Party time in Canberra (photo: Louise Stickland)
Australia - Canberra -based technical production and event specialist and rental company Elite Event Technology ensured that Horizon 2020 – the Friday Night Party event that was part of the Australian National University Students' Association (ANUSA)’s annual Orientation (freshers) Week activities in February – had appropriate lighting and sound for their main stage.
Staged at the Fellows Oval sports ground on the University of Canberra campus in ACT, around 3000 students enjoyed great weather and a line-up of young emerging talent including Cub Sport, Holy Holy, Wafia, Graace, Remi, Adrian Eagle and Hayley Mary.
Elite also provided a d&b PA system for the event. The company supplies lighting, sound and AV production for numerous other functions at the university.
The lighting rig was based around a festival lighting spec created by headliner Club Sport’s LD Jake Ploss.
Elite’s owner and house FOH sound engineer for the night Darren Russell took this as a starting point and – in consultation with Jake – modified elements to make it practical for the event and to fit the 14-metre-wide truck stage.
The stage offered 6.5m of headroom to its structural gantry, below which Elite flew their four production trusses.
Elite’s Blake Watkin operated lighting for all the other bands apart from Club Sport and the challenge was in lighting each artist differently to match their performance and musical style. With the Robes on the rig, there was plenty of versatility and dynamics!
Over 60 per cent played in daylight which was another consideration and a factor in the choice of BMFLs for their intensity and multiple features. “They are the only light that can cut through and register in any colours during daylight,” states Blake, “you simply can’t beat BMFLs for this.”
For the Friday Night Party, the six BMFL WashBeams were on the most downstage truss and used for some excellent subtle key lighting and specials.
Sixteen BMFL Spots were distributed around the other trusses together with 16 of the 24 x Pointes, with the balance of Pointes on the floor. These other eight Pointes were part of Club Sport’s floor package and were wheeled onto stage on mobile tank trap bases together with some strobes.
All the lights were controlled through the grandMA2 light house console.
Elite Event Technology also provided all the stage risers and blackline for the concert, plus crowd barriers. Darren and the team commissioned and ordered the generators and designed and supplied site-wide power distro infrastructure covering the stage and production plus the entire Fellows Oval field for the concessions.

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