Re: Danley
Over the years,I have read and heard so much about Tom Danley and how great his products are.Yet I have never come across one either in a live or installed setting.Looking through month after month of pro audio publications that list providers and equipment,I don't recall seeing Danley products mentioned. I suppose price has something to do with that,yet at the National level,other pro audio products are expensive too. Are there any regional or national providers using Danley for live sound?
Not that I'm aware of at any large scale... It's about marketing and long term relationships. This kind of expands on JR's post...
I wanted Danley subs for one of our non-VerTec rigs (to hold down the footprint and transportation needs) but it turned out they were impossible to "sell" to a BE or PM during the advance. The BE world is very insular; "...if my best buddy in the whole touring universe didn't recommend them, they can't be any good; if I didn't hear about Clair buying a year's worth of production, I'm not willing to take a chance; if I read it in FOH or PLSN it must all be hype." Certain products from "3 letter companies" (note the plural) are duff while others are brilliant, but BEs will take the duff stuff just because of the badge on the box. It's kind of like the old saying in IT, "nobody ever got fired for specifying IBM."
Toss in that there is much more money for manufacturers in installation of audio systems than in portable sound. Example: Community spent a lot of money (but not enough of it) to market the AirForce® trap box rig. Almost no power compression, very efficient, great pattern control... but Community lacked a sufficient understanding of how to market to national providers. When they finally figured it out, they scrapped the whole line because making a profit selling to this market was not in the cards after the expenses of building a stadium-capable demo rig to send out. Bruce probably made more $$ from the R-series in the first 3 years than he'd have made from AirForce® over its sales lifetime...
In the install world, the client is paying for a specific solution to a particular problem or collection of problems. It's about performance. If the client's needs are met at the agreed upon price, brand names are not usually relevant except that designers or installers may have favorable previous experience with (and therefore some loyalty to) particular manufacturers. As JR points out, steering designers is kind of like turning an aircraft carrier, but a couple of successful installs are the best marketing - especially if the venues have been notoriously replacing systems because the previous iteration improved, but did not fix the problems.
Danley is not hype. Their gear does what they claim it will and a visit to an installation will confirm, for ones own ears, that they do indeed deliver. Several smaller providers (Cobra, Pascal Pincosy, a few others) routinely field Danley products for portable use, too. Jeff at Cobra "turns" his inventory every 2 years or so (hint)... At any rate, Danley is a premium product and if you have a need their products can fulfill and clients willing to pay for that level of solution, I say rock on.
