Outline Newton Drives PBR Sound

	Shane Thomas. Photo: Courtesy Bull Stock Media and Shane Thomas

From the dirt-covered floors of sold-out arenas to the roar of packed stadiums, Professional Bull Riders (PBR) events deliver a high-octane experience that demands as much from the technical crew as it does from the athletes. For the audio team at Gateway Studios & Production Services (GSPS), ensuring uninterrupted sound across both live and broadcast mixes means relying on a processing core that's both powerful and resilient. Since 2022, that core has been Outline's Newton.

"Newton's been a great tool for our setup -- super intuitive and easy to program right out of the box," says Shane Thomas, the system engineer responsible for deploying and managing GSPS' touring rig for the sport's flagship PBR Unleash The Beast Tour and PBR Teams league. "The user interface is straightforward, which makes day-to-day use fast and hassle-free."

Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, GSPS is a leading provider of integrated turnkey solutions for live events, television, film, and touring productions. With a new 300,000-sq.-ft. rehearsal campus set to open in 2025 -- the largest of its kind in the US -- GSPS combines deep technical expertise with cutting-edge infrastructure to support every stage of live event creation. Its collaboration with PBR showcases the company's ability to deliver top-tier production support in the most demanding environments.

PBR itself was founded in 1992, when 20 visionary bull riders broke away from traditional rodeo, determined to elevate bull riding into a standalone global sport. Today, the league now hosts more than 200 events annually across North America and abroad, features athletes from five continents, and reaches nearly 300 million households via broadcast and digital platforms.

In these arena-scale, TV-first environments, Outline Newton plays a vital role. "Most of the upstream gear, including our DiGiCo Q338 console, runs at 48kHz for broadcast, while our PA is at 96kHz," says Thomas. "Newton's SRC is rock solid. We've never had a single clocking issue. That gives us a lot of confidence."

The processor also offers valuable flexibility. "I use one layer of EQ to shape the room, and FOH engineers -- whether they're traveling with the show or hired locally -- can make their own tweaks on top of that. We've built a workflow that allows consistency without locking anyone out."

Durability is another key factor. With every event involving dust, dirt, heavy gear movement, and tight turnarounds, Newton's stability has stood out. "We've had it out for years now, in all kinds of conditions, and it's never dropped signal or glitched. It just works."