About

Premier Productions is a Normal, Illinois based DJ Entertainment, Videography, and Lighting company.

Our humble beginnings started in 1993 when owner Ben Miller bought his first professional DJ system… Ben was 14 at the time! (He had spent most of Junior high DJ’ing parties with his friends with a home stereo system)

Ben and his mom attended a wedding in Clinton IA for one of their friends.  At the reception, Ben spent most of his time talking (probably bugging) the DJs.  Their names were Rich and Kathy Springer.  A husband and wife team that had been DJ’ing for more than 15 years.

They were so nice to a kid who was very excited about the prospect of DJing that they invited Ben and his mom over to their home the day after the wedding to talk more about the life of a DJ.  Rich and Kathy had a professional DJ system that they weren’t using and sold it to Ben.  It was Ben’s first loan $3,500 at age 14.

His first dance was in September at his former Junior High, where he had been a student just months before.

Ben continued to entertain at parties throughout high school.  He attended Greenville College in Greenville Il, and would drive back to Bloomington/Normal 1-2 times per month to perform at weddings and other events.

After graduating from Greenville, Ben taught High School (American Government, Sociology, Modern European History, Geography… and Driver’s Ed!).

In 2003, Ben took his passion for entertaining full time, being one of the only full time entertainment companies in downstate Illinois.  At this time he also started a full Audio Visual Rental Company, providing meeting and event solutions by renting everything from overhead projectors to stage lighting, microphones and beyond.

In 2005, Premier Productions moved into it’s first office on Commerce Parkway in Bloomington.

In 2006, Premier Productions added Event Videography to it’s ongoing list of services. Bringing a new style of wedding day documentation to Central Illinois.

In 2007, Premier Productions brought on two more full time employees to better server their clients.

In 2008, Premier Productions introduced Event Lighting to Bloomington/Normal.  We now provide Name in Lights, Uplighting, Centerpiece Lighting, Star Ceilings, and much more.

In 2009, Premier Productions doubled it’s office space moving into our current office in Normal.

In 2010, Premier Productions is proud to announce our new Open Air Photo Booth!  Now large groups of friends can all fit in a photo that will last forever!

We’ve also changed our name a few times!  Here’s why:

For our first “Gig” Ben called the company “Party To Go”…  He thought he was pretty clever with that name… however, he didn’t realize that MTV had created a handful of CDs with the exact same title.  The name only lasted a few months!

Then, when choosing a new name, Ben opened up a few phone books across the country and started putting names together.  One company used “sensational” and another used “sounds”…  Therefore, we were Sensational Sounds.

Being a little too close to the name of another local entertainment company, Ben changed the business name in 2001 to “Moonlighting DJ Service” in homage to Rich and Kathy Springer.  Rich was a full time Mailman, so he only Moonlighted as a DJ on the weekends, so did Ben.

However, as our business continued to grow, Ben took the company full time (therefore no longer “Moonlighting”), and was offering several different services, not just DJ entertainment.

In 2006 we changed our name to “Premier Productions” to reflect the multiple services we offer. Premier Productions is the parent company to all of the different services we offer; Premier Entertainment, Premier Videography, and Premier Event Lighting.

We’re looking forward to a great 2011 and beyond!