Think of it this way: instead of just having left and right, you have the ability to place sounds anywhere in a three-dimensional field. But here’s what surprised me—most object-based mixing isn’t actually putting instruments behind the audience.

“We’re not placing an instrument behind us,” I noted during my conversations. “Even if we have a rig that has speakers behind us, what happens in these fully immersive systems is we’re using something called active acoustics.”

Technology #2: Active Acoustics

This is where things get really interesting.

“The basic idea is that you’re placing an alternate acoustic environment on top of wherever you happen to be,” Luke explained. “If you’re in a small hundred-seat auditorium, you would have the ability with active acoustics to spatially superimpose another acoustic environment on top of that space.”

He gave me a powerful example: “In 2017, my wife and I went to Italy. We went into the Duomo—this massive cathedral with marble walls. I walked in, and even though there’s signs everywhere that say be quiet, no cell phones, no talking, I just had to clap. I clapped one time as loud as I could, and the sustain and the reflections in that space coming from all around me were incredible. They lasted six or eight seconds probably before they started to die off.”

Then Luke hit me with the revelation: “It would’ve been so incredibly weird if when I clapped, all of that acoustic energy also came out of my hands. But that is literally what we’re doing day in and day out—mixing reverbs through the exact same loudspeakers that our source content is coming out of.”

Active acoustics takes that acoustic energy and emits it into the space via loudspeakers all around the perimeter, overhead, lateral reflections, rear reflections—in an incredibly natural fashion, the way you would actually experience it in reality.

The Light Bulb Moment

Lee Fields shared an experience that completely changed how he thinks about these systems.

He was mixing on a file he’d created the day before, but now he was in the Resorts World Theater in Las Vegas—a 7,000-seat room with a massive 150-box K2 PA system worth millions of dollars.

First, he played back his stereo Hillsong United mix through the left-right arrays. “That’s one of the best PAs I’ve ever heard,” he said. Then they told him to walk around the room.

“I walk from one side of the room to the other and up and down, and I’m super stoked about the mix and it’s changing a little, but that’s normal,” Lee explained. We’ve all experienced this—the mix sounds different depending on where you’re sitting. It’s just part of live sound, right?

Then they loaded the object-based mix.

“We reload the ELISA file where everything’s object-based mix,” Lee continued. “He’s like, okay, now walk the room. And I walk the room and bro, the freaking mix didn’t change.”

He caught himself: “I mean, I’m lying when I said it didn’t change at all. It changed 80% less than it did in stereo.”

That’s the real value proposition here: consistency.

“If you put 5,000 people in that room and put them in all different seats, they’d tell you it sounded the same in every seat,” Lee said with conviction.

The Breakthrough: Seeing What You Hear

But Lee discovered something even more significant about these systems when it comes to spoken word.

“For the longest time, if you think about a traditional space—think like a thousand-seat church venue, flat floor—let’s say you’re seated 10 rows back on the left side, just outside the left hang of the PA. You’re seeing the pastor here,” he gestured toward center stage, “you’re hearing him way up here behind you.”

“There is a disconnect and it is fatiguing,” Lee explained. “We’ve trained ourselves to just be hit with a new audible and visual connection that your brain has to retie every single time you go into a new venue and sit in a new spot.”

Tyler from Black Box immediately grasped the significance: “I think the biggest point there is honestly you went all the way back to being able to deliver the message of what’s being said at the venue. When you present that to a church and the pastor and say, ‘Hey, people are going to be able to hear your message clearer and less disorienting,’ that’s huge.”

Mixing Becomes… Easier?

Here’s where Lee’s experience gets really wild.

During that Vegas demo, he wanted to make the snare drum brighter. He was about to reach for his API 550 EQ and boost 10K when the tech stopped him.

“Wait, don’t EQ it. Pan it one click to the right.”

Lee was confused. “What?”

“Yeah, pan it one click to the right.”

He did, and the snare got brighter.

“A light bulb went off in my head and I’m like, oh my gosh, I get it,” Lee said. “What is happening with object-based mixing is because you don’t have so many channels fighting for the same real estate in a stereo field, we don’t have to do all the tricks and hacks—side chaining and multi-band and paralleling and all the things that we’ve taught ourselves to do to get the vocal out front in the right way, to get the snare drum to crack the right way. All that stuff is kind of out the window.”

Jake agreed: “A lot of object-based mixing could make it much simpler for church mix engineers, especially volunteers who aren’t super amazing mix engineers, to be able to have clarity in their mix. Instead of being like, ‘Okay, I got to think through how do I carve out this section of my EQ to create space for my vocals?’ It’s literally just like, ‘Oh, if I want to separate things a little bit more, I can just do that in the UI.'”

