A*STAR Forum & Scholarship Award Ceremony
Singapore's premier science and technology awards demanded broadcast-grade production worthy of the nation's brightest researchers — with a live national media feed where every misstep would be visible. AVL Services delivered.
A world-class production for Singapore's top researchers
Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) hosts the nation's premier science and technology awards ceremony — a high-profile occasion attended by senior government officials, university leadership, and the country's most accomplished scientific minds.
AVL Services was tasked with creating a broadcast-grade production worthy of the nation's brightest researchers — a ceremony that would honour the awardees on stage and represent A*STAR with sophistication on national media.
High-stakes ceremony with a live broadcast feed
The technical requirements were unforgiving — a high-profile government event where every word would be transmitted to national media in real time. The brief broke into four critical demands:
- Flawless wireless microphone audio — an awards programme with frequent speaker changes (presenters, dignitaries, awardees), each handoff visible on a live broadcast feed.
- Dramatic, choreographed lighting for the awards moments — building tension on the announcement, illuminating each awardee at the right second, and resetting cleanly between recipients.
- Seamless video backdrop — high-impact research videos and award visuals projected without judder, banding, or cue-miss.
- Live broadcast feed to national media — clean program audio, broadcast-clean video, and zero margin for technical interruption during a nationally-significant ceremony.
Broadcast discipline, choreographed precision
We approached this as a broadcast production from the first technical meeting. Wireless RF was coordinated as a single managed plan across all microphones, with redundant handheld units pre-paired and ready for any handoff scenario. Audio routed through a Midas digital console with a clean program feed sent directly to the broadcast truck.
Lighting was the second pillar of the production. 120 intelligent fixtures, including Clay Paky moving lights, were sequenced on an MA Lighting console with every awards moment pre-programmed: the announcement build, the awardee spotlight, the applause look, and the smooth reset for the next recipient. Every cue rehearsed, every fixture mapped to a specific moment of the ceremony.
Video projection ran on Barco systems for the high-impact research backdrop, with content review and timing locks performed in advance with the A*STAR creative team.
Production equipment for broadcast-grade ceremony AV
Hardware chosen for reliability under live-broadcast scrutiny — every component has redundant backup, every signal path tested.
Shure Wireless Systems
Coordinated frequency-management across the entire programme — zero RF dropouts during the ceremony, with hot-spare handheld units pre-paired.
Midas Digital Console
Audio mixing with a dedicated clean program feed to the broadcast truck, plus full scene recall for each ceremony segment.
Bose Distributed Speakers
Even, intelligible coverage across the hall — every seat received the same SPL and clarity for spoken word.
Barco Projection
High-impact projection for award visuals and research videos — colour-managed to match A*STAR's branding.
MA Lighting Console
Sequenced 120 intelligent fixtures with cue-by-cue choreography for each awardee moment, applause look, and segment reset.
Clay Paky Moving Heads
Premium moving lights for dramatic award reveals and dynamic stage looks worthy of a national ceremony.
Broadcast-quality production. Flawless on-air.
The national media broadcast aired flawlessly. Every word of every speech transmitted clearly. Every wireless microphone handoff was clean. Every lighting cue hit on the music. Every awardee moment looked exactly as designed.
Post-event feedback from the A*STAR organising team praised "world-class production standards" and the production sophistication appropriate to honouring Singapore's leading researchers. The broadcast partner reported a clean program feed with no technical interruptions to manage on their side — the rarest compliment in live event broadcast.
For AVL Services, A*STAR remains a defining example of how we approach high-stakes government and research ceremonies: treat every show as a broadcast, build redundancy into every signal path, and rehearse every cue until it's automatic.
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