Gianluca Turra, Area Manager Pro-Audio Division of FaitalPRO had the opportunity of exchanging a few ideas and putting a few questions to Ruben Rodriguez. We have split Ruben's replies into two stories, the first, tells of Ruben and how he started his business, the second, to be distributed in a near future, adds details of a couple of remarkable installations.
Gianluca Turra: "Can you please give us a small overview of your company, range of activities, your customers?
Ruben Rodriguez: "I created Mode Audio out of a passion to develop true professional sound systems that deliver the highest quality sound for demanding sound engineers, clients and audiences without trying to break their budgets.
We have a wide range of clients from restaurants, bars, night clubs, galleries, music festivals, live house, production rental companies and live bands."
G.T.: "Can we say your company is exactly as you wanted or are you still striving in some other direction?"
R.R: "I'm very satisfied how Mode Audio has been developing. My idea of building this brand name was to spend the necessary time for true engineers to develop loudspeakers that will make a difference to the users. We've been investing in R&D and Beta testing for the last 5 years. We have learnt a lot from spending so much physical time analyzing our original loudspeaker designs vs trying to manipulate them 100% through software. So Mode Audio is going exactly where I hoped since the beginning with no investments in marketing but a lot of investment in good sound quality to attract sound engineers, artists and clients.
G.T.: "Who are your target clients and how do you see today the pro audio market?"
R.R.: "I would have to say the live music and dj markets, but we're not limited to that because we have been developing various kinds of loudspeakers that are suitable for many different sound applications such as restaurants, public buildings, architecture projects, schools, colleges, shopping malls, sports centers, houses of worship, movie theaters, amusement parks and the list goes on.
I see the pro audio market growing every year! That's the beauty of the sound business, sound is needed everywhere in the world and music is a part of everyone's life".
G.T: "Can you mention one or two anecdotes on a particular installation using FaitalPRO components."
R.R: "When I first was developing our Mode Audio / PIL-15 point source / curve-array loudspeaker, I was originally using other good quality components and was getting very good results, but then I decided to try the same model using all FaitalPRO components and it took it to the highest level in sound quality and SPL! The difference was unavoidable, we couldn't believe that it made such a big difference compared with what had satisfied us previously.
The same happened with our BPM-218 bandpass subwoofer model. We were using dual 18" carbon fiber and Neodymium magnet woofers for this model and was also satisfied with the results. But after we put it on a few live sound trials there was something about it that didn't convince. Even though our clients were happy, I wasn't, so I made the decision to change them to the FaitalPRO 18XL1600 super woofer and once again it changed my life! The difference was amazing and the power was phenomenal. We have now been using them in a number of important live shows and have had amazing results."
G.T.: How is the business atmosphere in your territory client wise ?"
R.R.: "Up to now we have, for the most part, concentrated our efforts on our product development but having said that we have been able to create sales from day one for many different types of projects. We have built a great reputation as we grow and develop new products.
We have now achieved what we have been working for in our new products and have attracted the attention of many professional sales companies around the world. These companies are specialized in professional audio distribution and they are seriously considering taking on our range.
It's actually pretty amazing that we have grown so much with such a small team, we haven't even had a sales person in our company or done any marketing since we started. We have been doing business thanks to our good sound products and professional technical support but the most important factor is our reputation. We are now working on building a great sales team and with a business developer for our brand Mode Audio." G.T: "What products are making a positive impact on your business?"
R.R: "There are 3 products now that have given Mode Audio the attention and respect in the professional sound market. Our new compact 10" line array system, FILA-10.1 is getting lots of great response as well our 3 way 15" point source / curve-array loudspeaker system, PIL-15 and our BPM-218 bandpass ultra low/high power subwoofers. All 100% loaded with FaitalPRO."
G.T: Why did you switch to FaitalPRO and please share specifics.
R.R.: I honestly wanted something different and unique! I wanted to find a true professional component manufacture that would allow my designs to sound the way I wanted them to sound. I hear of so many loudspeaker companies claiming that there using the same famous component manufacturers over and over and that's okay but it wasn't what I wanted. I'm a big fan of trying to be unique, that's the way I originally started VUE AUDIO, which stands for Very Unique Engineering Audio.... So I did my research on FAITAL PRO and found it to be very promising and in fact exactly what I was looking for plus Mr. Gianluca Turra from FAITAL PRO ITALY truly helped me to understand more about their products and gain the confidence. ###
Mode Audio Website: www.mode-audio.us
Press Images available here: press.faitalpro.com/ModeAudio
