Louis Adamo joined Hi-Tech Audio back in 1989, when the company’s rental stock comprised only a few single analog consoles.
Nearly 20 years later, Hi-Tech’s inventory is brimming with 50-plus consoles and has become one of the largest live-sound, wholesale rental companies specializing in predominately digital consoles and multitrack hard-disk systems to meet the demands of the audio industry—from houses of worship throughout the U.S. to concert tours and music festivals around the world.
Adamo recently added a slew of DiGiCo products to its already considerable DiGiCo inventory, including four of the new SD10s, an SD7 (bring its total up to five), and 16 (sixteen) 48/96k SD-Racks.
“Out of roughly 50 consoles overall in stock, DiGiCo’s are a pretty good chunk of that,” Adamo notes. “Being that my business is completely demand-driven, I build my stock based on what is and what I anticipate will be most used in the industry and what will rent, which is why I added the SD10s. What I saw when I jumped into the SD10s was a replacement for the ‘upper high-end’ need—a niche that the Yamaha PM1D and DiGiCo D5 used to be the only contenders.
“The SD10 is the only new piece in that level offering 100 inputs/48 mixes. DiGiCo was smart in what they’ve done to widen their market with the SD series beyond the SD7 by bringing the same level of technology, operation and performance to different levels of consoles they offer. My feeling is the way to be successful in the console business is to get the console into people’s hands; the operators don’t want to use what they don’t know.
“With some of these newer DiGiCo consoles coming in at lower price point, you give a lot more people the opportunity to touch and use them and I know they’ll do well for us.”
