Shakespeare's Globe Takes a New Direction with L-Acoustics L-ISA Hyperreal Sound for Pinocchio Musical

LONDON, UK – April 2026 – Shakespeare’s Globe is one of the most acoustically and architecturally singular performance spaces on earth. A meticulous reconstruction of the open-air Elizabethan playhouse where Shakespeare himself premiered Hamlet, Julius Caesar, and King Lear, it is built from English oak using 16th-century mortise and tenon joinery. And it holds the distinction of being the only building in London permitted to have a thatched roof since the Great Fire of 1666. Its circular structure wraps the audience on three sides around a wide, thrust stage, with 600 standing audience ‘Groundlings’ in the open pit and 1,000 seated in the three tiers of gallery seating rising steeply above them, with the closest boxes barely meters from the actors. It is a space designed from the outset for the unaided human voice. The intimacy and acoustic directness of the design are treated as fundamental to the experience of Shakespeare’s theatre.

Shakespeare's Globe takes a new direction with L-Acoustics L-ISA Hyperreal Sound for Pinocchio musical

In December 2025, the Globe staged a brand-new musical, Pinocchio, as part of its festive season run in the open-air theatre. This new smash-hit production was aimed at families, and Pinocchio’s creative team recognized that a live band, songs and young audience members called for temporary sound reinforcement – without changing the fabric or aesthetic of the theatre, and with respect to the unique Globe audience experience. Amplification has been used across the years of the Globe’s history, especially for special events such as music gigs, comedy shows, poetry events, etc. and as one of the last-remaining unamplified theatres, the Globe is proud to champion the power of the unamplified human voice across its year-round activity. However, a musical during winter in the open-air presented real challenges for ensuring they produced a world-class experience for families coming to the theatre.

The goal was therefore clear - the solution had to be transparent, with sound that audiences would feel rather than notice. L-ISA Hyperreal’s object-based spatial audio, which distributes individual sound sources across a multi-array configuration to align what audiences hear with what they see on stage, made that level of naturalness achievable.

Pinocchio’s producer, Shakespeare’s Globe, approached Olivier Award-winning sound designer Tony Gayle after hearing his work on My Neighbour Totoro, a production which earned Gayle an Olivier Award for Best Sound Design. “The team were looking for something similar for Pinocchio. It needed to be transparent and natural, particularly for the vocals,” says Toby Chester, Global Application Lead for Musicals at L-Acoustics. “Gayle’s expertise was a welcome addition.”

The Globe as an Acoustic Space, and Why L-ISA Was the Exception

“The decision to amplify this production at the Globe wasn’t taken lightly,” says Will McGonagle, Hire Manager at Autograph. “Since re-opening in 1997, the theatre has championed an unamplified acoustic space. Its audiences come to the Globe expecting an experience that’s akin to Shakespeare’s time – acoustic, lively, big storytelling. We knew that any sound design would need to earn its place without drawing attention to itself. Tony’s brief was therefore to achieve intelligibility and musical clarity for a family audience, while remaining entirely invisible."

An Open-Air Wooden Theatre in Wind and Weather: Modeling the Space in Soundvision First

The Globe presented a unique set of challenges to Gayle, Chester, and Autograph. Its open-air, circular auditorium means sound behaves differently to a conventional enclosed theatre, contending with wind, the weather, and the natural reverberation of the room. It is also a challenge to achieve consistent coverage across the pit and the three gallery tiers.

“The biggest issue was probably how it was going to look,” Chester says. “The technology couldn’t appear too industrial. The theatre is a deeply historic, wooden building. Understandably, the production team didn’t want to see lots of equipment in there.”

To find the right solution, L-Acoustics and Autograph used L-Acoustics Soundvision software in cohorts with Gayle to model the space and present multiple configuration options to the Globe and Pinocchio teams. They even brought physical speakers to the venue so the Globe could assess their size and visual impact before any commitment was made. The speakers chosen, which had L-Acoustics distinctive dark brown color, ultimately disappeared into the architecture entirely.

Five X12 for the Stage, 113 5XT for the Galleries: L-ISA Sound Spaces Utilized on Every Tier

The final system was supplied by Autograph and prepped and installed by a team of audio professionals who closely work with Gayle. Five X12 formed the main Scene system, flown across the front of the stage. Two KS21 subwoofers underpinned the low-end, keeping bass tight and controlled in the open-air environment.

The most distinctive element of the design, however, was the spatial fill system deployed across the gallery boxes. With speakers arranged across three tiers encircling the auditorium, every individual box was equipped with three 5XT — 113 in total — making it the largest L-Acoustics spatial fill system of its kind deployed to date. For audience members seated in the upper-tier boxes, where the main stage audio system is obscured, these fills carried the entire audio experience.

To manage this complexity, the system was built around an L-ISA Processor II, with LA7.16 amplified controllers and LS10 switches handling signal distribution via a redundant Milan-AVB. Chester adds: “Using the LA7.16 amplifiers reduced our overall power consumption significantly and meant that our footprint in the tech space was significantly reduced, by more than half, when compared to traditional amplifiers. The amplifiers were built in L-Acoustics LA-RAK III, which are pre-built with dual redundant AVB connectivity using LS10 network switches along with additional AES/analog fallback capability, which reduce the time needed to prepare and program equipment in the warehouse.”

Four discrete Sound Spaces were configured within L-ISA: a main sound space for the primary Scene system, and one dedicated space for each of the central boxes. This, along with using the Source Trims feature to adjust the mix for those seated closer to the stage who hear more of the band acoustically, allowed the team to deliver a tailored mix to every area of the house. The source trims feature within L-ISA proved to be invaluable.

Audiences Heard the Story, Not the System, and Pinocchio Returns in 2026

The result was everything the creative team had hoped for. Audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with the musical director and creative director among those who praised the system’s performance. Most importantly of all, Gayle’s sound design achieved what had been asked of it: audiences were absorbed in the story of Pinocchio without ever being distracted by the technology making it possible.

For Chester, the project proved something important about the relationship between L-ISA’s spatial distribution and the perception of naturalness. “The 5XT is a remarkably compact speaker. Small enough to sit inside a gallery box without disrupting the architecture. That physical discretion is what made the fill system possible at the Globe in the first place,” he notes. “Together with Autograph, we were able to deliver subtlety through a professional sound system that served the production without compromising the Globe’s identity or the audience’s experience.”

About L-Acoustics

Since 1984, we have been continuously innovating to shape the future of sound.

Our European-designed solutions optimize Source, System, and Space—unleashing creative possibilities in content, perfecting audio technology, and harmonizing with venue acoustics to guarantee exceptional performance.

Our global team of over 1,000, with 20% dedicated to R&D, has pioneered breakthroughs like the V-DOSC line array, L-ISA immersive solutions, and the eco-conscious L Series—innovations that have both transformed our industry and transcended our auditory perceptions. The world's most demanding stages trust us: Adele's Las Vegas residency, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Zaha Hadid-designed Guangzhou Opera House, and over 13,000 premium venues worldwide. We've earned this trust by consistently delivering extraordinary audio in every venue and any space.

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