Founded by Ruben Rodriguez in 2008, Mode Audio headquarters are located in Los Angeles California.
Ruben was also the original co-founder of Vue Audio which is now operating worldwide under its new ownership. His designs are being used every day by the most demanding sound engineers in the industry.
Gianluca Turra, Area Manager Pro-Audio Division of FaitalPRO caught up with Ruben Rodriguez and managed to get some interesting updates as well as an insight on a couple of remarkable recent installations.
Gianluca Turra: "Ruben, tell us briefly again what is your company vision."
Ruben Rodriguez: "I wanted to develop the most unique, high quality, professional sound systems ever, with no limitations and that's how Mode Audio was born in 2008.
Mode Audio has built a great reputation in a very short time. It is continually looking far into the future to keep on innovating, designing and manufacturing great sound systems.
Now we have built enough confidence and reputation with our products and we are making new business plans to hit the professional sound industry even harder.
We feel that there are now many good professional sound companies to compete with but, at the same time, the market is still big enough for all of us especially if you know how to do things right and make them well."
G.T.: "And your best sellers?"
R.R: "3 products 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 are 100% loaded with FaitalPRO."
G.T.: "Why should a customer choose FaitalPRO products instead of others?"
R.R.: "FaitalPRO is truly one of the most professional and easy to work with loudspeaker component manufacturers out there. When it comes to applying loudspeakers the results you want to achieve also depend on the structural design work of the enclosure.
There are many component manufacturers to choose from and as a professional loudspeaker designer and engineer I can't say that FaitalPRO is the answer for all the loudspeakers but for sure it is worth trying them out first. Impeccable quality!"
G.T: "Will you continue to experiment with additional models and products from the company?"
R.R: "Oh yes. no doubt FaitalPRO is top of my list for future new developments. As a matter of fact we are already working on 4 new, upcoming loudspeaker models with FaitalPRO components."
G.T.: "What is the overall impression and what comments are your clients making since the change over to FaitalPRO components in your design enclosures?"
R.R.: "WOW!" That's actually the first thing they say when they listen to our new products with FaitalPRO components. Almost all mention the clarity of the sound system. Many of them joking around tell me that they want them for their home system because of how "HIFI" it sounds. The FOH engineers that have already used our FILA-10.1 line array system told us that they enjoyed listening to the musicality and high SPL without any harmonic distortion at all."
G.T: "What is FaitalPRO's best seller for you?"
R.R: "It's hard to say now because we are fairly new and have used a relatively small number of models up to now."
G.T: "Please share your comments on the "big picture" by changing over to FaitalPRO, be honest good or bad."
R.R.: "We at MODE AUDIO saw an enormous change in our company and product image. We have certainly been able to reach our engineering and sound quality goals by using FaitalPRO in our main top products. It has been very easy and straight forward to work with FaitalPRO it makes no difference whether we need product in America or at our assembly line in China. Their products have shown pretty good consistency and we have seen that quality issues are clarified, understood and resolved immediately. I look forward to creating more loudspeakers with FaitalPRO because I know I'll achieve our goals and put out a great sounding product with a great name inside every box."
G.T: Can you underline just one on your personal views which better describe the FaitalPRO philosophy on approaching the market
R.R.: In my opinion FaitalPRO is one of the best loudspeaker component manufacturers with such long history and knowledge. It's great that they have kept their true roots manufacturing in Italy with their fine care on quality and clients feedback. They are doing a great job producing for the professional sound industry. I think this is very important for their growth and reputation. I see lots of future for FaitalPRO and I'm very honored to be part of their family by using their products on our loudspeaker designs."
G.T: "And now can you outline a couple of installations? We heard good rumors about the Rolex Masters Event...."
R.R.: "Actually we have recently installed out FILA-10.1 compact line array system at The Mercedes Benz Arena / The Mixing Room in Shanghai.
We have been getting incredibly positive reviews from all the events that have taken place there since we did the installation. This facility is managed by AEG LIVE. But we got the best results at the Rolex Master Event ATP Masters 1000 Tournament in Shanghai.
We decided to use the our new PIL-15 & PIL-218SB for FOH system at the 2016 Rolex Masters event to really showcase it in a real world scenario and I must say it was the best thing we could of done!
One of the reasons I decided to use it was because we needed to have a sound system for that stage that could have great sound quality and controlled coverage. We didn't want to disturb any of the tennis matches around the premises. When we did the final testing at our Mode Audio labs with the PIL-15, we were very impressed by its true sound pattern control as well with its musical sound qualities.
So I decided to put it into action for the 2016 Rolex Masters event to really see and hear what it was capable of.
The coverage of each PIL-15 is 30º H and 75º V (asymmetric 20º/45º) So we used two PIL-15s per side to create a true 60º Horizontal pattern on each side of the stage. We extended the low frequency with its physically matching PIL-218SB subwoofers.
We used a total of 2 x PIL-15 tops and 2 x PIL-218SB subs all ground stacked for the main FOH system and, in all honesty, it was all we needed!
The PIL-15 series is powered by our V-12044 high end amplifiers made by Ram Audio, Spain. They have wonderful sound quality together with its 96k / 24BIT sampling DSP board and network system the PIL-15 series sounds amazing.
The sound of the MODE AUDIO / PIL-series was "unavoidably impressive" from day one of the 2016 Rolex Masters event, we just started receiving great compliments about the sound quality the moment we turned it on.
Actually Mr. Michael Luevano (Director of the whole Rolex Masters tournament) came up to me the first day we had the live band performance and even before saying hello to me, his first words were "WOW!!! It sounds so great". It's a big compliment for us, not only is he a true music lover, he has worked with other renowned names and brands. He told us it is the best he had ever experienced in that structure!"
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Mode Audio Website: www.mode-audio.us
Press Images available here: press.faitalpro.com/ModeAudio
