CORPORATE STABILITY
Walker Technical Company is owned by four individuals, all of whom are employees of the company. We do not have any external venture capital and have developed our products entirely with our own funding. This provides a very stable financial base for the company now and in the future. Bob has not been involved in any of the day to day operations of the business since 1996. Since that time, he primarily focuses on two areas: voicing and sales. Additionally, there are several other employees on staff who are currently being mentored by Bob on voicing techniques and tonal direction. On some projects, the company utilizes other independent voicers who have both electronic and pipe organ voicing skills.
SERVICE
Similar to our approach with voicing, there are several technicians on staff to provide service for customers. Self-diagnostic tools have been built into our systems that allow technicians to “walk” a pipe organ builder or electronic organ technician through the repair of an instrument over the phone if necessary. The company also maintains a network of technicians across the country to help with installation and service issues as they arise. For each project, details of the installation are thoroughly gone through with the organ builder or technician. Every system comes with a complete technical manual for future servicing needs. Service has always been a hallmark of the Walker Technical Company and we are mindful of our customers needs for potential service in the future.
OBSOLETE PARTS
Whether manufacturing cell phones, computers, or musical instruments, obsolete parts are a fact of life and an issue that all electronic manufacturers must face. Walker Technical has been diligent in safeguarding its customers as much as possible by selecting multi-source, standard, “off the shelf” parts for use in our systems. This philosophy provides two advantages: First, multi-source, standard parts are typically available for longer periods of time and the manufacturing rights are more likely to be picked up by smaller firms when the developing company “obsoletes” the part. Secondly, a system designed with “off the shelf” parts can more likely be repaired by utilizing current parts or an adaptive part made up of currently available parts. This is not the case with custom parts that are sole sourced from a single manufacturer.
VOICING
We have developed a sophisticated voicing software that allows tonal finishing of our systems to produce the accurate and realistic pipe organ sounds that we are known for. In order to create these authentic sounds, voicers must have tremendous flexibility and ability to voice digital ranks in much the same way a pipe organ voicer would approach voicing pipes. Because of the complexity of the software, appropriate measures are taken to assure for the customer’s sake, that those who have access to the software have had sufficient training and are qualified to provide the same results that have been the signature of the company for decades. In any complete digital organ project, the company typically plans for a minimum of one follow-up voicing visit, while in larger instruments there are sometimes two or three.
FUTURE RE-VOICING
As mentioned above, there are a number of voicers available throughout the country and within the firm itself that would be available to assist in re-voicing an instrument. Additionally, we make it a priority to archive a copy of all voicing that is performed on a particular installation. This is critical for all customers in the event of a natural disaster or act of vandalism, and allows the company to reconstruct an instrument and restore all voicing parameters as they were originally.
RF INTERFERENCE
All electronic manufacturers are subject to RF interference standards. We use a specially designed precision rack to house the electronic assemblies that emit radio frequencies to comply with government regulations. All input and output connections to this rack have RF filters built-in and all cables, where appropriate, are shielded for RF and noise purposes.