On May 4, 2024, Denver, CO-based Brown Note Productions marks its 20th Anniversary. Brown Note Productions specializes in 360°, full-service production for concerts, tours, music festivals, and special events, as well as AVL system integration. The company, which fully supports its clients with lighting, video, lasers, special effects, staging, trucking, as well as backline and audio, has won the Parnelli Hometown Hero Award for Sound and Lighting five times. That say a lot about how highly their customers and clients value their work.
PLSN recently spoke with CEO and Owner Sara Knutson, and President and Owner Ryan Knutson, reflecting on the past 20 years. Discussing some of the milestones and projects that shaped the full-service company they are today. And they continue to grow, in fact, during this anniversary year, Brown Note will be moving from its current 70,000 sq. ft. space to a 120,000 sq. ft. space nearby. Sara and Ryan shared with PLSN their obvious passion for their work, the company, the Brown Note team and the industry. They try to inject fun into their work, along with an unwavering attention to detail and their high level of customer service.
How did Brown Note Productions begin?
Sara Knutson: I started my journey as a corporate event planner for a data storage company, tasked with finding an AV production company for our events. That night, I shared the details with Ryan, who immediately saw potential of handling the entire event. “I’ll handle the sound, we’ll put on the show.” And just like that, we dove in. With a few sound equipment purchases and a projector rental, we secured our first gig. Not long after, Ryan landed a role with the band Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9), leading their front-of-house and production duties while we began building Brown Note Productions from the ground up.
Our journey gained momentum when we worked with Digidesign to showcase the new Avid D-Show console. Ryan took the console on tour with STS9 as part of a beta program. This marked our inaugural equipment purchase for Brown Note Productions. From there, our services expanded rapidly, encompassing lighting, video, special effects, lasers, staging, backline, and trucking, among others. We firmly believed in investing in both our gear and our people, envisioning a comprehensive 360° company culture.
Amidst our growth, we didn’t forget to inject some humor. We christened our venture Brown Note Productions, a playful nod to the legendary note rumored to induce involuntary bodily bowel functions. Ryan’s intention was clear: to infuse our work with joy and laughter, aligning with the inherently fun nature of production. Surprisingly, the name stuck, evolving through various iterations over the years. It’s become a recognizable brand within the industry, reflecting our commitment to professionalism and enjoyment in equal measure. I’m grateful Ryan conceived it when he did; it’s been a driving force behind our success.
How many people work at Brown Note now?
SK: We have over 100 people working, currently. And they are all employees. We’re at 70,000 sq. ft. currently, with a move this year to over 120,000 sq. ft. of space; so, we are actively building.
What’s an early project that set Brown Note on its way and helped it build in the early days?
Ryan Knutson: I think the touring with STS9 and then the launch of Red Rocks, really being able to be in that venue. We did our first shows in 2008. That was a big, big launch for us, really. Obviously, getting our first space. But I’d say building along with Red Rocks, from six shows in 2008 to well over 150 shows there last year.
What were some projects you’d consider milestones, or major projects for your company?
SK: We did the opening of Allegiant Stadium with the first show in 2021 coming out of the pandemic. That was huge with Illenium. Also, supporting all the Danny Wimmer projects. Growing the whole festival business, basically from nothing.
RK: I would say the festival work we did with major headliners that includes Metallica and Guns N’ Roses. From very small stages to 40,000 person events. That’s been a pretty big milestone for us to help our client build that sort of production over the years and grow with them. I would say taking the first GSL speaker system out on tour with the Gorillaz in 2017 was a pretty big milestone for us to have that P.A. out pretty early.
SK: We also do systems integration, so I would add doing the full integration project for the Mission Ballroom in Denver was a big milestone for the company. We took care of the sound, lights, video—full end-to-end integration for them in 2019.
Why have Brown Note’s clients have been so loyal over the years? What makes Brown Note so valued by them?
SK: The quality of our people and our packaging.
