HONG KONG: The Box at Freespace, located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, became an immersive rock club in May for 13 performances of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the first Cantonese staging of the cult musical, presented by WestK Performing Arts and directed by Ivanhoe Lam. With Sound Designer Can Ha deploying L-Acoustics L-ISA immersive audio alongside the first deployment of L-Acoustics DJ technology in Asia, the production transformed the venue into a continuous musical experience that extended beyond the stage and into the audience spaces.

Accommodating 950 standing or 450 seated, The Box is designed to be dismantled and reconfigured for different productions. Its permanent L-Acoustics L-ISA system allows the sound design to be adapted to each performance, making it particularly suited to productions that move between theatrical and concert formats. For Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Ha worked with L-Acoustics Application Engineer Daniel Lee and Nancy Lam, Technical Manager at Freespace, to rework the system following an earlier staging of the same production at the venue a year before.

The production, which stars Jordan Cheng as Hedwig, a genderqueer rock singer whose former lover has found stadium success with songs he stole from her, combines an intimate musical narrative with the energy of a rock concert. Cheng translated the script and lyrics into Cantonese, while the evening’s format extended beyond the performance itself, opening with a vinyl warm-up DJ set and concluding with a full after-party.

A key challenge was the venue’s audience configuration. With the stage positioned at the wide end of The Box, approximately 300 people were spread across its width, with a raked seated block in the centre and standing audiences on either side. During the 2025 run, the entire audience was treated as a single L-ISA zone, meaning those standing at the flanks experienced a diluted version of the 360-degree spatial image enjoyed by the central seating area.

For the return, Ha and Lee implemented L-ISA Sound Spaces, enabling a single spatial mix to be rendered independently across three listening zones. The configuration comprised a central zone for seated audiences and separate left and right zones for the standing areas, each with its own surround ring and driven from a single control. The result was a more consistent spatial experience across the room, with every audience member able to experience the same mix.

Achieving this required changes to the loudspeaker configuration. The L-Acoustics Kiva II hangs, previously positioned at the outer edges of the room, were moved inboard between the main hangs to pull the image towards the centre for the standing audience. Additional L-Acoustics X8 loudspeakers were installed between the zones, allowing each flank to be covered by its own surround ring. The revised design was modelled and validated in L-Acoustics Soundvision before load-in.

“Hedwig is somewhere between a concert and a play, and L-ISA is how we move between the two,” says Ha. “When Hedwig is abandoned, we move the entire band from one side of the room to the other, and we use the L-ISA room engine to blur everything, so the audience feels what she is feeling rather than being told about it. On top of the surround changes, we had already made tweaks to the frontal system and subs. As a result, we managed to do away with the drum screen and the whole thing sounds alive in a way it didn’t before.”

The DJ sets received a similarly immersive treatment, with Ha introducing L-Acoustics DJ for its first deployment anywhere in Asia. Using the same L-ISA design as the musical, the technology separates stereo tracks into stems in real time, allowing DJs to spatialise individual elements through the L-Acoustics DJ controller and add a new dimension to their performances.

The impact was evident across the room. With immersive audio available throughout the audience areas, rather than only around the DJ booth, people spread out across the space instead of gathering in one location. The DJs, whose sets ranged from contemporary techno to nostalgic Cantopop, also adapted quickly to the technology, arriving 20 minutes before their sets for soundcheck and beginning to experiment with the controls within ten minutes.

“I think it’s really fun to play with, and the app is easy to use,” says DJ Just Bee. “I love the mix-and-match of the dynamic effects that make the music experience even more immersive.”

“We wanted the audience to enjoy themselves where they were and not have to move around to find the good spot,” says Nancy Lam. “Putting the DJ system inside L-ISA meant that when people were holding their drinks and walking around after the show, they were still inside it. They are part of the show, not watching it.”

The main system comprises five hangs of two ARCS Focus and one ARCS Wide across the width of the stage, supplemented by two hangs of four L-Acoustics Kiva II positioned between hangs one and two, and four and five, to support imaging into the standing areas. Low-frequency reinforcement is provided by two central columns of three L-Acoustics SB18 subwoofers in cardioid configuration, alongside two L-Acoustics KS28 subwoofers beneath the stage.

The three listening zones are built around 38 L-Acoustics X8 loudspeakers distributed across the central zone’s surrounds and overheads, the left and right surround rings, and front-fill positions across the front of the audience. Each zone has a different loudspeaker layout, rendered independently through L-ISA Sound Spaces from a single L-ISA Soundscape. Amplification is handled by 15 L-Acoustics LA12Xi and 11 LA4Xi amplified controllers, while one L-ISA Processor and one L-ISA Processor II manage the spatial processing for the musical and both DJ sets. L-Acoustics Certified Provider Rightway Audio Consultants supported the venue’s system throughout.

Although L-Acoustics DJ was developed for clubs and festival stages, its application at Hedwig and the Angry Inch demonstrated how the technology could extend an immersive audio experience beyond a conventional DJ performance and into a theatrical production’s wider programme.

“The DJs who had played the run last year told me this year felt more energetic and more even, and that the audio was surrounding them,” says Ha. “The Box is built to be adapted every time, and Hedwig used that for everything it was worth. L-ISA was the primary tool, and it made everyone feel part of Hedwig’s show rather than sitting inside a black box. Pairing it with L-Acoustics DJ pushed that further than I thought we could take it.”

“Audiences can come back to this venue again and again and have a completely different experience every time,” concludes Lam. “Putting L-ISA and L-Acoustics DJ together gave them a new experience they had not had before. It was a delight to watch them respond.”