I’m riding over to DPS’ warehouse from their HQ in Burbank with Robert “R.J.” Lynn in his Audi and director of marketing Alan Sherin. At a stop light, founder and consultant Anthony Dever pulls up in his Tesla, rolls down his window and jokes, “Wanna race?” Lynn, DPS general manager, laughs and points out that maybe that’s not prudent, cop-wise. The light turns green, and Dever hits the pedal, if only for a short spurt.
The rest of the team at DPS certainly has the pedal all the way down. Rarely, if ever, has a single production company amped up their offerings on so many levels so quickly. Within the last few years, they have hired some of the top talent in the business and created five divisions with great autonomy: DPS Cinema, DPS Touring, DPS Corporate, DPS Commercial and DPS Worship.
The list of recent touring artists they’ve worked with include Guns n’ Roses, Kaskade, Judas Priest, Moby, Dixie Chicks, Smashing Pumpkins and Marilyn Manson. Corporate clients include Audi, Guggenheim, MTV and Samsung. Their reach into the House of Worship market is also wide and deep. “We take our experiences from multiple disciplines — knowledge of gear, understanding of systems, experience of trends — and bring anyone who needs to be in the room to find the best solution,” Dever says. “Even with fixed installation work, we want to create an engaging environment.”
The Early Days
Dever was a struggling DJ competing with, among others, Lynn, when the two decided to combine efforts. This put him on the road to founding Digital Production Services in 2001, which in the beginning mostly served the “speaker on a stick” local corporate needs. “Corporate was a lot of our bread and butter in the early days, and then there was a major growth spurt,” Lynn says.
Several growth spurts, actually. The company first ramped up in 2006, not long before businesses everywhere would be finding themselves slapped down by the recession later in the decade. Dever chose to ignore the economic hardships and took the long road, building his business. Impressively, DPS grew despite the times. “A lot of it was observing the market and being able to forecast the needs of the clients,” he says. “And then by 2011, I knew it was time for a big push to be a major player.”
“As the company grew, it became clear we needed divisions that could work together but also serve the client better,” says Sherin. “We wanted a separate voice for the touring world, a separate one for worship, etc.” They recently expanded their Burbank HQ. In addition to California offices in Irvine and San Francisco, they just opened an office in New York City.
And now they are eyeing Atlanta. Lynn says they have been “hounded” for nearly two years to bring their style of production to the East Coast. “We could make a difference in Atlanta,” he says. Clients they’ve served on that coast include Theatre East, YouTube, GE, CBS Sports, Comic Con/Adult Swim, among others.
Sherin emphasizes that in the face of a lot of competition, the focus is on people. “This company has invested and continues to invest in people,” he says, citing the addition of Anthony “Hamish” Mills, who was originally brought on as VP of Operations but was recently named CEO based on his skills and his ocean-deep experiences in all things live events. Lynn’s role is leading the sales division and always looking at mid- to long-term initiatives. Also, just keeping up: “We quickly went from a few employees to more than 50, and prior to that I was wearing a lot of hats. Now I’m able to focus on the long-term growth strategy.”
Jon Tunstall, VP of commercial integration, says he “started pulling wire in the mid 1990’s.” He worked for several integration firms when an opportunity at DPS came up. “It was too good to pass up,” he says. “It’s really refreshing to come to a company that invests so heavily in people. And the thought process for installations is defined by what is the best solution for a particular client. We don’t want to lead with products.”
“I’ve worked from the smallest lighting company to the largest, and they both have plusses and negatives,” says John Lee, VP of touring. “It’s a tough combination to try to find the sweet spot where there’s a place that offers the best of both worlds, and DPS is the closest I’ve seen that is truly the best of both worlds.”
The Sound of Success
“Audio is a good example of our overall growth,” Lynn adds. “That’s where we started, and while we have lights, video, and rigging, it’s audio from which we’ve organically grown from. Today, we have full line arrays ready to be put to use.” DPS recently invested in a $1 million Meyer Sound system, a LEO rig, including a Meyer remote monitoring system server, Callisto 616 Array Processor and M’elodie active dual-8-inch line arrays.
Lee acknowledges that before he joined DPS in 2012, the company wasn’t known for concert touring. But just him being there sends the message that the company is deadly serious about it now. “I’ve been in this situation twice before, taking a company from essentially zero to a sought-after company that is working the big tours,” he says.
“We’re not looking to take on the industry and get [every gig],” Lynn emphasizes. “We’re in a good position in that we can pass on a project if it doesn’t feel like a good fit.” He adds that their strategy also involves “reading the market, listening to what people want. I’ve worked with companies with sub-rental agreements pushing equipment that the LD didn’t want to use.”
