ESS scrum down in Sydney

Australia - While most of us were busy watching the Rugby World Cup, the crew from ESS Australia were in the thick of preparations for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as a few things in between. For the opening ceremony at Telstra Stadium, ESS built a mobile rugby ball-shaped stage measuring 14m by 8m on which Australian band George performed. This stage was also used for Australian singing icon Kate Cebrano for her performance during the closing ceremony. A number of other structures were built around the stadium by ESS including the orchestra stage. "Considering the cast and crew for the opening ceremony numbered around 2,500, it all came together remarkably smoothly," commented Iain Barclay, ESS's man in Australia.

ESS also supplied one of their new, q50 type stages, built to a larger size of 14.4m by 9.6m at the Opera House for the show 'Rugby on the House', popularly called 'ROTH'. This show featured well-known personalities commenting before and after various key matches. "It was definitely the place to be if you didn't have a ticket," said Barclay. "People could sit on the Opera House steps and watch the games on a Clipsal video screen flown from a Minitron screen support."

In addition, the evening before the quarter-finals, ESS provided 100m of barrier for the final of Australian Idol (their own unique version of Pop Idol) plus special tube and fit barrier for the red carpet going up the opera house stairs. "We used rubber and lead weights to ensure the structure didn't move and to guarantee there was no damage to the opera house itself," said Barclay.

ESS also supplied a Tomcat stage in front of the Opera House, where some of the Australian Idol contestants performed, plus a small MiniBeam stage at First Fleet Park adjacent to the city's historic Museum of Contemporary Art.

(Lee Baldock)

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