It wasn't long ago that the best technology available was priced beyond the reach of many live sound professionals. A certain amount of price segregation makes sense, of course, but manufacturers across the board came to the realization that a customer base could be doubled, maybe tripled, by offering a series of products at a more attainable price point. The trick is to take proven technology, tweak it slightly to get to a more affordable level and keep the quality high. Example: It's common knowledge that the Yamaha PM5D is rich with features culled from Yamaha's PM1D. Realizing that there was a market for a lower priced alternative, the company designed the M7CL (in 32 or 48 channel versions) and then the LS9 (16 or 32 channel versions).
"We feel like we've taken the technology of the amazing PM1D and brought it down so that everyone can mix on a digital console now," explains Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. product manager Daniel Craik.
The initial idea behind building both the M7 and the LS9, he adds, was to provide an intuitive desk that could be used by a staff of volunteers in the worship market. "There are a lot of gaps in people's knowledge at that level, so we wanted to make an affordable live console for that group of people," he says. "Now there are a lot of M7s out on tour as well. One guy, if he's burly enough, can carry it. There are 48 channels and four effects processors and up to 16 graphic EQs. So, for the guy that's doing regional shows, this is a dream."
According to Craik, the different consoles offer different features. The 5D, he explains, is a 96-input console, and the M7 has all of the electronics and processors from the 5D, but it's a 48-channel desk. "That cuts the cost. It's a smaller desk, and it has a different operating system. By the time we get to the M7 from the 5D, we can make it for less money because we've been there, done that," he says. "R&D is what takes the most time and has to be repaid somehow. So we can get down there because we've done it once or twice before."
Greg Mackie started his company with an eye on the compact mixer market. With a blend of clever marketing and dynamic products, Mackie became known as the company that built compact mixers with pro features at an affordable price.
"We tend to be the highest price mixer in the MI market, but we're the lowest cost option in the professional arena," reports Mackie brand director, John Boudreau. "So we have a split personality. We want our mixers and our products to be professional and cater to that market, but we still want to maintain the fun aspect of what Mackie is and cater to that MI market as well."
With that in mind, the company continues to polish stalwart products, à la the VLZ line of mixers, while building the up-market Onyx board. "We invested our R&D into a new micpre, new equalization, new general summing bus circuitry, so that we are offering a higher priced version of the VLZ where most of the MI companies were going lower cost," Boudreau explains. "Now, since we did that, we had a platform of technologies that we could go up-market with, and we actually did what was opposite of the traditional model. The Onyx four bus is a replacement for the old SR 24.4 and 32.4. They cost more; they have more features. We've been going up market with our product line."
The Onyx is not the only board that's moving up market, adds Boudreau. In fact, an upgraded VLZ3 will be launched at this year's NAMM show. The company is able to make that move, he says, because electronic component costs have dropped again. "Instead of taking the existing components that we have and making a lower price mixer, we tend to try and grab the next higher priced components that are dropping down [in price and use those]," he says. "So, for example, the VLZ3 that is launching at NAMM is a much improved p e r f o r m a n c e product because we were able to grab higher tiered components that we weren't able to use five years ago. So instead of introducing a new VLZ at a lower price, we stuck to our price point and offer a greatly improved product."
But Mackie isn't soley focused on mixers.
"I think the next big hit is going to be a digital mixer and snake system that is achievable for a lot more people," he says, and he wants Mackie to get there fast. "We're going to effectively achieve that goal at NAMM." According to Boudreau, "You'll be able to take a TT24 and a 32 x 32 snake box that we'll have. I'm striving for a $9,999 street price for a 32 x 32 digital mixing system that includes the surface and the snake. If that's achievable, the next closest thing that you could get to do that would be boards that are $50,000. I think the first few companies that get there are going to see the fruits of that particular market."
On the speaker side of things, a handful of companies are seeing how it's economically beneficial to offer top of the line technology in lower priced products. EAW will be taking the Gunness Focusing technology that's being installed into the NT series and rolling them into a new processor that they claim will enable the KF series to sound like studio reference monitors.
Peavey has jumped headfirst into the market with its Versarray offering. "We've come up with a package that you can put in the back of a pick-up and go," says sound reinforcement product manager Don Boomer.
According to Boomer, Versarray is based predominantly on new technology. The Neo Black Widow woofer is a neodymium dual pushpull voice coil type speaker that was developed just for this box. The ribbon drivers are new as well, and could only be used after the company figured out how to build them on an assembly line in order to be competitive on price.
Audio-Technica marketing director Gary Boss points out that taking the company's high-end technology and putting it into a more accessible product happens frequently. "Part of it is planned, and part of it is out of necessity," he states.
The first example that Boss points to is the evolution that took place with the Artist Elite 2500, a dual element cardioid instrument mic used by many in kick drums. The microphone was priced at $500, but Boss admits that not many people were going to drop that much money on a kick drum microphone. "We decided to knock off our own product and make it a little more affordable," he reports. "So we came out with the ATM250DE, which shares the dual element principal, but now we brought it out at about a $300 street price.
"Now we were starting to get closer to the price of a single regular microphone for a kick drum," he continues. "We have something that we knew from working with our engineers in some of the biggest tours and brought it down to a level where a guy with a B or C level touring rig or a drummer himself might want to pick up something like this."
This type of move has been happening for some time, Boss says, even in the wireless market. "Wireless has always been one of the sketchy, iffy, black arts sorts of things, and the real high-end stuff performed super well," he explains, "and we're going back a while now, but some of the lower cost stuff was a bit sketchy." Once Audio-Technica had worked out the high-end system, the company was able to apply features like diversity and tone lock squelch into more affordable packages.
"I think wireless has benefited the most because with the high-end units, you don't have an option for failure," he says. "The problem was that a lot of those features were very expensive to implement. Well, you make enough of them, and all of a sudden, some of those features can make it to the masses. So we were able to translate a lot of our higher end features into what we would call professional wireless, like our 2000 or 3000 series."
After all, price point can't be the only factor on new gear, Boss explains. "It's very attractive to see a low price on goods and go out and purchase it, but if we want to sell that same person down the road another product, they better have a positive experience; I don't care if it's a $100 product or a $700 product."
Although he doesn't sound concerned, Boss points out, "There's the joke out there that a lot of people don't voice, but it's talked about in manufacturing circles, that there's kind of like this race to the bottom." While that might be alarming to manufacturers, it should be music to the ears of users.
