Event Information

The Adventures of Smoky Dawson: A Life Remembered

Producer: Glenn T & Lance Smith
Venue: The Hills Centre for the Performing Arts
Date: 19/03/2008
Vision Events' Roles: Production Management, Audio Operation, Vision Design and Operation

As with many Australians, Vision Events staff were saddened by the passing of Australian country music legend Smoky Dawson on 13 February 2008.

Vision Events was approached by production company and good friend of Smoky, Leader Entertainment, to help stage a tribute concert to celebrate the life and achievements of this amazing man. The decision was quickly made to donate all proceeds of the concert to Bear Cottage: a charity that Smoky and his wife Dot had supported for many years.

The Adventurers of Smoky Dawson: a Life Remembered Tribute Concert was staged on 19 March at the Hills Centre for the Performing Arts in Sydney's North West. Vision Events' Simon Koenig was appointed as technical director of the concert and worked closely with event producers Lance Smith and Glenn T from Leader Entertainment. Vision Events' Terri Herlings and Mikey Rice provided stage management for the event, Sam Pembroke operated all visual aspects of the production, and in addition to his technical direction roll, Simon also operated audio for the event.

Lighting operation for the event was provided by Greg Yates from MandyLights and Lots of Watts helped out with providing extra audio and lighting equipment and monitors operation.

In preproduction, Vision Events was given hundreds of historic photographs and countless hours of footage in various formats of Smoky and his many projects. Terri and Simon collated, catalogued, and in many cases restored the footage before creating all AV content and image slide shows that were projected during the event.

The show included a talent line up and performances from Lee Kernaghan, John Williamson, James Blundell, Melinda Schneider, Mary Schneider and Rita Schneider; speeches and presentations from Ray Martin, Dick Smith and Lorrae Desmond; along with pre-recorded presentations from John Laws, Charles ‘Bud’ Tingwell and Jack Thompson, among many more.

The concert was a huge success and was well received by the just over 1000 people that were able to get tickets to the event. The week after the event, we received this thank you letter from the producers. This was truly a great night remembering the life for this amazing man.

Audio

• FOH PA — EAW KF-750 & Sb 1000 Ground stack
• FOH Console — A&H ML5000
• Monitors Console — Yamaha PM5D
• Hand Held Radio Mics — Sennheiser G2 Series
• Headset Radio Mics — Sennheiser G2 Series Pack & Da Cappo Headset
• Instrument Radio Mics — Sennheiser G2 Series Pack

Lighting

• Lighting Console — Grand MA
• Intelligent Lighting
• Martin Mac 700 Profile
• Martin Mac 700 Wash
• Martin Mac 2000 Profile

Visual

• Projectors — Sony VPL–FX51 Double Stack
• Screen — 8m × 6m Cyclorama Screen
• Switcher/Scaler — Extron ISS 506
• Vision Replay — Vision Events Custom PC to DV replay system

See this thank you letter to Vision Events from the producers of the event.