Primary research
from inside
live production.

Bespoke studies conducted directly with your core audience.
Our verified freelance community and partnering organisations design and build systems, oversee and fulfil riders, purchasing, installations and product deployment, globally.

Network at a glance
13,000+
Verified audio, lighting & video professionals
7,500+
Rental houses across 120+ countries
5,300+
Distributors covering 600+ brands
120+
Countries with active network coverage
WHY ENTOURAGE PRO INSIGHTS

Not your typical
research firm.

Entourage Pro seriously connects the live production industry: finding crew work, powering free recruitment, and keeping professionals active in our ecosystem. When we field a study, we incentivise completion through the same platform they already rely on. The result: 0+ verified professionals who actually spec, purchase and deploy your products. Not a recruited panel. A real life, working, production network.

01
Verified professionals
Each respondent is an active rider and purchase influencer, building and operating systems in the live production environment.
02
The buyers
Rental and production companies — those who purchase your products.
03
Global reach
120+ countries with real depth in the UK, Europe and North America. Wherever the tours go, our members are already there.
04
Bespoke by design
Each methodology is built around your specific brief. No off-the-shelf reports, no data shared with competitors. Your research. Your advantage.
05
Interactive deliverables
Reports built for leadership teams. Interactive, intelligent and designed to be shared across your organisation.
06
Industry relationships
We're trusted industry insiders, not external researchers. We don't just access this community — we are this community.
The network
13,000+
Verified professionals
Audio
6,000+
Lighting
4,000+
Video
3,000+
7,500+
Rental houses
Europe
4,000+
N. America
2,000+
Asia
600+
5,300+
Distributors
Europe
2,300+
Asia
1,400+
N. America
900+
120+
Countries
Europe
4,000+
N. America
2,000+
Oceania
200+

Trusted by leading manufacturers

Yamahad&b audiotechnikNeutrikRobeMartin AudioNEXODanteVectorworksBSS AudioSennheiserSolotechDiGiCoGLPCODA AudioROE VisualAdamsonHarmanMartinJBLAdam HallCameoLD SystemsDAS AudioSamsungLauten AudioMDGChainmastersAVOMojo CablesDBTC1Yamahad&b audiotechnikNeutrikRobeMartin AudioNEXODanteVectorworksBSS AudioSennheiserSolotechDiGiCoGLPCODA AudioROE VisualAdamsonHarmanMartinJBLAdam HallCameoLD SystemsDAS AudioSamsungLauten AudioMDGChainmastersAVOMojo CablesDBTC1
What You Receive

The questions we answer.
From those that shape the market.

Quantified intelligence to inform your business. Uniquely we run parallel surveys - rental companies and freelance operators, techs and consultants — cross-referenced to map the rider and purchase influence chain. Your scope, our methodology.

