Nashville, TN (April 6, 2026)—AEG Presents owns more than 30 festivals, nearly 50 venues and produces dozens of tours every year, but one of its most notable recent highlights is Nashville’s The Pinnacle, its flagship 4,500-seat venue inside the 19-acre Nashville Yards urban development zone—a facility that sports an acoustical room design from specialists Design Technik.
The venue’s audio system is based around an L-Acoustics system—appropriately, since both AEG and the audio manufacturer are based inside Nashville Yards’ adjacent 10-story office building. Design Technik also collaborated on L-Acoustics’ own demo and training space at Rock Lititz, as well as the new Americas regional headquarters in Nashville.
Discussing the Pinnacle project, Design Technik’s CEO and founder Kevin Lee Hughes noted, “This kind of venue is designed for modern music, amplified sound—very loud amplified sound, potentially—we measured 123 dB peaks at 40-50Hz for an EDM show. Shows here can range from intimate to powerful.”
While bass traps were installed under the front of the stage to neutralize the hollow space, Hughes reveals that “decades ago, I would have put bass traps in the rear of the hall and used traditional acoustic panels elsewhere. The technology that we developed and now use allows us to tune from sub-low through high frequencies, controlling the room’s response using the whole surface of a wall.” There are also, he adds, “parts of the room that we strategically left a little or a lot more alive, so the audience has a natural, comfortable feeling as we strived to harmonize sound and space.”
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On stage, Design Technik’s proprietary system of treatments wraps the full stage to deck. “For a modern high-SPL live venue, it’s important to control stage volume and absorb the sound energy projecting off the back of the P.A., including cardioid and end-fire systems. This approach helps to present a clear coherent sound to the audience. We achieve full-range control on stage with minimal loss to space. For The Pinnacle, we really worked to minimize sound reflecting off the stage walls back to the audience. In the case of that space, there’s no benefit to it.”
Luke Lasater, senior design engineer at Design Technik, offers, “On a project like this, to control the frequency bands that are particularly problematic, we need to cover large surfaces. One of the ways that we do that is by installing the acoustic system into the building itself, directly onto the studs.”
The acoustic solution thus becomes the visible finish of the surface, which can even save a project money. Part of the job, says Lasater, is “making sure that those acoustic finishes blend in with the interior design vision of the space.”
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Lauren Laramee, senior production manager at The Pinnacle, reports that the effort was worth it, making for an inviting room to play and enjoy performances in: “The feedback from artists and engineers has been overwhelmingly positive—not only for audio clarity, but also for comfort and feel of the room. It’s the gem of Nashville. We are the talk of the town.”