L-Acoustics DJ Turns Heads at the Pool During WMC 2026

For 40 years, the global disc jockey and electronic dance music community has flocked to southern Florida for Winter Music Conference (WMC), which now kicks off Miami Music Week (MMW), hoping to catch the latest on rising artists, the best labels, hottest venues, coolest trends, and most innovative tech. This year, the most buzz-worthy contender in that latter category was L-Acoustics DJ, which was seen and heard in action from March 25 to 27 at the Beatport Live pool party series on the Kimpton EPIC Hotel’s rooftop deck overlooking Biscayne Bay.

As the first spatial audio system built specifically for DJs, the new technology uses proprietary machine learning to separate a track’s stems and distribute them across a multi-speaker array, placing individual elements around the venue in real time. The result moves the DJ mix from stereo playback into three-dimensional sound design.

The loudspeaker complement for WMC’s official, three-day pool party series—a label showcase for Mood Child, Rekids, and Hot Creations x Three Six Zero Recordings—featured left and right main arrays each comprised of three L-Acoustics A15, with tight and solid low-end reinforcement delivered by four KS28 subs. Seven pairings of Syva colinear source systems and Syva Low subs served as surrounds, while a quartet of coaxial X12 enclosures plus a pair of SB18 subs provided monitoring for the artists, who were able to spatially mix their sets via an L-Acoustics DJ Controller and control app, all powered by an L-ISA Processor II.

Artists Give L-Acoustics DJ Rave Reviews
DJ and Producer Joachim Garraud, one of L-Acoustics DJ’s earliest adopters, and a performer and speaker at Winter Music Conference, describes the technology as a way to “distinguish ourselves in the club scene through the integration of an immersive experience.”

“The L-Acoustics DJ system reveals the music,” enthuses Miami-based KUMO, who performed as part of a discovery experience, following a quick primer from Garraud. “There’s a clarity and spatial depth that lets every sonic layer breathe, so you start to think less about playing tracks and more about guiding energy through space in a way people can feel on the dance floor. It’s freaking awesome!”

Fellow Miami artist DJ ABEL agrees, adding that the system “adds movement, energy, and a dynamic edge” to her sets. She also states that that “it’s simply fun to use.”

L-Acoustics DJ Declared “the Future”
Magnetic Agency Group Founder David Ireland, who served as the Executive Director for this year’s WMC and MMW, chimed in about the success of the system and event. “Transforming the Kimpton EPIC Hotel pool deck into a full spatial audio experience during Winter Music Conference via L-Acoustics DJ was a true team effort, and I want to give a huge thanks to Luca Sabatini, Lyly Loor Villanueva, and the Unreal Systems and L-Acoustics crew,” he says. “Allowing DJs to create spatial DJ mixes live during the Beatport Live and WMC pool party series was a big leap into the future of spatial audio mixing.”

Grammy-nominated producer Lorne Padman added, “Sound has only become slightly louder and clearer over the past 30 years, while video has transformed from simple screens in the ’90s to immersive worlds built entirely around the audience. Now, sound is making its own giant leap forward with a new product called L-Acoustics DJ. The device allows any DJ mixer to be retrofitted with a real-time, stem-separating technology that distributes stereo sound across dozens of speakers throughout a venue, creating a directional audio experience much like a home theater. This is absolutely revolutionary. It isn’t just an upgrade in sound quality, but a sea-change in what a DJ set can be and how an artist can express themselves.”

The press was equally effusive about the new tech. In the EDM Identity article Six Standout Moments from Winter Music Conference 2026, Cameron DeFaria writes: “The L-Acoustics DJ system, the first spatial audio rig built specifically for DJs, sounded genuinely exceptional during the showcase, using machine-learning source separation to split tracks into individual elements and place them around the venue in real time. It wasn’t a gimmick. The depth and dimensionality it brought to Garraud’s discovery session were audibly different from a standard stereo setup, and it pointed clearly toward where high-end club and festival sound is heading.”

And in an EDMTunes.com article titled How L-Acoustics Shaped the Sound of Miami Music Week with New Technology, Aidan Kennedy shares: “If you attended Miami Music Week and noticed great sound, you can thank the team [from] L-Acoustics [who were] armed with new technology… Their goal with the new technology is to create an immersive audio experience… Music fans and DJs have a lot to look forward to in the future with this new audio technology.”

L-Acoustics Hosts Two WMC Panels
In addition to the pool party, L-Acoustics hosted two panels at WMC, both of which were moderated by Amber Mundinger, Global Director of Creative Engagement at L-Acoustics. These included “Reinventing the Club Experience Through Sound Design,” featuring Joachim Garraud, Cedric Gervais, and Lorne Padman, alongside L-Acoustics CEO Laurent Vaissié, and “Beyond the Booth: DJs as Spatial Composers,” which focused specifically on artistic practice, with Garraud, Laidback Luke, Padman, and Nostalgix.