Fast food- take out speaker

B

BJ James

Junior
Jan 11, 2011
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Had a call from an independent roadside "Drive-in take out" fast food joint. They have a mic inside, and call out your number when the order is ready. I haven't seen the equipment that is malfunctioning, but they seem to think they want to replace their mixer/amp. I'm picturing a small 1 or 2 input basic mixer with a built in amp that could drive 1 or 2 small speakers. Does such a thing exist? I'm thinking smaller/cheaper than your basic Yamaha box mixer.
BJ
 
Re: Fast food- take out speaker

Yes these are pretty common fixed install products sold by multiple vendors. When I was working on these at Peavey for their AA line, we offered simple mixer amps with 70-100V outputs, all the way down to 5W. Some are about the size of a cigar box that you just screw to the wall in some closet or back room.

JR
 
Re: Fast food- take out speaker

Nothing is free in the install business and repeat service calls to repair substandard equipment, usually comes out of the the thin profit made on the original install. That said TOA is generally good equipment so should be serviceable if not abused.

TOA wasn't very expensive when new, in years past but the yen is pretty strong these days (while I'd be surprised if TOA is still building their low cost gear in japan.

China seems a logical choice for low tech price sensitive gear, and the instal market is pretty tight when it comes to pricing.

JR
 
Re: Fast food- take out speaker

John Roberts said:
Nothing is free in the install business and repeat service calls to repair substandard equipment, usually comes out of the the thin profit made on the original install. That said TOA is generally good equipment so should be serviceable if not abused.

TOA wasn't very expensive when new, in years past but the yen is pretty strong these days (while I'd be surprised if TOA is still building their low cost gear in japan.

China seems a logical choice for low tech price sensitive gear, and the instal market is pretty tight when it comes to pricing.

JR
Click to expand...

Understandable, I've worked in installs as my "day job" for 8 years now, fortunately with a state university budget to back us up. I know the pains of questionable gear every time I get chewed out by a faculty member for why something isn't working, lol.

From my experience doing installs with my own company, the only profitable way to do them is to be a dealer for whatever you are installing, so that you get whatever markup you put on it. I've seen it happen (not to me) where a client will take a bid list and find everything on Amazon.com and haggle that way. The profit comes from install and maintenance labor if you aren't making money on the gear sale. Considering the going rate on Ebay for a used late model 900 series mixer is ~1/10th the cost of a new one, I think it's a worthwhile gamble, provided the OP gives full disclosure to the client. I'm thinking that given that BJ is likely not a full time installer and probably doesn't stand to lose a lot on this one, it's not a bad option. It would be up to him and the client to decide.
 
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