Live-to-Air Gala Dinner

Edwards were recently honoured to provide audio-visual support to a National Tribute evening celebrating Sir Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford at a sold-out Westlake Boys High School auditorium. Sky Sport NZ televised the event live, and replayed the evening on free-to-air on Prime TV.

Edwards worked alongside Kelsen Butler, Managing Director of Sports Inc, an independent television production company specialising in sports related programming and content. The challenges facing the production team were twofold. Firstly, understanding the gear, acoustics and lighting of the venue. Secondly producing an event that delivered for the in-house dinner guests and catered for the needs of the live TV audience.

Edwards came highly recommended to Kelsen having a strong track record of supporting events at Westlake Boys High School,

“Yes they knew the venue, but they also understood the unique and complex requirements of a televised dinner event. Lighting is especially important for live TV and you need to be confident that your AV people know exactly what is going to happen next to get that lighting right.”

Kelsen was impressed,

“Edwards worked closely with us and the Sky team, making suggestions and drilling down to the details. Ed was our main point of contact leading up to the event and he was really helpful. The technical operators were really good to deal with too and gave me complete peace of mind.”

The evening saw Sir Wayne's whanau, friends and former All Black colleagues share their favourite Buck story, followed by Sir John Kirwan, the first National Tribute recipient, presenting Sir Wayne with a Toki Poutangata. This was followed by a Haka 'Ka Mate' led by Sir Wayne's son, Eru.

“From my perspective it was a complete success. We had positive feedback from the audience at the venue, and people really enjoyed watching it on TV. Edwards looked after the lighting and audio, meaning I could just concentrate on managing the event.”