Market Reaching

Digidesign's D-Show ProfileIn 2005 Digidesign launched its Live Sound division, and one of the markets it has now begun to penetrate is commercial installation. But what can Digidesign, previously a company that produced gear for the recording studio rather than FOH, do for the contractor looking to flourish?
Robert Scovill, Digidesign's marketing manger for live sound products, explained the company's recent shift towards the install market. "This market's always been on our roadmap, however we felt we needed to make some inroads in the surrounding markets first, especially with the users, to gain some credibility and to prove our products' reliability. The contracting market at times can be driven by the end users, and I felt they needed to see us as a viable product before they would give it consideration."
Didgidesign's digital consoles are innovative in what they offer users, including completely integrated signal processing, show file portability among platforms, and fully interchangeable work surfaces. But contractors might not be considering feature sets or the absence of racks when they're selling to clients. Scovill said, "The main challenge we've seen is getting contractors to understand what our product offers in terms of workflow, and how it can positively effect presentations by the users. We also needed to show that the Venue line would offer long-standing products. Those concepts don't always transfer to a bottom line, and the contracting market can be a bottom line-driven industry at times. So it's really down to helping them understand what our products offer and how it can positively reflect on their designs as well as the end result."
Some of the features that Digidesign can offer contractors include the wide array of TDM plugins that allow for previously challenging situations for users. Scovill explained, "We have some very unique things to offer to the install market, especially the house of worship market. Features like Virtual Soundcheck will play dramatically into that market and can significantly improve their presentations. Couple that up with being able to run third-party plug-ins natively on the console, and it's a very attractive option. We had to prove that in the concert market, and they now get it without doubt. Hopefully the contractors will see plug-ins and integrated recording as a viable option to racks and racks of I/O, processing, and interface as well as the workflow improvements they offer.
"From the tech point of view, we offer a lot of attached products. We're part of a huge company that includes AVID and M-Audio," Scovill continued. "You're going to be able to hold onto this product longer if you get into it in the early stages because we're going to build products that work with it, not necessarily replace it," Scovill explained. "Certainly at some point you'll reach the end of life for a product line, but our goal is to help vendors and customers by creating a product that will have some legs to it over the coming years."