The Might Behind the Stars

Primary Schools Music Festival brings together thousands of young performers, engaging primary school students throughout South Australia to perform in a large-scale arena production. Working alongside the Primary Schools Music Festival, Ding Productions, Nexstage Staging & Rigging, Adelaide Entertainment Centre and Ever After Entertainment, Novatech has delivered the technical production for the festival’s two most recent appearances at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre Arena.

Building on a longstanding relationship that includes Stars in the Arena in 2021 and the festival’s return to the Arena in 2025, Novatech will once again provide the complete technical solution for this year’s production, helping create an immersive and memorable experience for performers and audiences alike.

Putting 1,500 Students Centre Stage

The production needed to support a choir of 1,500 young performers alongside featured artists and musicians, ensuring every participant could be seen and heard clearly throughout the venue. It also required the transformation of the arena into a dynamic performance environment, using technology, content and scenic elements to complement the music without overshadowing the students at the heart of the event.

Delivering a production of this scale required the careful coordination of the choir, soloists, musicians, dancers, presenters and numerous production departments within a tightly programmed live environment. Traditional staging and production approaches needed to be adapted to accommodate clear sightlines, consistent audio coverage and strong visual impact across the entire arena. Wireless microphone management, audio control, backstage coordination and communication between departments also needed to operate reliably throughout rehearsals and performances.

Every technical element had to function as part of one cohesive system, supporting the creative direction while allowing the production team to respond quickly as the show progressed.

One Integrated Production Solution

Novatech provided a comprehensive technical production package covering audio, lighting, vision, projection, LED, media servers and communications. Working closely with the client and production partners, the team developed a scalable design that responded to both the creative vision and the operational demands of the arena.

Detailed planning, system design, equipment preparation and onsite coordination allowed every department to work together seamlessly, from the rehearsal period through to the final performances.

Novatech’s full-service approach also reduced the need for the client to coordinate multiple technical suppliers, providing one integrated production team across all major disciplines.

Audio, Visual & Communications

Audio was a critical component of the production, with almost 50 channels of Shure Axient and UHF-R wireless microphones used throughout the show. An arena-wide L-Acoustics system comprising more than 100 loudspeakers provided consistent coverage across the venue. The system included K2, K1SB, KARA, KIVA II, X8, ARCS and 112P loudspeakers, carefully deployed to support the choir, musicians, featured performers and spoken elements.

Audio control was managed through DiGiCo Quantum 338, Quantum 225 and SD10 consoles, providing the flexibility and processing capability required for the production’s extensive channel count and complex performance cues.

A complete Riedel communications package, including SmartPanels, Bolero wireless intercom and Artist 64, connected the production, stage management and technical departments. This allowed teams across the arena to communicate clearly and respond quickly throughout rehearsals and live performances. This reliable communications infrastructure was essential to coordinating the many moving parts of the production and maintaining a consistent show flow.

More than 120 square metres of ROE Visual V8T LED formed a striking scenic backdrop behind the choir. The LED content provided colour, movement and visual storytelling while maintaining the students as the central focus of the production. Floor projections created an additional layer of visual depth across the stage. Barco UDX4K-32 projectors fitted with ultra-short-throw lenses were driven by disguise media servers, allowing projected content to interact with the performance space and extend the visual environment beyond the LED screens.

The lighting design incorporated more than 200 moving light fixtures from Ayrton, Martin and Claypaky. These fixtures brought colour, texture and atmosphere to each musical item while helping shape the scale of the arena around the performers. Novatech also continued the innovative production approach established during the 2021 festival, where Barco projection, disguise media servers and Wahlberg roll-down systems were used to create floor projections and dynamic scenic reveals. Temporary grandstand seating for the choir was delivered by Nexstage Staging & Rigging, helping accommodate the large number of performers while maintaining appropriate sightlines and stage access.

Together, these systems transformed the arena into an immersive performance environment designed specifically around the needs of the students, creative team and audience.

Building on longstanding partnerships

Following the success of the festival’s return to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre Arena, Novatech is proud to be working with the Primary Schools Music Festival again this year.

The upcoming production will build on the knowledge, systems and trusted relationships developed across previous festivals, while exploring new ways to support the event’s creative direction and enhance the experience for performers and audiences.

Novatech looks forward to once again helping thousands of young South Australians take to the stage and experience the energy of performing within a major arena production.

Testimonial

“Working with Novatech Creative Event Technology at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre has been nothing short of exceptional. Their staff are not only highly skilled, but incredibly supportive and creative in every aspect of production. As two proudly South Australian organisations, we value the partnership and the shared commitment to excellence.

Together, we have helped deliver unforgettable experiences for nearly 10,000 public school students performing at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. Novatech’s professionalism, innovation, and collaborative spirit make them an indispensable part of our success.”

Irene Solowij, Manager | Primary Schools Music Festival