You can get a cup of coffee at both these places but only one has the ability to provide excellent audio products at very cost effective hire prices.

We've known the Pink Noise Audio guys for quite a long time. They are always cheerful, courteous, pleasant to deal with and able to help with any gig. They are also pretty straight shooters. If the gig is outside their realm, they have no problem putting you on to the people who will serve you best.

Location

Location is central, being virtually right on the fringe of the city. Well known landmarks include the infamous Jimmy's Greek Tavern (right next door), Studio 52 (directly across the road) and Siren Doll (a couple of buildings up).

Siren Doll is best known for having a marketing ploy that includes a couple of naked chicks who occasional sit in the two upstairs windows and wave at passers by. We did question if this had something to do with the excellent customer attendance at Pink Noise but all we got back in the form of an answer was a wink and a grin.

Motley Crew

It's damn easy to see what these silly buggers a smiling about. Just check the board behind them. Fully booked and still trying to squeeze more in. The service dished out over a number of years has really paid off. They are so flat out. "It's just a wonderful feeling" says Rodney as he politely gives us the nod, picks up the phone and takes another call.

Plastic fantastic
Like every other corporate hire company, the market is driven by a requirement for self powered plastic boxes. "Thankfully we have most of them out all the time" said Rodney, "because if they all came back, I'm not certain where we would put them".

Pink Noise run everything from a full size PA to a portable sprukers unit for instore promotions. But aside from speaker boxes of all sizes they are very well known for having a wide range of unusual hire products. Recorders of all shapes and sizes, DI's, distribution boxes, interface units, transmission devices and a host of other studio and broadcast related equipment. They are seriously worth a call if looking for anything in Pro audio. As we said, if they don't have it, they always seem to know where to send you to best get the job done.

Broadcast suite

Hidden away where we were not meant to find it is this wonderful broadcast studio/edit suite. A pretty reasonable fully floating voice over booth and all the appropriate tie lines ensures this outfit does a lot of live feed work for the likes of the Australian Radio Network, Captain Video and a host of others. Very practical, very affordable, but keep it quiet, they don't promote it a lot.

Bailing out
We bid our farewells and left the premises. Not because we wanted to or because anybody made us feel unwelcome but simply because we could see the guys had a ton of work that needed attending. We made a promise to come back again soon and do a more thorough checkout of the whole place.