New York, NY (April 15, 2026)—Loudspeaker manufacturers L-Acoustics and d&b audiotechnik have teamed up with environmental noise software developer SoundPLAN to develop a new standard for noise prediction—SDE, or System Design Exchange.

Live sound vendors can use a P.A. brand’s proprietary design software, such as d&b’s ArrayCalc or L-Acoustics’ Soundvision, to determine how and where sound will travel in and outside a venue, but when multiple systems are involved, such as at multi-stage festivals, then predictions can get inconsistent due to lack of interoperability between the software applications.

SDE, then, is said to provide a standardized methodology and file format between proprietary systems—at launch, d&b and L-Acoustics’ respective applications—to address that issue. According to a statement, “It defines how to export data from system design software…and details the methodology for calculating complex acoustic interactions. This includes calibration and decoherence factors….”

• L-Acoustics, d&b Launch Milan Manager V2, Website

Within the respective applications, designs can be exported as SDE files, which can then be imported into environmental noise software like SoundPLAN , allowing users to perform equivalent calculations in order to accurately predict noise emissions for sites using multiple P.A.s from different manufacturers. The stakeholders expect to offer the SDE format to other manufacturers and other noise pollution software in the future.

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Yann Gaël Gicquel, Director of Product Management, Spatial Systems at L-Acoustic, noted, “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.”