Lee put it bluntly: “Have you ever tried to explain to a volunteer how to side chain a bass guitar and a kick drum?”

Tyler and I both laughed. We’ve tried.

But There’s a Catch

It’s not all easier, though. These systems are more revealing.

“Because it’s all there for you to hear everything very easily, it will expose bad sources faster,” Lee warned.

Tyler confirmed: “BG Vs get exposed a lot quicker. All the times I’ve mixed on these systems I was like, ‘Oh wow, that’s no longer tucked in its spot. It’s very evident that person’s having timing issues or pitch issues.'”

So it’s easier to mix, but also more revealing of your sources. Interesting trade-off.

The Elephant in the Room: Cost

This is where reality hits hard.

“It looks like it tends to be around 30% more just in general, sometimes more than that,” Lee said about system costs.

I pressed Luke about what you actually need to get into the Fulcrum world for both object-based mixing and active acoustics.

“$14,000 is our lowest processor—it’s called a Venue Flex 8,” Luke explained. “It gives you 48 inputs and 32 outputs.”

Jake shared a telling story from watching a demo: “We’re watching Lee work in the ELISA software and he’s placing objects around. He starts with a kick drum, and a few seconds in he says, ‘Okay, I like to set my kick drum to the side a little bit,’ so he moves it to the side. One of our friends texts Luke on our team: ‘That was the most expensive pan I’ve ever heard.'”

I asked Lee directly: “A lot of our PAs we’re installing are somewhere between $60-70K and maybe $150-200K. Is there a line where it’s an obvious ‘you should probably at least look at this’?”

His answer was sobering: “At a $60-70,000 system price, the problem there is the processor that is the brains behind this is expensive. I think they start around probably eight grand. An immersive system in a console? You’re probably at least $200,000. Let’s not kid ourselves.”

Tyler agreed: “I think for that size church, the processor pricing has to come down. To do a system like that under $100K is borderline impossible.”

Room Limitations

Along with cost, there are physical limitations on whether these systems will even work in your space.

“The middle hang of PA has to cover around 75% of all the seats,” Lee explained. “Unless that center array or speaker can cover around that number, your room’s out. Because if we can’t do that, then you’re probably going to have better results just doing stereo with some fills. The room has to qualify first.”

So even if you have the budget, physics might say no.

The Early Adopter Phase

Here’s what I think is really happening: we’re in that awkward early adopter phase.

Jake nailed it: “I think it’s still too expensive to be practical for a lot of churches. These processors, you’re looking at over $10,000, sometimes over $20,000. I think what’s going to happen in the next 10 years is technology is going to make it cheaper and cheaper over time. Technology deflation happens pretty fast, and you don’t want to buy right before the exponential curve goes down. Maybe buy in a couple years where it’s made most of its way down.”

Luke gave a perfect analogy: “I remember back in 2012 when I bought my last TV. It cost me almost a grand. At the time, 4K had just come out and I was like, there is no freaking way I am paying eight grand for a 40-inch 4K TV. This is absurd. It will never happen. No one will ever buy these. And now I can go to Walmart and buy a 40-inch TV for $139. That’s 4K.”

Then he said something that stuck with me: “I’m here to say object-based mixing, active acoustics are here for everyone.”

The Verdict

After all these conversations, here’s what I’ve learned:

Yes, this technology is absolutely the future of mixing. The consistency across the room, the easier mixing, the way it connects what you see to what you hear—it’s all real. It’s all legitimately game-changing.

But we’re in that awkward early adopter phase. Like when 4K TVs first came out and cost eight grand for a 40-inch screen. That’s where we are right now with immersive audio.

The technology is incredible, but the price point puts it out of reach for most churches.

The good news? Technology always gets cheaper. The processors that cost $50,000 today will probably cost $15,000 in just a few years. And the ones that cost $15,000 today will probably be under five grand.

Lee summed it up with characteristic honesty: “Every church needs immersive audio systems… if the room qualifies. Be aware that every manufacturer thinks their system is the best system. Find someone who will just tell you the truth and look at your team and their skill level and the content of the band and the room and the church and the community. You have to put all those things in the pot, calculate everything out, and then you make the decision what’s best for you.”

My Take

If you’re building a new facility or you’re in that top-tier budget range and your room qualifies, absolutely look into this technology. But for most of us, we’re going to have to wait for the prices to come down.

The question is: how long are we willing to wait for the future to become available and affordable?

One thing is certain—this technology will eventually become standard. The only question is whether you want to be an early adopter or wait for the price curve to flatten out.

For Churchfront, we’re keeping a close eye on this space. We’re talking to manufacturers, testing systems when we can, and preparing for the day when immersive audio becomes accessible for the average church budget.

Because when that day comes, it’s going to change everything.