Mail Order

Advantages

Disadvantages

Lowest Cost per item

No design Services or responsibility for design choices / accuracy

Greatest number of manufactures represented

Least specific knowledge of products, most difficulty responding to warrantee problems.  Sometimes these are “dealers for a day”

Order on Line, 24/7

Often times no personal service for emergency needs

 Local Music Store

Advantages

Disadvantages

Local Ownership, keeps money in town, gives a sense of a responsible person to answer local needs

Generally do not have sufficient design skills to know correct questions to ask, resulting in poor functional capabilities.  Lack of acoustics training and computer modeling often results in an incorrect product selection, resulting in poor intelligibility and gain before feedback.

Fewer manufactures represented

Potentially better response from manufacturer if service is required

Lower cost per hour for installation time

Generally not skilled in installation and rigging techniques required for flown speakers (center clusters) – can create severe safety risks for users

Often times not sufficiently technical to troubleshoot and repair electrical and grounding problems.

Contractor

Advantages

Disadvantages

Most professional staff - organizes and leads necessary functional requirements meetings, budget meetings, architect meetings

Higher Initial System Cost

Highest quality system designs – acoustics measurements taken on site, computerized modeling techniques, guaranteed system specifications, improved intelligibility and greater freedom from acoustic feedback- generally more rigorous specifications

Product Selection based on quality and reliability as well as basic functions.

Trained Installation crews, properly equipped for the installation and servicing of systems – including safe rigging and high work techniques

Likely to be regional, used to traveling up to 100 miles for warrantee service calls

Highest skills for system commissioning: including gain setting, equalization, delay calibration, operator training

Generally longer warrantee terms

Lowest long term cost due to longest system life – less need for replacement.  System replacement becomes a function of the church’s functional requirements changing, not a quality-based need