Brad Higbee and Company prove there’s more to Idaho than potatoes.
So many successful business stories start with the line, “I was asked to…” that it should almost be considered a cliché. So when Voltstar Productions president Brad Higbee reports that he got his start when someone asked for sound and lighting help, it’s not a shocker.
Higbee opened the doors to Voltstar Productions over 20 years ago, providing audio and lighting services to local venues in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The company has grown to be one of the leading regional sound providers, reaching from Oregon to the Dakotas, Washington to Wyoming.
Higbee’s team of six, not including any local crew hired to fill the need of a gig, has worked with a wide range of artists that includes country songstress Sara Evans, alt-rock legends Violent Femmes, jam-rockers Blues Traveler and rock legends Ted Nugent and Creedence Clearwater. The company has grown from working in 200 seaters to PGE Park in Portland, Ore., to the Tacoma Dome and the recently renamed EnergySolutions Arena, formerly the Delta Center, in Salt Lake City, Utah.
One of the company’s touring jobs came a couple of years ago when it took a VerTec rig out with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to venues in California, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and Nevada.
“We started with audio and lighting, but on a really small scale doing local production in really small 200-seat venues,” Higbee reports. “Now we’re the biggest full-production company in all of Idaho. There are a couple of other companies, one out of Boise and one out of the Jerome area, but we don’t do local stuff, so our competition is more regional. We are competing with people in Portland and Denver and Salt Lake. We compete with all the big boys out there.”
And the company competes while cooperating, especially when it comes time to lend a hand or accept a hand. “I have six mainstay employees who do lighting, staging, sound and various things,” he says. “Then, depending on the show, we could go up to as many staffers as 20 or 30 with local hands. Over the years, we’ve built up a pretty good network with other audio companies throughout Montana, Oregon and different places where, if they need additional equipment or help I provide that, and vice versa — when I need some additional people, they help. It’s kind of a small world in this business, even though it’s a thousand miles between people.”
In addition to audio and lighting, Higbee has added staging, roofs and backline to the company’s list of services over the past years. The company has two roofs and two stages, one that folds out and one that’s modular, that can be built into different sizes. “When we first started, it was really small, just doing the local stuff, but now we’re up to three semis and a bunch of guys,” he says.
Although the install side of the business hasn’t been a source of concentration, Higbee admits that he’s investigating how to grow that business. “We are starting to get more calls for that nowadays,” he says, “but mostly because of time, I haven’t had a lot of time to pursue that market. We are looking into that more heavily now.”
Even with the expansion of services, Higbee reports that he’s survived the tough times by keeping his overhead as low as possible. “I don’t get myself too overextended by purchasing stuff. I try to purchase the stuff I need at the time, and not try to just go for the gadgets and gizmos to play with,” he says. “I concentrate on the stuff that I need for the upcoming season and work toward that.”
That said, he admits there is a demand for the best and newest gear. “You do have to stay on top of everything,” he says. “Any time that I purchase equipment, I make sure that it’s rider friendly. I don’t ever try to second-guess or go for any cheaper gear. I always buy the ‘A’ equipment,” Higbee says.
To wit, recent equipment purchases include a 30-box VerTec line array, a handful of new processing gear and some Crown I-Tech amplifiers. On the console side of things, Higbee has purchased a Yamaha M7CL and a pair of Soundcraft Series 5 boards. He has his eye on Soundcraft’s new digital board, which he hopes to add to the assortment by the end of June. In fact, he’s picking that board over the 5D. “I did a demo with it, and for the amount of money — it’s a little more expensive than the 5D, but it looks a lot more flexible, there are a lot more inputs and a lot more things we can do with it.”
From his seat in Idaho, Higbee has seen the call for equipment change over the past number of years. “Line arrays are pretty much mandatory anymore, digital consoles are probably 50-50 now and, in the next couple of years, I think it’s probably going to be 80- 20-ish,” he reports. “I do see a few riders come across my desk that say absolutely no digital consoles, and I also have riders that say digital consoles mandatory. Most people still work on an analog console if there’s enough time in the day, unless it’s a big festival setting. If it’s a festival setting, it’s mandatory to have some kind of digital console just to get the day done as quickly as possible.”
Thanks to the company’s years of experience, the setting up and running of a show has become fairly easy. However, when asked about his company’s most common challenges Higbee points to logistics. “Mostly day-today stuff, like making sure we get the load-in scheduled at the right time, so we get all of our equipment up and ready to go before the band starts loading in,” he says. “When you’re doing a big show, it’s all about keeping everything flowing, making sure that the timeframes stay correct.”
Higbee is right in the middle of it all, from making sure the gear is set up correctly to mixing either monitors or FOH. “I’ve been doing this 20 years and I plan to do it another 20,” he states. “I love it. I haven’t taken a salary from the company, I’ve just taken any bit of money I’ve ever made and reinvested it back to the company. That’s why it’s probably grown so fast.”
