The Helm in sync with Brisbane Festival launch fireworks

The recent Riverfire by Australian Retirement Trust kicked off the 2025 Brisbane Festival in spectacular style, with fireworks and fighter jet flyovers in front of around half a million people on Brisbane’s waterfront. Expert in cinematic broadcast for live productions, The Helm provided it with a new approach to time code distribution and synchronisation.

Brisbane’s Riverfire Festival Staged in association with Channel 9 and Triple M, Riverfire continued The Helm’s long relationship supporting Foti International Fireworks. ‘As rock solid time code delivery was critical for the event, we took a hybrid UHF and SD-WAN approach,’ says The Helm co-founder and CTO, Paul Barrett,. ‘Our team deployed two constant transit UHF bases on key buildings, providing both frequency and geographic diversity. The fireworks barges then received the signal via two radios, ensuring clear and reliable time code delivery.’

Employing 5G, Starlink and fixed connectivity, a robust SD-WAN was created using The Helm’s extensive inventory of bonded modem solutions linked to its private cloud servers, extending from the festival site to as far as the Channel 9 Network on Mount Coot-tha, where the time code not only triggered the audio playback but also ensured co-ordination with other on-air commitments. This combination of technologies enabled rapid deployment and a level of flexibility not previously available to the event organisers.

‘What made this project so rewarding was seeing broadcast and live event workflows merge so effortlessly,’ Barrett says. ‘By combining UHF, SD-WAN and cloud control, we were able to deliver absolute precision and reliability across every part of the production.’

‘This year, we engaged The Helm to provide technical expertise for delivering time code to multiple locations across Brisbane City for Brisbane Festival’s Riverfire by Australian Retirement Trust,’ says festival Technical Director, Tim Pack. ‘The team’s expertise and the service they provided were flawless throughout the process. I highly recommend their services and will definitely engage them again for next year’s display.’

‘Despite a short turnaround and multiple stakeholders involved, their organised and collaborative approach helped deliver a great result and we look forward to working with them again,’ adds Tim Gray from Foti International Fireworks Pty Ltd.

More: www.the-helm.co

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