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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Getting by with a little help from our friends..... (RED Dealers and 3rd Parties)

Jarred Land

Jarred Land

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RED is all about the customer.

It always has been about the customer, and will always be about the customer.

Along the way something special happened, and our customers started to make things.

With RED ONE and the first Epic and Scarlets, this was restricted mostly to Mechanical bits, as we had a completely closed system.

And then came the release of our RCP command protocol.

Opening up the RCP hooks for control of the camera might seem simple , but there are a ton of risks and support expenses associated with it. To be honest opening this up scared the shit out of a few people at RED. But I knew we just needed one brave customer to step up and make something incredible.

That happened one cold, dark night when I visited Dino on set and he introduced me to Mikael Lubtchansky.

Mikael was creating Fool Control. And as soon as I saw it, The world for RED 3rd parties changed. That night gave all the confidence in the world to lay down the framework for us to open up module support to 3rd parties for DSMC2.

Fast forward to this weekend.

Mark Pederson brought over his DSMC2 OMOD modules, RT Motion sent over pieces of his DSMC2 integrated Latitude, and of course, Foolcontrol connected to it all.

Hardware and Software made by our customers for our customers that is integrated in such a slick way that it makes me blush.

This really is special. We will continue to make the best cameras on the planet.. and you 3rd parties will continue to make them better.

This expansion is also extending to our dealer and distribution network.

Not too long ago if you wanted to buy RED, you only had one option...

You had to buy from RED.

But a constant repeating request over the years from our customers has been that many of you wanted to be able to buy RED where you buy all the rest of your stuff.

You spoke, and we listened.

As of last month, we now have over 50 RED authorized dealers with many more coming soon. To put that in perspective, up until 2014 we had a total of 4 RED authorized dealers.

For places like Germany that has had such a substantial increase in RED dealers, it makes us having dedicated offices redundant. So, please note that all of our German dealers and direct customers will now be supported out of our REL location.

Hopefully this wider reach will make being a RED customer just that much better.

Thank you all.
 
Great stuff. Real users make the best creators; they know what they want and they are driven by things other than sales targets. You can trace this back to Jim's desire to make a camera at the very start IMHO

And for what its worth - I know I continue to scare the shit out of people, but its done out of a burning desire to make stuff better ;)
 
good stuff gents.
 
World domination happening at the regional levels! Really super for markets that haven't had the easy access to RED.
 
This is pretty big news not just for people purchasing new cameras, but shooters worldwide. With productions shooting all over grabbing additional accessories when needed will be easier to do near these dealers.

50 dealers is a lot to accomplish in less than 2 years. Clap and firm handshake on that one.
 
Sorry to say that, as much as I love RED cameras and the package and possibilities they offer, but closing RED Berlin totally sucks. These guys did an amazing Job. Customer care was outstanding, never experienced anything close! I had a problem once before a job, got a domestic flight to Berlin and they fixed it right away so I could do my shoot the very next day. These guys in Berlin personified the brand and its goals.

I am super disappointed to lose such a terrific contact point :-(
 
Andre Vaternam said:
Sorry to say that, as much as I love RED cameras and the package and possibilities they offer, but closing RED Berlin totally sucks. These guys did an amazing Job. Customer care was outstanding, never experienced anything close! I had a problem once before a job, got a domestic flight to Berlin and they fixed it right away so I could do my shoot the very next day. These guys in Berlin personified the brand and its goals.

I am super disappointed to lose such a terrific contact point :-(
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you, Andre. RED Berlin had probably the best customer service I ever experience. While Teltec and others are good and reliable resellers, their service never came close to the one I experienced at RED Berlin.

A big thank you for the great support to Kristin, Jana, Alfred and André!
 
Jarred, your trust in Mikael and Foolcontrol helped us put the RED Epic :

underwater while controlling the camera from a laptop on the surface (including lens control)


on a drone changing settings on the fly using a iPhone


on a cable camera, not having touch the camera to record and playback saved us hours


on a poor man chase vehicule using Horus Aerial custom build gyro


and even underneath a fighter jet allowing us to shoot from the cockpit and from underneath the fuselage at the same time !




so a big thanks to you and Mikael, this is what's makes a difference in our everyday shoots.
 
I agree it's better for the masses to buy locally especially when products are in continual development and are prone to reliability issues that can be solved with loaner cameras if the customer is in a bind. Then there is training and opportunities to try before you buy that a purely online company can't offer.

The obvious downside is the addition of a middle man who has to make a $ out of the customer.


But for tech heads who know more about a product than the retailer, who don't need training, this additional expense is a very bitter pill to swallow!

A interesting idea would be to offer both online purchase at a discount OR the option of buying locally where the support of the reseller would command a premium.

This would encourage resellers to offer REAL value for their mark-up or risk losing a sale.

Yes there is the issue of customers kicking tyres but then going ahead and buying online.

So the question is, what value or convienience will be added by the reseller and is it worth it to the many professionals who frequent this list?

Why can't those who have supported Red not have same acquisition price as resellers?

Don't get me started on resellers whose rental arm then competes with their customers!

For the record I am yet to buy a Red so my comments are not based on personal experience with Red.



Mike Brennan
 
Thanks Jarred!! It was a brave move and I'm glad you haven't lived to regret it :) Excited to be a part of it all, see you at NAB!

Proud partner in crime,

Kris
RTMOTION
 
Michael J Brennan said:
The obvious downside is the addition of a middle man who has to make a $ out of the customer.
Click to expand...

The dealer I am buying from (innocinema.com in Atlanta) charges the same for Red products as the Red Store. Actually buying something might be a good move before writing a post based on experiences with other company dealerships. :)
 
Many thanks to the RED Germany from here as well - kind of hurts me. While I never experienced big problems with the equipment their support and care was outstanding and felt like family. I see the point, but letting them build this up and ditch them must have been a tough decision.
 
I love being able to control my Scarlet-W from my iPhone 6+! Still not quite used to focusing on the touchscreen so I will probably end up getting Latitude and a hand unit. OMOD's look great too. I need that wireless timecode. Great job guys!
 
Smart decision in my opinion to open up development to third parties. Knowing how you risk reputation by allowing others to become involved in the accessory software and hardware makes the move even bolder.

And I'm personally hoping this frees up internal staff to think up and engineer the future... like a laser module for our cameras that acts as a projector. '-)

Just hoping someone will respond that "That's impossible!"... I think RED brass and engineers take pride in achieving the impossible and throwing down the gauntlet just might stir them to action. '-)
 
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