Production Profile

This is the 25th anniversary of The Bridge School Benefit, an annual star-studded charity concert held each fall at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA. Neil Young and his wife, Pegi, organize the event, whose proceeds benefit the Bridge School, in Hillsborough, CA, which helps children with severe speech and physical impairments.

There's no denying it: Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark is a monster musical on every level, from the massive lighting rig to the extensive projections to the booming, heavily layered sound design. Taking the gargantuan $75 million production from conception to execution has been quite a challenge for everyone involved, and it event underwent a last-minute reboot to transform it from an admirable but complex show into a more streamlined, tourist-friendly piece.

ML Executives of Kent, England successfully completed Iron Maiden's 2011 world tour in support of last year's critically acclaimed, Grammy-winning album, The Final Frontier, providing the "universal" package, as well as a complete Eastern Acoustic Works KF760 line array system with the new flown SB1002 subs for the stadium and arena shows in Florida and Europe. Managing Director Gary Marks' production company has been servicing the British metal veterans for the last decade of their three-dozen years on the road.

Maryland Sound, Mickey Beck and Will Miller Deliver "Straight to You"

Touring to support his fifth studio recording, the Rick Rubin-produced Illuminations, singer Josh Groban toured many North American markets this summer, returning to Europe for the remainder of the year. The "Straight to You Tour," named after a track on Illuminations, is playing indoor arenas.

Bob Seger doesn't tour or record often. The "other" Motor City Madman has released all of three LPs in the last 20 years, and the current Silver Bullet Band tour that commenced in March is his first in five years, and only the second in 16 years. However, when you can sell 20 million of those three records in that time (as Rolling Stone points out, Bruce Springsteen has sold only 8 million in the same time frame) and consistently sell out your tour dates every time around, you don't really have to do anything in volume – except turn it up.

Morris Light & Sound Combines Touring and Installed Electro-Voice X-Line Systems

This year's top country tour, Kenny Chesney, has filled many arenas, amphitheaters, and stadiums over the last decade. But the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium, next to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, TX and host to last year's Super Bowl, is the largest.

Audio "Team of Rivals" Join Staging Company in Supporting Four-Day Festival

When you think of New Orleans music festival, you think of the Jazz & Heritage. But for locals, there's one that's as dear to their hearts as Du Monde coffee and beignets: The French Quarter Music Festival. This year was the 28th, and over four days in April, 260 local bands performed on 20 stages spread throughout the French Quarter for 533,000 music fans. From brass bands to Zydeco, classical to classic jazz, country to rock, it is a potpourri assault on the senses – the good kind. 

Did you see this year's Grammys? I did, and it was packed with fantastic talent, visual extravaganzas and great dance (not to mention the Muppets). The fact of the matter is that I have seen at least 30 Grammy Award shows (this was number 53), and this was probably the best.

Aside from everything that FOH readers have already tweeted, texted, blogged, posted and/or uploaded regarding the 12 minutes that was the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show featuring the Black Eyed Peas, Slash and Usher, what follows here is a recap of the week that led up to that moment (and others) in and around Arlington's Cowboys Stadium.

The holiday season has enough stresses on its own without adding a two-week, 12-show tour with longtime music superstars Vince Gill and Amy Grant. But Hugh Johnson, 21-year FOH engineer and production manager for Gill, takes it in stride, delivering excellence through consistency with a dedicated production team giving their best each day.

For the fourth successive year, Duran Audio provided all PA systems for Open Source Festival, which took place at the picturesque Grafenburg race course in the heart of Düsseldorf, Germany.

What started as a way to get around gambling laws has grown into a huge business. Back in 1994, the floating Argosy Casino first set sail on the Mississippi River about 15 minutes from downtown St. Louis. It was the first of the "riverboat" casinos. Today, those "boats" are buildings that float, and some have production venues that rival anything on solid ground.