Annual Awards Night 2019

In May our Encore team in Auckland partnered with real estate brand, Barfoot & Thompson, to deliver their annual awards night in recognizing high performing staff and offices. Held in the Ballroom at SKYCITY Convention Centre Auckland, we delivered a very grand, decadent awards setting for 520 guests. Providing an end-to-end solution for this long-term client, we designed a big Hollywood awards style evening – big custom stage set, with custom on-screen content, red carpet, lots of gold and warm tones. Encore provided a total production solution from initial concept through to execution and management on show night. Upon arrival guests were ushered down a glamorous red carpet posing in front of the 4m media wall to have their ‘paparazzi’ shot taken. Being an awards night, the hero of the event design was the bespoke stage set comprising of 2 x 15m wide screens, 8 hexagonal panels and a large 15m x 4.5m low res LED screen – the entire design spanning a total of 32m wide! A challenge in the production process was finding projector fabric large enough for the screens, leaving our team to import it from the UK as there is no seamless fabric tat large in New Zealand. Leading up to this impressive stage set, our team built a custom grand staircase in a hexagonal shape to complement the hexagonal screen panels and the gold wire hexagonal table centrepieces.

We collaborated closely with B&Ts marketing agency who was responsible for producing their on-screen content. It was important we met week in the lead up to the event to review the content and provide technical feedback to make sure it was feasible and provide creative insight as to what could be possible. Our production team brought this content to life on stage using our Watchout media server and some of the largest projectors in the country – 4 x 30K projectors – which included some projection mapping prowess to line up the single image across the entire set including the hexagonal panels. Lighting design comprised of static, amber-coloured pin spots lighting each onto each table, 8 profile lights rigged to the ceiling with 16 from the floor, casting beams of light around the room with gobo beams breaking them up. During each award a ballyhoo lighting effect was used giving it that Hollywood awards feel “similar to a lighting drumroll effect”.

We created a beautiful canopy effect on the ceiling using luxurious gold draping interspersed with warm fairy lights with black draping to dress the venue walls. Guest were treated to a mesmerising performance by a trio with the Grand Piano as we all as a special performance from popular New Zealand singer-songwriter Lizzie Marvelly. The choice of gold tones, warm lighting, a flashy dramatic stage set with big, orchestral music all worked beautifully together to create one memorable awards night.