Shedding light on Christmas

to the soundtrack,” Mr Parker said.

“The following week we get access to the barge and begin installation on to the tree itself.”

Each of the six-minute soundtracks involved 40-50 hours of programming.

The light and sound show is connected by wi-fi to a control system housed in The Carousal.

While Total Events is in charge of the light and sound, other contractors are responsible for connecting the power, delivering the barge and maintaining and installing the tree.

The council has budgeted $400,000 in overall costs for the floating tree, set to light up the Waterfront for its fifth season from November 9 until January 7.

The tree is the key drawcard in the city’s Christmas in Geelong program which last year attracted about 260,000 people.

The tree alone generated an estimated $2.51 million in positive media coverage through 504 separate media items and the council’s social media accounts had a total reach of 1.028 million people for its Christmas posts.

Mr Parker said he was proud responsibility for delivering the light and sound components had fallen to a Geelong company.

“It lets people know you are capable of those bigger projects and you are not just handling a conference for 100 or 200 people,” he said.

Other prominent jobs undertaken by Total Events include the match day program at the Geelong Football Club and Carols by Candlelight.

“A lot of our work is in the background and you don’t know we are there,” Mr Parker said.

He said a major change in supplying lighting and audiovisual equipment for events over the years was in providing a live feed to screens.

“A screen at an event used to be a bit of a luxury but now everyone expects to show up to an event and see a large screen,” Mr Parker said.