May 1, 2017

Meet Jason Hanan of Pro Audio LA in Glendale

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Hanan.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I went to business school and moved to L.A. with hopes of pursuing a “creative” career. After trying a bit of everything L.A. has to offer including the film and TV industry, I decided I wanted to do something in music. Music is probably the one universal thing in the world that everybody loves — I was no different. I thought if I could find something in music, I’d never get bored in life.

I had a loft/studio apartment in Hollywood across the street from The Magic Castle on Franklin Avenue, and I had turned my apartment into a creative haven with four Pro Tools systems and the ability to facilitate collaboration by multiple musicians in a highly-integrated setting. I could be editing Pro Tools sessions up in my self-built loft bed or in the bathroom laying down a loop on a separate system. I quickly figured out that the folks I knew were far more interested in how I might help them be as creative in their own space than in any of the songs I was working on. Building on my business background, I decided to start a company focused on integrating music systems that promoted unlimited creative possibilities. Workflow optimization and having setups that make it easy to make great music is the key to unlocking one’s potential in the studio.

Soon thereafter, I met my business partner Jared who had a wealth of experience in the post production world of Los Angeles. He brought with him an incredible technical ability and understanding of integrating complex audio-visual systems. Together we have been able to partner up and provide expert-level services to our growing list of clienteles. After some work on Craigslist and eBay Pro Audio LA was formally incorporated in 2009, and we’ve grown now from my Hollywood apartment to a 5500 square-foot facility in Glendale featuring our world-class cable shop as well as a half-dozen cutting edge demo rooms featuring loads of high-end gear and the optimized workflows we pride ourselves in designing. While the heart and foundation of our business has always been custom cabling and patchbay systems, in about 2013 we began selling audio equipment too, and we are now dealers for about 150 of the top brands in pro audio including great, local companies like Apogee, Manley, A Designs, Bock, and BAE.

Just recently, we have added to our products and services in adding acoustic design, custom fabrication of acoustic treatment, and installation of said treatment to our offerings. We’ve just leased a new space in Glendale where we can ramp up our fabrication of custom acoustic treatment as there is a great need for these types of products and services in L.A. We even have 3D graphic designers in house who model all kinds of spaces for our clients to be able to visualize their studios, home theatres, spas, restaurants, you name it. Visualization helps people envision the perfect combination of colors, materials, furniture, etc.

We’re a dedicated team of about 20 audio nerds working hard to help our customers “make better music.” The standard in our industry is commissioned sales guys pushing boxes and buying gear separate from the cabling needed to integrate it, and we’re almost the complete opposite of that. We believe that gear and cables go hand in hand and that better workflows yield better music and more enjoyment in the production process. We’re hellbent on helping our customers choose the right gear and develop workflows around the gear that make being creative in the studio effortless and enjoyable. At the heart of it all is a deep love and appreciation for music — something we have in common with all the customers we serve. Nobody here makes any kind of commission because the result of that model is not a focus squarely placed on what’s best for the customer.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Running a custom cable shop on this level is a daily logistical challenge. We offer infinite permutations of variations of cable configurations, colors, lengths, custom labeling… you name it. As our business has grown to include the sales of equipment and integrated packages of gear and cabling, the logistics have just gotten more challenging — it’s a challenge we enjoy, however.

Being a small company in a world of “big box stores” has also been a challenge because it’s an industry, like another, that promotes sales and moving boxes. The measure of success is how many boxes you can move out the door for each manufacturer and distributor. Our measure of success is different, though. Our measure of success is our clients achieving results in the studio that were beyond their expectations. A customer who loves their workflow, wants for nothing, and is totally focused on the music (and not the gear they dream of having one day) is not the type of customer most pro audio stores want — in fact, they probably prefer folks to be spinning their wheels and always wanting to buy more gear — never with a focus on actually making music (which is the whole point of having a studio, right?).

The value-added approach we take to serving our clientele means we are focused on gear that ships with custom cabling to integrate it into your system straight out of the box and going the extra mile to engage with our clientele to find the bottlenecks in their workflows and fix them. It’s a level of engagement and adding value through custom cabling included with purchases that has ruffled some feathers in our industry. It’s hard enough for commissioned sales guys to compete with our level of knowledge and interest in our customers’ goals, but when you throw in the custom cabling we make that goes hand in hand with equipment purchases, you could say we’ve disrupted the market a little bit. But it’s all in the spirit of helping our clients make better music. That’s the goal for all of us, and the common love for music and all the emotions it evokes is a very unifying force between us and our clients.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Like most folks, I went through many phases and hobbies in life — from photography to writing to carpentry. The one universal theme in my life has been a love and passion for music. I spent all my extra money growing up on tapes, then CDs, and going to concerts. I pursued a career in music because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it would never become something I could grow bored of. Music means everything to me and always has for as long as I can remember. I mean, who doesn’t love music?

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