The readers of FRONT of HOUSE have chosen these five U.S. companies as the best of their respective U.S. regions plus one chosen as best in Canada. In addition to earning bragging rights (and a neat little certificate), these six regional companies are now in the running for the Parnelli Award for Hometown Hero Sound Company of the Year at the annual ceremony set for Jan. 26, 2024 in Anaheim, CA during the NAMM show.
NORTHEAST
Black Walnut Productions
Chambersburg, PA
Hollywood Casino’s Penn Heroes Stage in Grantville, PA
Located in the middle of a triangle made up of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Washington/Baltimore, Black Walnut productions is a full-service event production company specializing in large scale concerts and corporate events. “I started my career with a small sound company when I was 18 years old,” says owner Jon Roth. “Over the next five years I worked in local production primarily for fairs and festivals before going freelance.” Roth then worked for another company before he and his wife started Black Walnut in 2019 – in their garage, of course. But by the fourth quarter, they moved into a 5,000 square foot warehouse; last year they moved into a space that is triple the size. They have five full time employees, seven part-timers and a slew of freelancers.
Black Walnut Productions is a JBL house deploying SRX, VRX and VTX systems. They are also using DiGiCo, Avid and Midas consoles, Shure and Sennheiser mics and RF. Some of their latest purchases include JBL VTX A12 and B28, Crown VRack, Midas HD96, Neve 5045 and sE Mics.
Roth says their passion is concerts, and recent notables include YG’s The Red Cup tour. On July 4, 25,000 people came out to see Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stone Temple Pilots and Cassadee Pope for the U.S. Army Fort Campbell Independence Day Celebration 2023. They also handled Hollywood Casino’s Penn Heroes Stage for a summer concert series that featured Jordan Davis, Alter Bridge, Incubus, Megadeth and more. There was also the Iowa State Fair Grandstand, with crowds up to 16,000 a night showing up for artists including New Kids On The Block, Jason Aldean, Eric Church, The Chicks and The Black Keys.
“It is an honor to have been nominated in the first place, but knowing we have the support of our community is heartwarming,” Roth says. “We would be nothing without our amazing team of employees, freelancers and vendors!”
SOUTHEAST
Spider Ranch Productions
Ocala, FL
Future’s One Big Party tour visited Las Vegas earlier this year.
Spider Ranch owner Alex Moran has been at the live event biz since he was a 14-year-old kid, working for the legendary man himself, Bill Graham. “I’m one of the guys who has been around long enough to remember that when you wanted a sound system, you built it,” Moran says with a laugh.
The seeds for his Spider Ranch Productions were planted in 2004, but it was a few more years until it really became a full-fledged company based in Northern California. Recently, though, after noticing that more and more of his business was coming from the opposite side of the country, he relocated to Florida (while still maintaining an office in Sacramento and even setting one up in Detroit).
“We just completed the installation of a new sound system in the new St. Charles Borromeo in Visalia, CA, the largest Catholic church in the U.S.,” Moran says. (See FOH, Oct. 2023, page 36). They have also handled tours for Nayvadius DeMun Cash (a.k.a. Future) and R&B quartet Jodeci and festivals including the Country Summer Music Festival in Santa Rosa, CA.
Spider Ranch is one of two sound companies in the U.S. with Outline sound systems in their inventory. They have also expanded, adding another truck and adding to their wireless inventory recently. They have eight full-time employees.
“We are all excited and humbled that our clients and industry partners continue to think of us as one of the best audio service providers in the country,” Moran says. “And we can’t wait for 2024.”
MIDWEST
Allied Production & Sales
Mendota Heights, MN
Brandi Carlile at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN.
“We have been averaging 40 events per month with a mixture of live, hybrid, and in-person events,” reports Allied Production & Sales president Chad Pechacek. “This includes galas with audiences ranging from 60 to 20,000 people.” Music acts they have supported include Tiesto at the Armory in Minneapolis; Brandi Carlile at Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN; Rob Zombie and Filter at Mystic Lake Amphitheater, Prior Lake, MN; and a corporate event in Phoenix that featured Travis Scott, Lil Baby, DJ Khaled, J Balvin, The Chain Smokers, and Jay-Z. “With the growing need to support the latest rider-friendly gear, we have been strengthening our long-standing relationships with Live Nation, AEG, and Jam Productions.”
In addition, Allied has been busy installing audio and lighting systems throughout the Midwest including Orchestra Hall (Minneapolis), Palace Theater (St. Paul) and Uptown Theater (Minneapolis). They are also a preferred local vendor at JW Marriot, The Union Depot, Target Field, The Armory, MN State Fairgrounds, Quincy Hall, and Reign Event Center.
To keep up with it all, the company has updated the complete L-Acoustics platform to the latest K1, KX, and AVB standards. “Our console inventory has been updated with multiple Avid S6L and DiGiCo 338 purchases within the last year,” Pechacek adds. “Wireless technology additions and updates include Shure and Axient, with more planned for 2024.”
Pechacek founded Allied in 1995, and today they have 23 full-time staff, and they continue to grow with more than 50 freelancer specialists available across the country. They work out of a 30,000 square foot warehouse and are currently looking for more space. “We are humbled and honored that people took time to vote for us,” Pechacek says. “In addition to our loyal customers, we are so appreciative of all the time and dedication our contractors, partners, and vendors give us to help make all of these events incredibly successful.”
