OWC USB SSD and Dock Used by Adam Blackstone to Power Super Bowl LII Halftime Show Production

Other World Computing, Inc. announces that Adam Blackstone, multi-instrumentalist and musical director extraordinaire, used its products during the Super Bowl LII Halftime Show featuring Justin Timberlake, taking place on Sunday, February 4, 2018.

Blackstone has been making music since he played drums at his family’s church as a child.

“I fell in love with bass guitar, fell in love with reading music, fell in love with orchestration, fell in love with jazz,” he recalled. “I met members of The Roots while in college. From there, that was all she wrote.“

His role as a musical director has many aspects, “not only playing live, not only teaching parts, not only scoring, but also a major part of what you guys hear as the audience and as the viewer is the programming aspect. I have to take the studio recording and translate that in a live atmosphere.  That takes a lot of time, preparation, and I need my products that I work with to be stable, mobile, compatible and to work at all times. And OWC is all of that for me. It helps me stay in creative mode when what I don’t have to worry about day to day is ‘is this session going to load backup, am I going to lose my files, is it not going to load up, is it going to crash on me in the middle of the show?’ I’ve had none of that, we’ve done everything from Coachella, Austin City Limits, we just did the Grand Prix, 80,000 out there, all working on our OWC drives.”

He continued: “As of late, working on the Super Bowl, the Envoy Pro EX has been my go-to drive during this whole creative process. I’m recording off of that drive, and taking it back to Justin, for him to approve. That’s the type of functionality that I’m always looking for, and that I think is the main asset, is that stability that OWC provides for me in my work environment.”

When asked about his workflow and connecting his computers, drives and accessories, he exuded “One of the other great things about OWC is their Thunderbolt 2 Dock and Thunderbolt 3 Dock, whichever you prefer. I am using it for a plethora of things, I’m able to go direct into the dock from my external HDDs without there being any long cabling, any mess on my workstation, it has USB, Thunderbolt, FireWire and for those who don’t know, also audio in/out as well. It’s a lifesaver on the road, anything you need mobility for, this can do it. Its functionality seems limitless and it helps, especially in this new age of computers we have, when there are limited ports and things like that, this is what you need to get to work at a fast pace, with multiple drives.“

OWC is a part of the production process for the halftime show, an event that is expected to be seen by more than 110 million viewers.

Blackstone beamed: “OWC inspires me to be creative and to open my mind to limitless possibilities for how I create music, how I make music, how I present music to the world, and how you receive the music is a big part of what happens through that creative process, and that’s why I need a product that works like it does, as hard for me as I do for the people in music.”

Adam Blackstone is a multi-instrumentalist, musical director, songwriter, producer, and bassist. He is currently the musical director for Nicki Minaj and Justin Timberlake, and was the band leader for the soundtrack of the motion picture The Greatest Showman. He has worked with such additional artists as Ed Sheeran, Alicia Keyes, Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Band Perry, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, Maroon 5. He is the musical director for the Super Bowl LII Halftime Show.