Bestec Audio equips Tokyo’s Hikarie Hall with permanent Kiva II and A Series systems in each hall, backed by a mobile A Series and KS21 rig for the venue’s biggest events
TOKYO, Japan – August 2026 – Shibuya Hikarie is a 34-storey skyscraper directly connected to Tokyo’s landmark Shibuya Station, built on the former site of Shibuya Tokyu Bunka Kaikan, a beloved cultural complex that once housed a cinema and planetarium. Its name draws on the Japanese word for light, hikari, reflecting its ambition to direct Shibuya’s light out into the world. On the building’s ninth floor, Hikarie Hall’s two spaces — Hall A and Hall B — have grown into one of the district’s most in-demand event venues, hosting everything from corporate conferences to roughly half the runway shows at Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo, one of the world’s five major fashion weeks.
To keep pace with that range of programming, the hall’s technical team turned to L-Acoustics Certified Partner Bestec Audio to replace an ageing system that had begun to limit what the venue could offer. The result is a permanent Kiva II and A Series installation in each hall, paired with a mobile rig of A Series enclosures and KS21 subwoofers that scales the system up for the venue’s largest events, giving Hikarie Hall a single audio platform it can reconfigure hall by hall, and event by event.
L-Acoustics Shines in Side-by-Side Demo
“The speakers originally used in the hall were outdated and starting to limit what we could offer the hall’s clients,” says Ayaka Oyama from Pacific Art Center, the company that oversees sound management at Hikarie Hall. “There was a ceiling on the volume we could produce, and at noisy events like receptions, the sound would sometimes get lost in the chatter. We combined the permanent speakers with temporary ones, but over the past few years even that was sometimes inadequate.”
Aesthetics played a role too. Oyama said the team wanted something soft and unobtrusive, rounded rather than angular — and found it in L-Acoustics’ dark grey-brown finish, a softer look than the solid black of many competing systems.
A side-by-side demo sealed the decision. After comparing several manufacturers, Oyama felt that L-Acoustics delivered the performance and transparent sonic signature best suited to the hall’s diverse range of uses while meeting its aesthetic requirements.
Soundvision Puts Day-to-Day Control in the Venue’s Hands
Bestec Audio designed the system using L-Acoustics’ Soundvision software, then trained the Pacific Art Center team to run it themselves, handing day-to-day configuration to the venue to give them flexibility and autonomy.
“The training gave us a much better understanding of Soundvision and LA Network Manager, and setup is now far simpler than before,” Oyama says. “We can prepare settings on a laptop in advance and simply load that data on the day, which shortens the time needed for set-up. Even when a client asks to use the hall widthways instead of our usual lengthways configuration, Soundvision means we can just update the amplifier settings and the room still sounds right. That’s especially true once the speakers are flown.”
Oyama put that workflow to the test herself ahead of Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo in March 2026, running Soundvision simulations to configure the hall for the show.
Yoshiki Ito, also of Pacific Art Center, pointed to day-to-day handling as the standout benefit. “Whether flown or stacked, the speakers are easy to handle and relatively quick to rig, so we find them very easy to operate,” he explains, “We’ve also noticed how well the permanent system integrates when we add the KS21 subwoofer for temporary use. Simply positioning it, recalling a preset and sending output is enough for the sound to come together properly.”
Angle-adjustable enclosures have simplified life on busy changeover days, Oyama added — because settings translate cleanly from Soundvision to the room, the hall’s own team can hand off operation to external hires with minimal explanation.
Two Halls, One Sonic Signature
Hikarie Hall’s permanent installation covers Hall A and Hall B, backed by a mobile rig that scales the system up for the hall’s largest events.
Hall A’s permanent system is built around Kiva II, with two enclosures at centre and four per side left and right. This suits a room that has to move between different events without reworking the rig each time. Twenty flush-mounted X8i are spread across the room. Their compact coaxial format providing consistent sound throughout, without the visual footprint of a larger enclosure competing with the room’s design.
Hall B runs a leaner permanent setup of two A10i Wide as the main system, chosen for the wide dispersion the room’s proportions call for, supported by two X8 as side-fill for lateral monitoring and 15 flush-mounted X8i keep tonal quality consistent.
Both rooms draw on the same mobile rig when an event calls for more: eight A10 Focus and four A10 Wide extend or reshape coverage as needed, while eight KS21 subwoofers add the low-end weight the previous system struggled to deliver. Seven LA12X amplified controllers, alongside five LA4X, drive the system — managed through LA Network Manager, with configurations the Pacific Art Center team prepares in advance in Soundvision and recalls on site, the same workflow described above.
A System Capable of Meeting Every Request
Since the upgrade, Hikarie Hall has been able to accept bookings it once wasn’t equipped to serve. “We can now take on events requiring high volume levels that we would previously have had to decline,” Oyama said. “Since installing the L-Acoustics system, we feel we’re able to accommodate almost every request that comes our way.”
“With this installation, we can propose a flexible sound setup tailored to each event’s requirements,” Oyama concludes. “We want to keep responding fully to client requests and continue improving what our visitors experience.”