The Brief

The project brief for the ceremonies called for a modern, current, line-array based audio solution with all audience members to receive consistent sound pressure level, full range and with a high degree of intelligibility. The audio provider will also provide all replay devices and operators, a full RF microphone, monitoring solution, and signal distribution services.

Solution

Given the requirements laid out in the project specification, Norwest Productions made a series of investments in new equipment. In total, NW Group invested in over 370 new speakers to deliver this event, taking our national inventory to around 900 of L-Acoustics speakers as well as our stock of other industry-benchmark brands.

With our increasing sporting ceremonies workload of the last couple of years, we had already committed to purchasing a new L-Acoustics K2 system, and made other significant upgrades to Optocore signal transport systems and our patching and routing infrastructure. A system of Shure’s latest Axient Digital RF microphones completed this investment for this event.

The sound setup for the ceremonies was designed by Norwest’s in-house team who have years of experience in designing, operating and project managing large-scale audio systems for international ceremonies events.

Outcome

The Opening and Closing Ceremonies were key to the projection of the Gold Coast’s, Queensland’s and Australia’s image to the world. What people heard, saw and experienced was critical to the Games’ success. We were absolutely focused on working in partnership with the Ceremonies team to deliver a sound experience that all visitors attending GC2018 would be in awe of.

The outcome was extremely positive with a very happy client, and rave reviews were received regarding the live and broadcast sound.

“Over a billion people around the world tuned in to watch the Opening & Closing Ceremonies for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, and Norwest’s professionalism, dedication and delivery were integral to this success. Thank you for helping us tell a universal, unifying story from this awesomely beautiful place, our energetic country, with our ancient, richly connected stories and our warm forward-looking people – Jack Morton Worldwide”