Although Solotech made a big splash with the opening of its 30,000-square-foot warehouse space that includes a rehearsal room for acts getting ready for tours and an audio video shop, the company has actually had a presence in Las Vegas since the early 1990s when the first Cirque du Soleil show opened with a audio system supplied by the main office in Montreal.
A Bigger Footprint
Since those early days, Solotech grew its base of operations in Las Vegas while supporting Celine Dion's stand at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace until an official office was opened in 2003. "It was really just a front office," explains Dean Roney, Solotech International's vice president of business development.
Yet the process of officially expanding didn't speed up until September of 2008, when the company found warehouse space and acquired a local sound company. "We believed that the idea of buying a local company would give us a giant step into the local market," Roney says. "Has that worked out? So so. The timing was not particularly good. The market is slow and it's very slow here, but we're doing okay. We're trying to spread ourselves out in the local market a little bit."
A Work in Progress
Roney and the rest of the Las Vegas-based staff have been out shaking hands and making sure that the perception of a big company rolling into a small town to take over is quickly laid to rest. "I'm sure that people who don't know us probably feel that way and we've been trying to make an effort to reach out to everybody and get to know them," he says. "In fact, that's one of the reasons we bought the local company. Unfortunately, sometimes some baggage goes with that, that you have to get rid of as well. What I mean by that is you buy a local company to have the local knowledge, but there could be some old competition wounds that you have to get over."
That has been a work in progress, he says. "There have been rumors that a lot of people are afraid of us and we don't want that," he says. "We want to develop some partnerships and be a provider of equipment if someone else has a gig out there and needs some more speakers, we want them to call us. By the same token, if we have a few extra gigs and we're out of gear, we want to know who we can call and who we can work with and try and make it a win-win."
The same holds true for companies looking for lighting and video assistance, especially considering that Solotech's experience includes those sides of production as well. In fact, Roney believes the acquisition of a lighting company would have served the company well. "We bought a local audio company that gave us a foot in the door into a bunch of audio clients. We've got a lot of lighting gear that we haven't been putting out that much, because we don't have a foot in the door there. So, in retrospect I think that might have helped."
Tour Support
Over the years, Solotech has stocked and manned national and international tours for the likes of Britney Spears, Leonard Cohen and Celine Dion out of its Montreal office. According to Roney, one of the reasons the Las Vegas location was opened was to service the west and south of North America while looking out for opportunities in Asia. The Montreal office will cover the east and north, as well as Europe.
At the same time, the company is working to survive as a regional. The initial challenge that it's faced actually came from their strength as a touring company. "Solotech is a very high tech company and we put a lot of intelligence into our systems," Roney explains. "That costs money and it's hard to compete with a lot of other companies that don't spend that much money on technology."
Currently the company supplies audio gear for a handful of events per month at the Rio Las Vegas Hotel & Casino and the Silverton Hotel and Casino, in addition to its ongoing work with the Cirque du Soleil shows. In addition, Solotech has been busy working up an installation business, with projects already completed at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel and Soulsberry nightclub. The team also recently completed installing a Meyer Sound rig at the M Resort Spa Casino.
A Multi-State Strategy
As far as supplying gear, Roney believes the company can work from Los Angeles to Phoenix, with San Francisco and Denver being a bit of stretch but possible. The multi-state strategy is possible, he says, because of its location. "Our overhead is much less than if we were based in L.A. So, whatever costs we would incur in trucking we have saved more than that in overhead. Las Vegas is a fairly cheap place to operate right now."
When it comes to equipment, Solotech inherited some pieces of Meyer boxes like UPAs, MSL-4s and some 700-HP subs. The company has upgraded that inventory to include an assortment of MILO, MICA and M'elodie boxes. The collection of boards on hand includes Yamaha PM5Ds and M7CLs, Digidesign Profiles and a few analog desks sitting around just in case. "We have a full complement of motors and rigging and whatever audio bits that are needed to do a couple arena sized shows, basically."
Building that inventory and creating the opportunity in Las Vegas was done with an eye towards the town's current opportunities as well its future. After all, Roney says, "everyone comes through here sooner or later, so you get to see a lot of people and stay in touch. For a small town, it's big entertainment. There are seven arenas in the greater Las Vegas area. I would guess there are more arenas here than in Los Angeles."