RK: We call it—People, Process, and Packaging. I think our services are robust and we offer rider-friendly products that people are specing. So, we’re able to meet the needs of the clients when they have high-end flavors that they like, as well as the others. We’ve been good about inventory management, making sure it’s active products that people are using. We’ve been really good at helping our clients grow and we offer more to our clients in technical production and production management, as a part of our services. This helps them grow and learn how to do it.
Also, in terms of Red Rocks, we really designed how the gear moves in and out of the building so people can do these big shows every night. It’s a challenging in and out. So, we’ve developed and designed over the years the workflow to do that really quickly so people can build larger shows in the venue. We’ve really helped up and coming acts learn how to work in the venue and helped them with a 360° package, including the technical and production management that we offer as a part of our services.
SK: I would add one more, recent milestone in providing the audio, lights, and video for Illenium at SoFi stadium.
You also just expanded your laser inventory with a big purchase.
SK: That was a huge, multi-million dollar investment in Pangolin lasers really to meet the demands of our clientele and to over a wider range of services. We had Kvant lasers prior, but just continuing to add with a big investment. Also, we’ve been investing in our people too with our education efforts like our Laser Safety Officers. We now have some new cool products like the Atom 42 lasers and laser bars. We’ve made huge investments with a number of lighting manufacturers as well, including ACME, Ayrton, Chauvet, Elation, GLP, Martin, and Robe. We spread the wealth through all those manufacturers. On the video side, we’ve invested in ROE Visual LED video products like Vanish, and Yes Tech products, including Yes Tech’s LED floor, which is a brand new addition to the company. To be able to have that be a staple at places like Red Rocks and other venues will be great to give people more of that. We’re constantly looking at the future, constantly moving forward. We’re looking at the latest and greatest and what these lighting and video designers are going to want. We’re constantly on the forefront of that.
What do you hope that the people in the industry, and readers of PLSN, understand about Brown Note today?
RK: That they understand that the passion of when we started this business 20 years ago, is still there. And we’re still reinventing ourselves. We’re still growing our team and growing our process, and we’re constantly, constantly evolving. We feel like change is so important for us because every year we change our model, our flexibility, how we operate, how much staff we have, how much gear is deployed. I think that’s the big thing for us is that constant change is constantly making us better, and we’re flexible because we are already engaged.
SK: We’ve got the foundation, and we’re building upon that. Really, it’s the investment in the people and the education and really giving them a path for their future. One of the things that I’m really proud of is I’ve built paths for people to take their careers with levels and very clear direction of how to get there. It really gives people a way to start at the ground level and work their way up. I believe that that’s very needed in this industry. I’ve spent countless hours making this happen for our team, and it’s been great for our staff, and for us too. Really building the culture.
What’s something that people may not know about Brown Note?
RK: I think a lot of people don’t know the full scope of our services because we’ve kind of been… not a secret, but we’ve just put our head down, just going and grinding. So, we’re not out there all the time advertising what we can do. I think people don’t know how much inventory we truly do have, and how much depth we truly do have in the skill sets of our team. I think people don’t understand the depth of the company, right?
Also, because we’re so involved. When your owners are involved, it’s like, ‘oh, I know the owner and this or that’. But I think we’ve been able to develop such a great team and such a great depth there with a management structure as well as the depth of the inventory and the offerings and just all the bells and whistles, all the nuts and bolts that make a production company go round. We can buy the lights all day long, but if we don’t have good ways of deploying them, we don’t have special brackets, we don’t have customization and deployment methods, then we’re just another company with gear, right? I’m sure we can make it work, but we’re pushing on how to deploy things better, how to bring our teams together, so we have better interactions and cohesiveness with our clients on site. That crew interaction is critical to make people’s days go well. So, it’s nice to build cohesive teams that go out and work hard for our clients.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention about Brown Note Productions?
SK: I think people assume that we’re a mom and pop shop, but we’re really not. We have all the bells and whistles of the bigger shops. We just do it in a very boutique way, I think just to elaborate on Ryan’s sentiment. We’ve grown well with our boutique approach. And Ryan and I are true music fans; we really care about the experience for everyone.