Corporate and special event work is also going strong. When Reebok wanted to unveil its new Ultimate Fighting Championship related apparel this past June, they wanted everything to be perfect and turned to DPS Audio to be part of that success. “The unique part was it brought a lot of elements of DPS [divisions] together,” says Stuart Kopple, who joined DPS in February in the commercial/corporate theater division. He says they brought out the new Meyer system to this event, and “this event was a move in the right direction.”
This press conference was more than that, and Kopple says they enjoyed working with German-based production company SPHERE creative brand experience GmbH, commenting that they really put together a wonderful package to maximize the success of the event. “They knew what they wanted it to look and sound like, and we got to take that rendering and make it a reality,” Kopple says. It was for 150 people (mostly press) and involved satellite trucks broadcasting it live. “They chose a unique space — Skylight Modern — and it really set the mode for that ‘garage fighting’ mentality. We brought in our grandMA control boards and very little analog technology was involved. It all went exceptionally well, and the client was very happy. We really liked taking a space and transforming into something unique, something that felt like the UFC.”
Another recent project was an Adult Swim cable network event involving a dome, 360 Project Mapping and 5.1 surround sound in what they called The Meatwad Full Dome Experience. From July 9-12, 2015, Comic-Con attendees were treated to a wild and crazy psychedelic experience. Intended to promote the Aqua Teen Hunger Force animated series at the well-attended San Diego event, the client came to DPS wanting a fully immersive experience, visually and audio-wise.
DPS used Meyer Sound components — four UPA-1P, two UPJ-1P, two 600 HP subwoofers and a SIM 3 analyzer. “Meyer Sound was a key element in the dome project and contributed to placing the audience in a detailed environment,” says DPS’s Eddie Suparman, who joined the company in 2009 and is business development manager. “With the high fidelity and coverage pattern we were able to deliver an experience not only visually, but sonically.”
Foundation in Worship
The DPS Worship division has been a cornerstone in the company’s growth, Sherin says. Rob Kurtz has run the worship division since 2014 and has been serving the worship market since 1999. Besides owning his own production company, he served as lighting designer/production coordinator for Jesus Culture group and was lead lighting designer at Colorado’s New Life Church. “It was when I was touring with Jesus Culture that I first encountered DPS,” he says. “We started hiring DPS to do production management and lighting for the band, and one day I had a conversation about going to work for them.”
As a former client, Kurtz has an interesting perspective on the company. “The attention to detail they have with their client relations and their communications, is extremely good,” he says. “They genuinely cared about me as a client. Plus, I couldn’t help notice that their staff were high quality people who truly loved their job.”
Kurtz now happily counts himself as one of them. He manages the Worship division, continuing to work with Jesus Culture. Another client is Hillsong Church, an international organization that includes Hillsong United (their band), Young & Free (the organization’s label) and Hillsong Worship — and DPS provides lighting and video for many of their events. He says DPS is proud of its work with Hillsong on its movie Let Hope Rise that was filmed at the Los Angeles Forum in late 2014 and is scheduled for a September release. They also handle a lot of church conferences and recently staged a large event at the American Airline Arena in Dallas, staged by the Covenant Church.
The Warehouse
Visiting the warehouse is practically a spiritual experience — it’s insanely clean, like you-could-eat-off-the-floor clean. All point to Mills when this is brought up, whom prior to his new role as CEO, ran the warehouse. “We have the cleanest gear in the business because of him — he and his team do a really good job keeping this warehouse clean, free of dust and dirt and making sure everything is like new,” Sherin says.
“I understand gear,” responds Hamish “It’s about how it’s presented and how it’s taken care of, and we make sure it’s our number one objective.” Also credited is shop manager Craig Meredith for running a tight ship and making sure a scrubber comes through twice a day.
An increasing popular feature at the warehouse is their trussing grid, a huge installation that is 33 by 62 by 60-feet (HxDxW). “The grid can handle a 144,000 pound package,” Kurtz says. “We can set up for full rehearsals or use it to prep for a live situation we’re doing. It saves time on production because you can work out all the lighting cues, etc.”
Working Smart
Otherwise, what is stocked in the DPS warehouse is governed by common sense. “We hand select manufacturers based on relations and solutions,” says Lee. “We are especially selective about what gear we bring in and only want what is capable of great results for our clients. We embrace products that are multifunctional, so if one product can do the work of three, that’s what we get. The questions are always, ‘what is the level of efficiency?’ and ‘what makes the most sense that can do the job and save our clients time and money?’ It’s not about grabbing everything in the market, it’s about figuring out the best solution.”
DPS, Inc.
When Founded: 2001
Company HQ: Burbank, CA
Divisions: Cinema, Commercial, Corporate, Touring, Worship
Employees: 56 fulltime, 110 part time
Phone: 800.826.3392; 818.337.1202
More Info: dpsinc.com
