New York City - After 25 years in one Manhattan location, Dale Pro Audio has opened the doors this past November to a new technology showroom and pro parts department just a block away, at 22 West 19th Street. With targeted customers in mind like the growing contractor and studio markets, the 20,000 square foot loft complex encompasses the entire second floor of the building, and was designed by Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG) and built by veteran studio contractor Chris Bowman of CHBO Construction.
Dale's new facility features four distinct demo rooms-Digidesign's ICON console with Pro Tools in a surround 5.1 environment, a digital audio workstations room, a demo room for critical listening/monitors/consoles and a microphone/ mic pre comparison room. According to Dale president Michael Lager, high-end demo and listening rooms are vital in the modern pro audio buying market, where consumers are "quite sophisticated" with access to ample information online.
"There are so many products available today, it's impossible to reach a valid conclusion without actually listening to the product and asking the questions not addressed in ads and reviews," noted Lager. "The demo rooms facilitate this process by being organized like a real studio. At the same time you demo a microphone you can also demo multiple mic preamps, At the same time you demo speaker monitors you can demo a host of signal processing gear. Our goal is to show how different gear works together in a way that answers the customer's application."
Dale's new complex also includes a spacious event room accommodating up to 50 guests for product clinics and training sessions, educational seminars and industry meetings. The event room was designed to be future-ready regarding a videoconferencing setup.
According to Lager, the new event room and Dale's greatly expanded pro parts department are tangible examples of Dale's growth and change. "As the technology of pro audio gets more advanced with more complex hardware and software, educating customers is critical to the sales process," said Lager.