NORTHWEST
Canaan Sound & Light
Sacramento, CA
Mixing the Rancho Murieta Summerfest
Jon and Talitha Canaan founded Canaan Sound & Light in 1998, and today, they have a pool of around 18 people that they lean on to keep up with demand for their services. The couple work out of 1,800 square foot space that is filled with JBL VTX, Shure, Soundcraft and Midas products. Specifically, they have recently invested in JBL VTX V20, VTX G28 Subwoofers, VTX M22 Wedges, and VTX A6 boxes with VTX F18 subwoofers. They also added a new Soundcraft Vi5000 console.
“We handle multiple concert series events, some for every season for more than a decade,” Jon Canaan says. “We also do a lot of regional festivals, city, and government events, and supply audio for corporate events all over the country.” An event they handle that they are particularly proud of is the Mare Island Dock of Bay Music Festival in Vallejo, CA. “This was our third year we got to support Morris Day and The Time, Average White Band, Con Funk Shun, Fantastic Negrito and many more. We provided P.A., an LED wall and our Apex 3224 stage.” For a fifth year, they were there for the City of Elk Grove, CA Fourth of July Fireworks Jubilee.
They also worked the Homecoming Concert Festival at Cal Poly at Humboldt State in Arcata, CA. “Remi Wolf was the headliner with Sage the Gemini, The California Poppies and The Altons also performing.” They have done three concert event festivals held on the campus at University of California – Davis. “And we also provided set audio for the broadcast of the NBC Today Show Third Hour at a Santa Rosa winery.” They also do occasional sales to churches, arenas and other sound companies.
“We are truly humbled,” Canaan says. “It is incredible to be nominated for the only actual recognition in this field of work. A huge thank you to our crews, our clients and, of course, FOH Magazine.”
SOUTHWEST
Brown Note Productions
Thornton, CO
ILLENIUM Trilogy:Colorado at Mile High Stadium
Brown Note Productions was founded in 2004 by Ryan and Sara Knutson, and they have been growing and expanding ever since. The audio, lighting, video, staging, and backline company in the Denver area specializes in full-service production for concerts, tours, music festivals and special events as well as system integration and beginning-to-end show design. “We are dedicated to giving our clients the highest quality production experience,” says Sara Knutson. “We do it right the first time, every time by pairing state-of-the-art technology with first-class service.”
A case in point: their support for ILLENIUM Trilogy:Colorado which drew 50,000 EDM fans who gathered at Denver’s Empower Field at Mile High Stadium (See FOH, Aug. 2023, page 24). They are also a primary audio provider for Red Rocks Amphitheatre and handle audio for Danny Wimmer Presents Festivals including Welcome to Rockville, Inkcarceration, Sonic Temple, Bourbon & Beyond, Louder than Life, Aftershock, and GoldenSky. They have more than 100 employees handling it all.
“We are deeply honored and incredibly grateful to have been named Hometown Hero Sound Company of the Year for the Southwest Region,” Knutson says. “It is truly humbling to be recognized among such talented and dedicated professionals in our field. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our team for their unwavering dedication and hard work. This win is a testament to our collective efforts, passion, and commitment to delivering exceptional sound experiences to our clients and audiences. We are also so thankful for our clients, whose trust and confidence inspire us to push the boundaries of creativity and excellence in sound engineering. Without their belief in our work, this would not have been possible. We are looking forward to the Parnelli Awards ceremony and the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our industry colleagues.”
CANADA
Gearforce
Coquitlam, BC, Canada
Gearforce supports Bryan Adams shows in Canada and the U.S. along with some overseas gigs such as this one in Lisbon, Portugal.Robert Nevalainen started mixing sound in 1986. “There was a busy club scene in Vancouver and as much work as you wanted,” he says. “I then began working for a local company and started mixing tours, and then in 2000, I founded Gearforce.” It was initially started as a sub hire company providing support to other audio companies with in-ear monitoring systems, high-end consoles and analog tube processing. “In 2010, we bought our first P.A., and in 2014, we began purchasing d&b audiotechnik gear.”
Today, the company has a 10,000 square foot warehouse in the Vancouver suburb of Coquitlam with four full time employees and 11 freelancers. They are Canada’s largest d&b partner. “We increased our inventory of d&b SL products getting more KSL, SL subs, and Canada’s first XSL system, as well as a large shipment of D40 amplifiers.” They also became a PK Alliance member with the purchase of a robotic T10 system. Gearforce has a large selection digital consoles including Avid, DiGiCo, Midas, Allen & Heath and Yamaha desks. “We recently added more Avid S6L consoles and Midas HD96 consoles, as well as Lectrosonics IEM systems.” They use it all to support tours, one-off concerts, large corporate events and installations. “Plus, there’s lots of dry hire to all of the other audio companies.”
Gearforce is the equipment provider for all of Bryan Adams tours, typically doing 100 a year. In addition, “the Vancouver Symphony does an outdoor concert series throughout the summer at different venues to audiences of up to 15,000 people, and we have been providing the systems for those events for many years.”
Nevalainen adds that he and the Gearforce team are excited and humbled for this award. “None of this would have been possible without my incredible team’s unwavering commitment and dedication. Their expertise, collaboration and unwavering support have been instrumental in getting to where we are today.”
