From Estadio Azteca to MetLife Stadium: 40 Years of Invisible Sound
Sonance has history with the FIFA World Cup. Before Sonance acquired Sound Advance Systems to unlock the future of Invisible audio, our colleague and Sound Advance Systems founder, Alex Bertagni, was selected to design a historic piece of art that would be on display on the world stage at FIFA World Cup 1986 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
The World Cup: Then and Now
That year, the teams in the finals were Argentina and West Germany. On June 29, 1986, in front of a packed Estadio Azteca, Argentina won the match 3-2, carried by Diego Maradona's legendary run through the tournament. It remains one of the most celebrated finals in World Cup history.
Forty years later, Argentina is back in the final. This Sunday, July 19, 2026, the reigning champions face Spain at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the first men's World Cup final ever played on U.S. soil. It's a fitting moment to look back at where our own World Cup story began, on that same field in Mexico City, four decades ago.
ART FROM INVISIBLE SPEAKERS
Back in 1986, Alex Bertagni was VP of Engineering at Sound Advance Systems (then operating as BES/Soundadvance), which installed what he calls "the grandfather of the Invisibles" inside Estadio Azteca for the World Cup. It was a striking sculptural piece: a helix-shaped cluster of 192 BES C60 speakers, suspended above the field and built by the SoCal installation company Acromedia.
The C60 was the very first Invisible speaker Sound Advance ever produced. It set the foundation for everything that came after, including the smaller C52 that followed shortly after, engineered to fit neatly between wall studs. That idea, sound that disappears into the architecture around it rather than sitting on top of it, was radical in 1986. It's the same idea that defines our Invisible Series today.
Sound Advance to Sonance and TRUFIG
When Sonance acquired Sound Advance Systems in 2005, we didn't just gain a product line. We gained decades of engineering knowledge built by the people who invented the category in the first place. That acquisition became the foundation of what is now the Sonance Invisible Series, paired with TRUFIG, our flush-mounting technology that lets speakers, outlets, and other devices disappear completely into walls and ceilings.
And Alex Bertagni, the same engineer who designed that helix of speakers for a World Cup in 1986, is still an instrumental part of the Sonance engineering team. As a Senior Engineer, Alex is still shaping the next generation of the very technology he helped invent.
Forty Years, Two Finals
There's something fitting about this weekend. Argentina walked off the field at Estadio Azteca as champions in 1986, the same tournament where the earliest version of our Invisible technology hung above the pitch. Now Argentina returns to a World Cup final, this time chasing back-to-back titles against a Spain side looking for their second star.
Whoever lifts the trophy Sunday, we'll be thinking about how far Invisible audio has come since that spiral of speakers first hung over Estadio Azteca, and how the same engineer is still in the room, still building what's next.