TAIT, for decades a juggernaut in providing technology and equipment for concert touring and other live experiences, has acquired Silent House, one of the foremost production studios and creative agencies in the industry, after more informally partnering for many years, it was announced Monday.
“By joining together, TAIT and Silent House aim to seamlessly unify creative, technical, and delivery expertise to build productions at any scale, balancing creativity and practicality at the inception of the process,” the companies said in a joint statement. “From initial ideas to the final show and beyond, their combined strengths will design and deliver smarter shows that are visually stunning and more cost-efficient.”
Both companies have worked together over the years on some of the biggest and most spectacular tours in the business, the foremost example being Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, along with other ground-breaking developments from Pink’s technically and creatively elaborate shows to productions at Las Vegas’ Sphere (the Backstreet Boys’ ongoing residency is pictured above).
Adam Davis, CEO of TAIT, and Baz Halpin, founder and CEO of Silent House, spoke with Variety in a joint interview to talk about what the coming together of these two industry powerhouses means.
“We have been in each other’s lives intimately for 20-something years,” Halpin says, “and increasingly our vision for the industry, the future, and what interests us has been more and more aligned. So as we at Silent House looked to grow and develop and enter our next phase, and we looked at potential strategic partners, this made the most sense.”
No terms of the deal were revealed. But Davis says that TAIT’s 2,000-strong employee base includes “everything from architects or physicists and storytellers to sculptors. We have a deep, deep bench of electrical, mechanical and software engineering, with a million square feet of state-of-the-art manufacturing, and then the entire team globally to that is out in the field delivering the work, but also continuing to service and support that work around the world. And for us forever, it’s been about creating an ecosystem where great talent can come with a great idea, and whatever it is, challenge us, we can support that.
“And where we get really excited with this,” Davis continues, “and what we’re building together, is the ability to now further support our clients, because not only can we take the great ideas and deliver it, but we can continue to develop the process that Baz and the Silent House team have for being a true, efficient producer and layer in the content.”
Davis poses the ongoing question as: “How can we put as much spectacle and on stage or in the environment — how can we create these moments that people will remember forever — as efficiently as possible, while also making sure it’s safe and there’s a work-life balance for everybody so that it’s sustainable? Now this also gives us the ability to bring more revenue streams back to the clients because of the amazing content arm that the Silent House team has.”
Davis notes that this all builds on what was set up by founder Michael Tait established in the early days of rock. “Michael Tait, the founder, I think is credited with putting the ‘roll’ in rock ‘n’ roll. And this town that I’m calling you from, where our headquarters is, is the town where the birthplace of the modern tour happened 60 years ago — the idea that if you take the equipment with you, you could put on a more consistent performance. And today, it is really the epicenter of live event technology. We have probably over 40 companies here, the world’s largest rehearsal complex for live experience, basically the entire ecosystem that one needs to deliver a live experience.”
The company is still headquarter in Lititz, Penn., where they are a large-sized outlier in Amish country, the irony of which escapes no one. They also have a California headquarters in Burbank, where they will join Silent House going forward.
“ur company, Tait, over the 48 years we’ve been in business, really morphed from what was a live event company into a global live experience company,” Davis says. “And it’s about taking our skillset and our technology to create a platform for creativity, technology and delivery at a global scale. We saw more and more the core skillset of live event, the ability to create these moments that move people… we saw what started in an arena morph into all public places. And so today that’s across theme parks, cruise ships, immersive venues, opera houses in at a global scale. And if you think about the work that Silent House has pioneered of really pushing what’s possible in storytelling in these large environments, what we found together over the years is the complexity to deliver it reliably, efficiently, and really do it in a way where work life balance for everyone involved, as the complexity of it just gets greater and greater and greater. And what we’re building is a platform that allows process to be deployed across that so that creatives of all types can do great work.”
Says Halpin, “Going back to our genesus, the Silent House people were the creatives that work directly with the artists. You say, ‘I want a stage that looks like this. I want a show — build it out. We’re gonna have dancers, we’re gonna have acrobats, we’re gonna have cars, whatever we’re gonna have, build out the whole creative thing.’ Then we go find the logistic and technical partners that can execute that, which is Tait. You want a stage built? You want to fly Rihanna around the Super Bowl? You want automation? At Silent House, you have this crazy idea that you want Pink to fly around the stadium? So originally we were a client of Tait’s…
“For concert touring, we have been on these parallel paths, both trying to improve how we improve the work that we do together, but also jointly for the rest of the industry,” Halpin continues. “And that’s where the intersection lies now is in the process and the platform that we build. Because to Adam’s point, complexity is probably the buzzword for the last 15 years. Every great show you do is followed by a greater show. The bar keeps getting elevated, and the metric of success is how the audience goes, ‘Wow. That was the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.’ If that’s the metric, then as that increases, the complexity does exponentially. And so the intersection of what we are doing together is building that platform to allow that complexity to build, but ensure that these shows can be successful, ensure that they can happen, and fundamentally ensure that the economics work for the clients, because this is ultimately at the end of the day is the music business, and that’s a huge part of what we do.”
What it boils down to, for Davis and Halpin, is the word “experiential”… which boils down to anything not happening on a screen, something they believe is more valued than ever in 2026, especially as AI creates an ironic contrast.
“Our core belief is that we wake up every day to bring joy to audiences, and to make these moments that people remember forever,” says Halpin. “In a world we’re living in where it’s really hard to tell what’s true and false, I think these live moments are more valuable than ever. And we’re seeing a global demand surge for what we do. It’s historically been a recession-proof business. The only real downside or downfall we’ve ever had was COVID. But of course we’ve bounced back from that with rigor and fervor. But what we’re seeing now at a global scale is demand that’s just unprecedented, and especially at the high end of the market that we operate in, where you have these rarefied experiences that people want to have access to and be a part of. And it doesn’t matter — anywhere in the world , they want the same things.
“As Adam said, all the other areas that Tate is in now, with automation and in everything else, is they have taken that level of sort of focus, expertise and unwavering dedication to making sure it’s the best version that it could be and has now delivered it in a variety of different areas. So the TAIT brand brings this confidence to the whole platform. We also can leverage what’s going on globally in the industry — all the other things that are happening in theater, in opera, in theme parks… They can say, ‘Well, we pioneered that technology for this theme park.’ That never happened (in the touring industry) before. And so it’s made this sort of safe space for artists that you can dream wherever you want.”
They are reluctant to pick out highlights from the work they’ve already one together, but one does stick out as emblematic of bringing their joint resources together.
“Flying Pink from the side of the JW Marriott in downtown L.A. for the American Music Awards…. We were able to have that conversation nonchalantly, because now obviously we’ve known each other and worked together for decades at this point. We have these ridiculous sort of stop and catch your breath moments: Did we just say we’re gonna do that without thinking it was outrageous or weird or strange? Why did we assume that we were going to be able to do this, and why did we say yes with such confidence? And that’s really k the exciting thing is that we know we can do these things because we’ve done them for years. And now, together, what can we do? What does the future hold? It’s very, very exciting.”
