You’d think that a major metropolitan area like Chicago, with its 11 million or so citizens, would have dozens and dozens of sound companies ready to service the city’s music venues and industry events. Yet, according to T.C. Furlong, who started the sound company that bears his name nearly 35 years ago, there are only eight companies working in the Windy City. “If you do the math, there’s room for everyone,” he says of his local competition. “I think everyone coexists reasonably well. Most of our customers are our friendly competitors. They call us when they need something, and we can call them when we need something. In some ways it’s like a pooling of the necessary inventory to cover such a large market.”
The Chicago vibe is vastly different from Nashville, where the company has an office that rents supplementary gear to that town’s vast number of sound companies. “That’s a very competitive market, because it’s a small metropolitan area,” Furlong reports. “There are probably more sound companies in Nashville than Chicago.”
No matter the market, sticking around for that amount of time means that the company is doing a number of things right. Furlong points to the “customer first” philosophy as well as an understanding of what the person on the other end of the phone line needs. “Everybody who works here has a background in production, so oftentimes if somebody calls and they say they have to do this or that by some date, we understand that the curtain goes up on that date, on that time and there’s no margin for error.”
Moreover, Furlong says, he looks at his company as a resource for other sound companies in town. “We keep an extensive inventory of the things that the other regional sound companies run short of,” he explains, “which are wireless microphones, wireless intercoms, digital consoles and specialty speakers. Oftentimes we are known to be able to fit in the missing parts at the last minute. We take care to deliver these pieces in very short order.”
Furlong has recently added speakers from Meyer (including CQ-2 full range self-powered speakers and M2D self-powered line arrays among others), MacPherson (M10P passive floor monitors and M12X-MIRROR bi-amped speakers) and KV2 Audio. The stock of wireless microphones run the gamut and includes models from Shure, Countryman, Crown and DPA.
The company’s list of consoles includes a pair of Yamaha PM5000s, a Yamaha PM5D-RH, a Digidesign VENUE, a Yamaha M7CL, Yamaha O1V, as well as smaller frame boards like the Mackie Onyx 1640 16-channel compact mixer.
In addition to the hardware, Furlong reports an extensive investment in wireless support technology that includes RF analyzers, filters and custom antennas.
“We tend to gravitate to the areas where we can add value to our clients by helping them,” Furlong says. “Anybody can buy the equipment, but it’s pretty difficult to be able to apply it properly in the correct situations and make it work the best you can.”
When it comes to investing in new technology, which Furlong aggressively pursues, it’s more than just a matter of keeping up with the proverbial Joneses. “Keeping up with the Joneses implies that the Joneses are ahead of us. I think in some ways, because we are in such a niche, we don’t have to be competitive with the Joneses,” he says. “Our challenge is how to supply the Joneses with what they might need when they run short. So, say the largest company in town is doing things one way, we don’t try to do it the same way. We try to figure out a way that best serves the customer or best serves that person.
“Making good decisions about what to purchase is an important part of the business,” he adds. “So, if we can justify investing in a new technology because we can look forward and see that this is something that will be asked for, something that people will latch on to the value of, than that’s a consideration.”
While the rental side of Furlong’s business is important, it’s not the only one. Indeed, the company provides sound services to corporate events that may or may not feature musical entertainment, exhibitions and, perhaps most visibly, the studio that hosts the PBS broadcast, high-definition-filmed television program Soundstage, a show that was a precursor to the popular music program Austin City Limits.
Soundstage went off the air for a number of years, but when it was resurrected earlier this decade, the producers approached Furlong to design the venue’s sound system and provide FOH services. The balance between entertaining a live audience and not interfering with the show’s taping was a bit of a challenge. To get it done, Furlong uses a single array of six Meyer M2Ds, a pair of Meyer CQ-2s for side fills, six Meyer UPA-1Ps for stage lip fills and four Meyer 650-P powered sub woofers. MacPherson M2X speakers cover the venue’s balcony.
The console of choice at front of house, and at monitor world, is the Yamaha PM-5000. It was an easy decision to go with an analog board. “Anybody can mix on an analog console, and I’d say most of [the touring FOH engineers] prefer an analog console,” Furlong says.
Keeping all that business enables the company to stay busy year round. “For instance, at Christmas-time there’s not much live entertainment going on, but because of all the holiday productions going on the rental business goes through the roof,” he says. “In January, when there’s no touring, our business meetings and exposition business goes crazy. January was a very business month for us, because we did a number of show events ourselves and we supported a lot of other companies that did sales meeting kick offs for the new year. We tend to stay busy all year where a lot of performance audio companies have a down season.”
