Chile. Although the initial construction of the Movistar Arena began in 1956, the structure remained unfinished and unused for 50 years. But today, the multipurpose stadium in Santiago de Chile, located in Parque O'Higgins, has more than made up for the lost time.
Two years after it opened to the public in 2006, Movistar Chile acquired the naming rights to the venue and added 5,000 seats, increasing its capacity to 16,500, transforming it into one of the largest and busiest stadiums in South America.
The Movistar Arena sold more than 1.4 million tickets in 2024, according to Pollstar, which positioned it as the fourth stadium with the highest number of tickets sold worldwide. With a large number of renowned artists and their fans queuing up to see their shows, the Movistar Arena has rented L-Acoustics speakers for many of its productions since 2019.
Now, on the recommendation of its exclusive audio provider, Bsound, the stadium has made a strategic investment in acquiring its own premium L-Acoustics K2 system to offer its visiting artists.
"I've been working with L-Acoustics for decades; in fact, I participated in the first system sold in Chile, so I perfectly understand the company's philosophy, development and sound quality," says Daniel Vinagre, founder and CEO of Bsound. "Other brands came up with designs for the stadium, but the best proposal came from L-Acoustics and, for me, I had no doubt that it was the right one.
We needed more than just a speaker upgrade. Our goal was better control of sound pressure level (SPL), and L-Acoustics clearly delivered the best results in terms of SPL, integrity and coverage."
Unique Acoustical Challenges in the Historic Dome Structure
The shape of the Movistar Arena's dome presents distinctive acoustic challenges, and government policies prevent any modification to the original structure, given that the building is considered historic. In close collaboration with Francisco Jaramillo of VGL, L-Acoustics' certified supplier and local distributor, and consultant Salvador Castañeda, who performed the calibration, L-Acoustics application engineer Alex Soto created the initial stadium system design at Soundvision. Bsound's team of world-class audio technicians made adjustments to optimize the setup for your specific needs.
The final system includes main arrays of 18 K2s per side, each supported by eight suspended K1-SB subwoofers and flanked by a dozen more K2s per side for fill coverage. Sixteen Kara IIs, usually stacked in groups of two, provide the front padding, while five more Kara IIs, hung per side, take care of the 270-degree seating sections. The low-end is bolstered by 18 KS28 floor-standing subwoofers in six stacks of three, and it's all controlled by a LA-RAK II system, paired with LS10 Milan-AVB switches and controlled by two P1 processors.
With its vaulted ceiling and acoustically reflective surfaces, one of the biggest design challenges was controlling the low-end. "We managed to overcome this challenge by designing a dangled cardioid subwoofer setup, integrating the main and fill arrays with subwoofers strung behind both arrays at the same distance," shares Vinagre. "This approach allowed us to gain low-end directional control, significantly improving the overall response of the system, while harmoniously integrating with the stadium's distinctive architectural character."
Versatility for Multi-Purpose Enclosure Needs
While the Movistar Arena's new speaker system is typically implemented with a left-to-right design, it can also be placed and rehung in a variety of configurations as needed. "The flexibility of this system was also one of the main reasons why we chose it," Vinagre describes. We can easily adapt it to create half-arena, 360-degree, and other custom configurations depending on the event.
This is a very dynamic venue. We don't just offer rock and roll shows, but also everything from tennis matches to circuses, so we needed a system that could handle it all. L-Acoustics K2, with its adjustable Panflex directivity, versatile rigging and reasonably light weight, is a very versatile system. The advanced Milan-AVB network ensures exceptional reliability.
The decision to use an AVB signal path was a wise one, says Vinagre: "We fed the audio signals to the system through Milan-AVB, chosen for its stability and practicality (since each of the two CAT6 cables carries eight audio signals, which provides redundancy) and, mainly, because the audio signal remains in the digital domain, thus avoiding losses due to distance and induction noise. It has proven to be a great success. In more than 100 shows to date, we have never needed redundancy. And even if we had needed it, we have already verified its correct operation, even when switching to the backup AES system."
Acclaim from the Artist and the Public
Anuel AA, Puerto Rican reggaeton singer, was the first artist to perform with Movistar's new system, debuting the system with four sold-out concerts. Since then, Lenny Kravitz, Toto, Dream Theater, Tool, Sting, Aurora and many others have performed at the venue, including Simply Red, which sold out for five nights, the highlights of which will soon be released in theaters.
"Almost every visiting artist and audio engineer has told us that they love our new system," adds Vinagre. "K2 is working great; The sound has been incredible and our audience is delighted with what they hear. We couldn't be happier with our choice of L-Acoustics."
