Epic Incheon Music Festival Sound System Success by ZSOUND

In October 2024, the city of Incheon, South Korea, became the vibrant epicenter of local culture as it hosted the highly anticipated Incheon Gyeyang-gu Autumn Music Concert and Drone Show. Drawing a massive crowd of approximately 20,000 spectators to an expansive outdoor stadium field, the event required an audio reinforcement strategy capable of delivering high-impact acoustic energy across a vast, open-air audience zone. To meet these rigorous demands, ZSOUND, in close partnership with ONAX—our exclusive professional audio distributor in South Korea—engineered and deployed a high-performance Incheon Music Festival sound system designed specifically for stadium-scale coverage.

Deploying live sound on this scale requires meticulous planning, as outdoor venues lack reflective surfaces to sustain sound propagation. Audio teams must rely entirely on the directivity and coupling efficiency of the line array elements to combat natural atmospheric attenuation, wind vectors, and the acoustic disturbance caused by hundreds of synchronized drones flying overhead.

Inside the Incheon Music Festival Sound System Setup

To ensure uniform acoustic coverage and clear vocal intelligibility across the entire festival ground, the engineering team designed a distributed line source system utilizing ZSOUND’s signature speaker cabinets.

The core of the Incheon Music Festival sound system consisted of 16 pieces of ZSOUND LC215 dual 15-inch line array speakers, suspended in two main hangs flanking the stage. The LC215 is specifically engineered for large-format outdoor applications, utilizing its dual 15-inch low-frequency drivers and high-output compression drivers to achieve a long-distance throw while maintaining tight pattern control.

To reinforce the low-end spectrum, 10 pieces of ZSOUND LS21 single 21-inch subwoofers were ground-stacked in a calculated array. These subwoofers deliver deep, physical bass down to the lowest registers of the musical performances.

For the side-fill and near-fill coverage zones, the team deployed a combination of 4 pieces of ZSOUND LA210N neodymium dual 10-inch line array speakers and 8 pieces of ZSOUND LA10 dual 10-inch line array speakers. The use of neodymium magnets—lightweight material that offers incredible magnetic force—ensured that the structural load on the temporary rigging towers remained safely within limits while delivering pristine mid-high frequencies to the far sides of the audience. Additionally, 4 pieces of LA18SL single 18-inch bass subwoofers were integrated at the stage front to bridge the acoustic transition between the main flown hangs and the ground-stacked subwoofers.

Acoustic Engineering for a 20,000-Person Outdoor Crowd

Managing an audience of 20,000 people in an open stadium requires more than raw volume; it demands precise control over SPL, the measurable loudness level that tells you how much acoustic energy reaches the audience. Without correct alignment, the front rows would suffer from excessive volume while the spectators at the back of the grass field would struggle to hear the vocals clearly.

Using advanced acoustic simulation software, ZSOUND and ONAX engineers calculated the precise splay angles (the physical gap angle between individual line array cabinets in a hang) to shape the vertical coverage pattern of the LC215 arrays. This ensured that the sound energy was directed precisely at the seating areas, minimizing spill onto empty concrete structures and avoiding unwanted echo reflections.

The ground-stacked LS21 subwoofers were configured in a line source block. This physical layout concentrates the low-frequency energy forward onto the audience field while reducing low-end buildup on the stage, allowing the performers and microphones to operate without feedback interference.

System Calibration and Collaborative Success with ONAX

Achieving a seamless sensory experience at the Incheon festival required close coordination between the audio system and the visual elements. The physical placement of the speaker hangs had to clear the sightlines of the massive central LED walls and the seestar synchronized stage lighting fixtures, creating a unified presentation where the audio and visual arrival times felt perfectly integrated to the audience.

During the onsite tuning phase, the technical team utilized pink noise calibration and real-time spectrum analysis to phase-align the flown line arrays with the ground-stacked subs. This eliminated phase cancellation—a common issue where overlapping sound waves from different speakers cancel each other out, resulting in a weak, hollow sound.

The result was a powerful, coherent, and highly musical soundscape that kept the 20,000-strong crowd fully engaged throughout the live concert and the spectacular drone show. ZSOUND extends its deepest thanks to our Korean partner, ONAX, whose local expertise and commitment to professional standards made this landmark stadium project an absolute success.