Women in Defence Awards Gala Production

Photo Credit: Ben Calvert, Women In Defence Awards

Sidestage delivered full audio visual production for the 2024 Women in Defence Awards Gala Dinner, hosted at the National Arboretum Canberra. Celebrating the achievements of women across Defence Industry, APS, and Uniformed Services, the event required a high-impact production design with fast, efficient setup.

Photo Credit: Ben Calvert, Women In Defence Awards

The National Arboretum Canberra operates as a public visitor centre 7 days per week. We knew that once the doors close for the day our crew would only have 120 minutes to have all equipment installed and ready for guests to arrive.

With this limited time in mind our team used pre-rigged and pre-programmed systems to accelerate installation. Central to this was one of our custom-built, all-in-one vision cases which enabling rapid deployment of cameras, switching consoles and recording systems.

Presentations and live camera feeds were shown on a combination of 86" UHD LED Displays and High Definition projectors evenly spaced around the room so that no matter your seat the action on stage was clearly visible. All video footage was recorded and provided to the event organiser for future promotional use the same night of the event.

As corporate audio visual specialists we know that the secret to a great sounding event is coverage, not lots of volume. An all-Adamson audio system comprising SpekTrix and PC12 speakers was supplied, the compact nature of these ensured that sight lines weren't compromised.

Photo Credit: Ben Calvert, Women In Defence Awards.

A fully LED based lighting system was used to for stage and ambient lighting. Our flagship spot fixture, Ayrton Ghibli, was used to frame the stage and provide a flicker free lighting for the video cameras. Martin MAC Quantum Wash fixtures were used to throw colour around the room with the beam twister and pixel ring effects providing 'eye candy' effects.

Astera Titan Tubes were spread throughout the space, their internal battery and wireless control meaning they can be located at any point without having to worry about cables.

To keep the technical operating area clean we deployed compact MA onPC 2 and Soundcraft Performer consoles. With the same feature set as their bigger siblings these small units are perfect for applications when the available flood space is minimal.

Sidestage is proud to support high-profile events with reliable, scalable production. Thank you to Two De Force for trusting us with this occasion.