Unaided brand recall
Which brands come to mind first in your category, unprompted, from both buyers and specifiers?
Perceived market position
How does the market rank your brand relative to competitors on quality, value and reliability?
Share of core inventory
What proportion of rental company stock is your brand estimated to occupy in your category?
Share of specification
How frequently does your brand appear on riders relative to competitors?
Perception vs. reality gap
Where does internal confidence in your market position diverge from what the market actually reports?
Rider vs. discretionary ratio
Does your category run on technical specification or rental company discretion, and in what proportion?
Investment priority hierarchy
When rental companies buy, do they lead with commercial logic, operational reliability, workflow efficiency or performance?
Purchase trigger analysis
Is purchasing reactive — replacing stock, responding to riders — or proactive, driven by competitive positioning and platform launches?
Influence chain ranking
Who actually holds the power: end-user demand, competitor pressure, manufacturer relationships or commercial terms?
Specification rigidity
Do end-users insist on particular brands, or accept alternatives — and does that flexibility vary between professional roles?
Unmet need identification
What problems are rental companies and end-users solving with workarounds, indicating a genuine product gap?
Feature priority ranking
Which product attributes would most influence a purchase decision if improved or introduced?
Format and form factor appetite
Is there appetite for different configurations, form factors or integration approaches in your category?
Price sensitivity mapping
Where does perceived value break down, and what would justify a premium in the market's own terms?
Next generation expectations
What does the market expect the next product cycle to deliver — and what would genuinely surprise them?
Awareness pathway mapping
How do rental companies and end-users first become aware of a brand or product in your category?
Consideration triggers
What moves a brand from known to actively considered?
Evaluation sequence
In what order do customers gather information before a purchase decision, and which steps carry the most weight?
Commitment barriers
At what point in the journey do potential customers drop out, and why?
Post-purchase influence
How does ownership experience shape future specification and repurchase behaviour?
Category first-choice map
Which brand owns each category, from buyers and specifiers independently?
Core inventory brands
Which brands occupy the core slots at rental companies in your category?
Core specification brands
Which brands and products are end-users putting on riders most frequently?
Range breadth perception
Is your genuine product range recognised by the market, or effectively invisible?
Dual-audience gap analysis
Where are you strong with one audience but not the other — and what does that misalignment cost you?
Competitor strength mapping
Where are rival brands genuinely strong, and where is their reputation built on legacy rather than current performance?
Messaging cut-through
Which competitor campaigns, launches or positioning moves have actually landed with your target audience?
Weak point identification
Where are competitors vulnerable — on product, service, pricing or ecosystem?
Win/loss analysis
In recent decisions where you were on the shortlist, what tipped the outcome?
White space mapping
Which needs in your category are currently unmet by any brand?
Switching trigger ranking
What specific factors cause rental companies and end-users to abandon an established platform?
Ecosystem lock-in assessment
Are proprietary switching costs a growing frustration in your category, or an accepted part of the landscape?
Show file dependency
Does workflow continuity now gate specification decisions, and how strong is that lock-in?
Real switching stories
Open-text accounts of actual platform changes, grounding the data in live market experience.
Shortlist competitor data
Which brands are you losing to in real, recent purchasing decisions?
Evaluation channel ranking
Which touchpoints matter most: manufacturer demos, trade shows, peer networks, online content or live show experience?
Demo stock gating
Is hands-on time a deal-breaker for purchase, and do rep or dealer demos carry more weight?
Training as adoption channel
Do manufacturer certification programmes meaningfully drive adoption, or do professionals learn through other routes?
Discovery shift trends
How has evaluation behaviour changed over five years, in respondents' own words?
First-use trigger capture
What actually prompted an end-user to try a product for the first time — the key to breaking familiarity and muscle memory?
"Next buy" ranking
The single product rental companies would add tomorrow, showing exactly where your brand sits in a forced choice.
"Next spec" ranking
The single product end-users would put on every rider — the specifier equivalent.
Blocker identification
What specific barrier is holding back purchase: price, ecosystem switching cost, end-user demand or show file migration?
Market excitement capture
Which brand or product has impressed the market most in the past two years, unprompted?
Active avoidance mapping
Which brands are end-users deliberately refusing to specify, and why?
Company size
How do priorities shift between smaller operators and large rental companies, and who can realistically absorb ecosystem switching costs?
Role & seniority
Do owners prioritise commercial factors while technical managers weight workflow and quality?
Industry experience
Is your growth opportunity generational — newer engineers versus established operators with deep ecosystem investment?
Engineer specialism
How do touring, festival, broadcast, theatre and corporate end-users differ in brand loyalty and switching thresholds?
Report Format

Insights your teams
can actually use.

An interactive, tabbed digital report — not a static PDF. Built for leadership teams. Explore findings, share with colleagues, and reference over time. Data visualisations, demographic breakdowns, and verbatim responses from respondents. Example below.

insights.entouragepro.com/reports/[client]/loudspeaker-study-2025

Sample data shown. Client reports are password-protected and delivered via the client portal.

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a study?

Tell us what you need to know. We'll scope the research, design the methodology, and deliver findings your team can act on.

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