L-Acoustics is stepping up its efforts to better unify its global operations. In a strategic move announced Tuesday, the company will be forming a centralized Real Estate division aimed at managing everything from site acquisition, design and renovation to ongoing facility operations and brand consistency across its international footprint.
At the helm of the operations will be Gérald Yven as Global Real Estate Director.
Who is Gérald Yven?
Gérald Yven’s background is in finance and project management, with prior roles in facility and real estate management (Generali, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield).
His team will include a Head of Maintenance Operations and a Real Estate Project Manager, to manage day-to-day operations and capital projects, respectively.
A List of Current Projects Under the New L-Acoustics Real Estate Division
While more projects are likely to come as a result of this new team, L-Acoustics in its announcement stated that the Real Estate Division is already overseeing six separate projects as part of its formation. These include:
- A new global corporate office in Massy, France, which enables freeing up the original Marcoussis facility for more R&D use.
- A Creative Studio at Rock Lititz designed for engineers to train and refine mixing with L-ISA immersive audio.
- Expansions in production facilities in France and Germany.
- Launch of a second Innovation Center in London.
- Upgrades to the Westlake Village (U.S.) headquarters focused on comfort and efficiency.
- In France, the incorporation of solar panels with a goal of net-zero energy use in all company-owned buildings.
Reframing Physical Locations Beyond Being a Cost Center
Despite the move being organizational in nature, leadership at L-Acoustics has gone on record as saying that there is more than simple operational efficiency guiding the new real estate division.
Hervé Guillaume, co-CEO of L-Acoustics, framed the move as a critical support for the company’s growth trajectory, citing the need for each facility “to reflect our commitment to innovation” and serve the needs of staff, partners, and visiting artists.
The stated philosophy by the company is that real estate, beyond being a cost center, should serve as a strategic enabler of collaboration, innovation, wellness and brand alignment.
Physical Locations Fast Becoming Differentiators for Business
Following the advent of the digital age (and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic), if you had said brick-and-mortar settings wouldn’t just survive, but become critical to business success, chances are you might have caught a few odd looks on the broader online space.
Nowadays, however, especially in the custom integration space, physical locations have become a core differentiating factor for businesses, with plenty of demand being shown for both integrators and manufacturers to have at least some semblance of a real estate strategy in line with their general operations. The rise in this support boils down to three main reasons:
- Experience Economy: In an industry like CI–which largely caters to the lifestyles of its clients–the emotive, tactile and immersive aspects of a brand matter as much as its technical specification sheets. If anything, they matter even more than product specs.
- Demonstrating Innovation: As an integrator’s core offering tends to boil down to a collective of products unified on a singular system, physical testbeds offer a space for businesses to constantly tweak and refine their offerings, while having a open forum for testing and demoing to the general public.
- Networking: The ability to host clients and trade partners while discussing products and projects in an open forum has become even more critical nowadays following the collapse of that pipeline during the COVID lockdowns.
L-Accoustics and the CI Channel
A prominent part of L-Acoustics’ engagement with U.S.-based businesses has been through industry tradeshows like CEDIA Expo, with the company returning in 2021 after a multiyear hiatus. Since then, L-Acoustics has been a regular fixture at the show, often hosting full-fledged sound room demos of its luxury audio products. It’s most recent appearance at the 2025 CEDIA Expo saw its HYRISS system on full display.
That isn’t to say the company focuses exclusively on engagement through tradeshows. However, with the company only currently having a U.S. locations in California, the ability for many integrators to get out and see its products in person remains limited outside of these events.
There’s also reason to suspect that current economic conditions are placing a growing pressure on tradeshows for both attendees and exhibitors. Two main factors CE Pro has heard mentioned in talks with integrators and manufacturers are:
- Cost: Travel, shipping and food budgets have ballooned wildly in the wake of the pandemic, with all three continuing to grow as time progresses, causing many from both the exhibitor to the attendee side to reconsider their broader expo strategies in the wake of potentially shrinking value propositions.
- Attention: As the CI industry has grown, so too has the number of expos and conferences. While the numbers don’t represent a doubling of events, per se, the rising costs of travel to these events is causing more people to pick and choose between which ones demand the most attention.
Impact of Real Estate Division on American Markets to be Seen
While the current list of projects mainly relates to European facilities, two developments in L-Acoustic’s regional footprint show that the American market should be getting a fair share of attention through this new division:
- The company’s existing Westlake Village headquarters in Los Angeles, California will be receiving multiple upgrades aimed at improving the employee experience.
- An entirely new facility is currently under development in Nashville, Tennessee with plans to open in the very near future, marking its second major U.S. facility, in addition to establishing an eastern presence in the country.
Assuming that this new real estate division will be working on more American facilities as well, the move by L-Acoustics could open more opportunities for integrators looking to engage with L-Acoustics in design-build projects.
