I don't think
ETC would put R&D, marketing, and tech support services into releasing a new
console at a sub $3500 price
point unless they could differentiate substantially from existing products without making
Element irrelevant. They won't want to compete with their own product
line, and they won't want to do something for the sake of people wanting them to offer a product in an already saturated market. I think that's why it was so long before
ETC released a
fresnel. They didn't want to do it just because it would round out their product
line. If they were going to do it, it was going to be because they had a more innovative solution to offer.
It's like every time another
loudspeaker manufacturer releases a
line array. The market for
line array systems is 500% saturated with options and the only way to stand out is to offer product features someone else can't, or to offer the highest quality product any manufacturer can at the price
point. Simply have an okay-sounding
speaker for the price isn't going to get any traction in that market.
Another consideration is that offering a
console at such a low price
point doesn't help sell systems. When a
Gio gets spec'd in a new theater, it's probably getting paired with Net3 distribution, Sensor dimming,
ETC power distribution,
ETC architectural controls, maybe
ETC LED fixtures, maybe
ETC rigging.
When a SmartFade-esque
console gets sold, it probably lives on an island as the only
ETC product in sight unless there are a few S4 Jr's with it or a Smartbar. If
ETC were highly successful in this market, it would end up having little or no influence on their overall sales. That sounds greedy at first glance but remember that it's the kind of profits
ETC can bring in currently that allow them to have stellar technical and customer support, product lineups that don't cut corners, and allows them to fund all that R&D so they can keep developing products that no one has created before.
The other thing is that there's an expectations game at
play. People generally have high expectations when they see the
ETC logo on something -- that is, they have
higher expectations of a low-cost
ETC product than they do a similarly priced DJ-grade product. If a DJ product at $1500 is difficult to use, requires lots of workarounds, has no flexibility and bupkis customer support, people will get frustrated for a short while, learn to cope, and move on. If a similar $1500 product from
ETC has even an inkling of one of those characteristics, people will consider it a black
mark on
ETC's record and will hold a grudge against them for it.
Also remember that
ETC's been a company of people driven to create solutions that turn the entertainment and architectural industries on their heads. I'm not sure you'll find product developers there who dream about making a product for an already saturated market that it would be incredibly difficult to innovate with. That kind of "innovation" isn't innovation at all. It's taking a product like
Element and offering it to the world for $1200/pop, and I don't think the whole of
ETC's business model can sustain that kind of charitable generosity.