Brief
Microhire was contracted to supply all event staging and technical production services for this impressive event.
Production
Microhire managed the entire technical production including the supply of show operators. To achieve Bansons vision our experienced team needed to have a thorough understanding of large live events.
Importantly when producing a corporate show environment in exhibition bays our production design had to consider all contingencies and risks including weight distribution of the huge stage set.
Vision
The vision brief incorporated a huge floor mounted LED wall which was the ‘live’ stage set’. This huge 14 x 6m LED screen had over 390 LED panels and was supported by 20k HD projectors and 20 x 11″ delay screens.
For signal flow and the mixing of the complex screen content we designed a state-of-the-art Riedel broadcast quality system that enabled us to transition between sources quicker and to create a television style overlay of various content.
To mix the content we used our Analogue Way Ascender enabling us to send different content to the LED screen, LCD lectern and the four presenter foldback monitors and a second Ascender to control and send signal directly to the four presentation screens.
The show content was HD and we used our high end Mac show computers for all presentation content, show content, backgrounds & videos with two additional presentation computers for show & backup. A dedicated vision mixer was used to ‘live’ mix the three cameras and to individually record the entire event.
The end result was an event that looked closer to ‘Eurovision’ than a conference.
Lighting
The client wanted a dynamic stage design that reached out into the delegate seating. To create stage looks, room effects and dynamic performance lighting for the performers we combined over 230 intelligent and static lights.
Our Lighting Director choreographed and mapped individual scenes for each of the 25 performances.
Audio
For audio we used a high-end audio system designed specifically for the event space, audience size, presenters and 25 acts. The PA also needed to include delay and front fill components and speakers on stage, and question foldback for the presenters.
Rigging
The key features of the design were the stage, vision and lighting. With such a large LED screen and over two hundred and thirty lights loading and truss weights needed to be assessed and all contingencies planned for and considered. Our rigging assessment of the initial conceptual drawings highlighted a potential weight issue and as a result we determined we needed to reduce the weight of the structure on both the Melbourne Exhibition Centre floor and roof structure ensuring a safe event environment.
Staging Elements
It wasn’t anything like a traditional sales kick off with over 200+ live performers. Other event staging components included special VIP seating, stage management, carpet colour to match the company’s logo, a large permanent sign rigged above the LED screen and even the supply of the make-up and hair team.
Over 100 staff worked on this event with a build lasting 15 hours, with over 8 tonnes of steel and equipment and working with interpreters and a team of 20 from the end client to create this one off spectacular.
