GLOBAL: In a landmark collaborative move, L-Acoustics and d&b audiotechnik have joined forces with SoundPLAN to introduce the SDE (Sound Data Exchange) standard — an industry-first initiative aimed at delivering consistent, reliable, and manufacturer-neutral noise prediction for live events. As festivals and outdoor productions continue to expand into increasingly noise-sensitive urban environments, SDE arrives as a timely and much-needed solution to one of the industry’s most persistent challenges.

Until now, predicting environmental noise from multi-system events has been inherently complex. With each manufacturer relying on proprietary design and prediction tools, achieving consistent and comparable results across different systems has remained elusive. This fragmentation has often made it difficult for consultants, promoters, and authorities to accurately assess and manage noise impact—particularly for large-scale festivals involving multiple stages and mixed system deployments.

The SDE standard directly addresses this limitation by introducing a unified method and file format for exporting sound system data into environmental noise prediction software. By standardising how data is generated from leading system design platforms such as d&b’s ArrayCalc and L-Acoustics’ Soundvision, SDE ensures that acoustic calculations are consistent, transparent, and comparable—regardless of the underlying system.

Crucially, the standard incorporates advanced methodologies for modelling complex acoustic interactions, including calibration and decoherence factors, enabling accurate predictions across both near-field and long-distance scenarios. This level of precision—particularly when dealing with coherent sources and phase interactions—marks a significant step forward in environmental noise modelling.

With SDE, system technicians can export their designs as standardised files, which can then be seamlessly imported into software platforms like SoundPLAN. The result is a streamlined workflow that allows consultants and event organisers to perform equivalent calculations across diverse systems, ensuring accurate and reliable noise predictions for multi-stage festivals and complex event environments.

“The SDE standard is a huge step forward in addressing the noise management challenges of large-scale events,” said Florian Hahn, Product Manager Application Software at d&b audiotechnik. “With SDE, we’re making effective and comparable noise management accessible, ensuring that audiences can enjoy their favourite artists while respecting nearby communities, public facilities and natural habitats.”

Yann Gaël Gicquel, Director of Product Management, Spatial Systems at L-Acoustics adds: “Organizing a festival today means navigating real tension between the energy that makes live music special and the legitimate expectations of the communities hosting it. Using SDE gives everyone at that table – promoters, consultants, local authorities – one shared, reliable source of truth for those conversations. That’s what makes it meaningful.”

“SDE will set a new benchmark for noise prediction in the audio industry,” concluded Jochen Schaal, Managing Director at SoundPLAN. “Its innovative, collaborative approach promises to establish SDE as an industry standard, simplifying workflows and delivering the most reliable and accurate prediction of noise emissions from different sound system manufacturers to date.“

Available immediately, the SDE standard represents not just a technical advancement, but a broader shift towards industry-wide collaboration and interoperability. For L-Acoustics users, SDE is currently accessible to trained and certified consultants and via the company’s Environmental System Design service, while d&b users can access the functionality directly within ArrayCalc.