Among the largest and best established musical equipment rental and production companies in the industry, the flagship location of Studio Instrument Rentals (SIR) has become the go-to rehearsal studio for major LA-based acts as well as touring artists looking to prepare for live TV appearances. A recent upgrade of rehearsal studios and rental stock saw Rehearsal and Audio Manager Jesse Stewart adding a number of Midas HD96 consoles to the company’s inventory.
SIR Hollywood’s rehearsal and rental facilities are designed to accommodate the high-level clientele of the music, film, and television industries of Los Angeles. For Stewart, this dictates reliable, intuitive gear that can give tour-grade support in the rehearsal room and be just as ready to be loaded onto a truck and taken to the gig.
‘The bands and engineers that come into SIR are A-List talent so it’s incredibly important that we get everything right,’ he says. ‘If they are coming in for a six-to-eight hour rehearsal and then taking all the gear and doing an event that same day, it has to be able to stand up to those rigors and be quick to set up and easy to operate.
‘The Midas HD96 was top of our list for new consoles for these purposes,’ he adds. ‘We’re very familiar with the Midas workflow and our infrastructure is built for it, so they fit perfectly into what we were looking for.’
Stewart called on Jim Roese of RPM Dynamics and AVL Media Group to make the critical upgrade. Describing Roese as SIR’s ‘Midas Guy’, Stewart says his deep brand involvement with Midas and connections to AVL Media Group ensured a quick transition to the new consoles.
‘When we were looking at other stuff it was hard to even get a desk over here to demo, given how badly screwed up the supply chain has been,’ he says. ‘Jim and Chase McKnight of Midas arranged a demo for us right away and when they said we could have the consoles within a few weeks, we could hardly believe it. And, sure enough, we were up and running in no time.’
For Roese, partnering with AVL Media Group meant more than having ample stock and fast shipping times. Being able to count on the added direct support – which he says many other manufacturers don’t offer – allowed him to ensure he was able to go the extra mile for SIR Hollywood.
‘AVL prioritises the right thing in their distribution – vested involvement external to the manufacturer and the kind of one-to-one human support that a client often needs,’ he explains. ‘I’m a firm believer in making my customer’s lives easier and taking care of them in person. What makes the partnership with AVL so natural is that they embody the exact same values and are able to implement it on a scale that gives them the edge over any other distributor.’
‘We were thrilled to be able to provide SIR Hollywood with the HD96 consoles and the direct support they needed to get them working seamlessly,’ he says.
With seven HD96 consoles currently installed in its rehearsal spaces and two more available for rental, Stewart says that there’s been an immediate positive impact for SIR Hollywood’s engineer and artist clients.
‘The engineers have been raving about the consoles because they are able to learn them so quickly and any questions that may crop up are quickly resolved by Jim and Midas. That’s been make-or-break for us because we don’t have the luxury to be able to wait on anything when it comes to our equipment– these artists don’t have time to understand why something may or may not work. It just needs to work.
‘For us, the HD96 has been perfect for our needs and with the help of Jim, Midas, and AVL we’re able to ensure that they work for our customers, every time.’
