Biannual update … :-)

Time for an overdue update on everything we’ve been up to as Prompt Service since… um… winter 2021. OK, just the highlights then!

2021 did indeed end up being our busiest year ever, blowing 2020 out of the water by 30 days… only to be surpassed by a further 10 days of bookings in 2022. It can’t last, but we’ll take it 🙂.

The last year or so has included numerous live OBs for NEP and Kahwai (thanks Brendon) such as the first Matariki Day dawn service and celebration from Te Papa, Wellington, this year’s Rotorua broadcast and the first two annual Matariki Awards shows. We also visited the winterless North this year for Waitangi Day, West Auckland for The Maranga ‘Rise Up’ Benefit Concert, and the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Stardome Observatory and Orakei Marae with The Hui.

The FIFA World Cup Live Draw in Auckland last year involved 5-days of rehearsal and required adding some new tricks in our toolkit to enable split-second script tracking as the countries were drawn.

         

The rebrand launch of Vodafone NZ to One NZ was another major project we had to keep shtum about for a while, as was Coundown’s rebrand (return) to Woolworths. We also started a new regular gig this year prompting Chemist Warehouse’s weekly “What’s On at Chemist Warehouse”- recorded in store- to go with the “Healthy Break” and “Beauty Break” ads we’ve worked on for a few years now.

Recording “What’s On” in a busy working store has meant that our wireless video system has really come into its own and our free-standing prompting display is becoming a more-requested item for simple locked off pieces to camera, as is our ProPrompter wireless handheld rig

                  

Another piece of kit that spent a lot of its first year- 2020- on the shelf is our Telestepper robotic riser presidential system. But it’s now requested about 50% of the time for awards shows and Annual Shareholder Meetings. Air New Zealand, Zespri, and The Warehouse Group are some of the businesses that have been using it for a heads-up presentation of their streamed events for the last few years now.

         

And of course there are the many awards shows we prompt each year such as the Halberg, Radio, House Of The Year, Kea, INFINZ, TVNZ Marketing, Voyager Media and Property Council Awards. Oh, and the annual upfronts for both TVNZ and Warner Bros Discovery continue to make the end of each year a busy one.

         

None of this would be possible without our awesome operators, Luke, Josh and Imogen. Imogen even managed bookings during a busy June while Steve was on annual leave. Everyone stepped up and outside their comfort zone at some stage this year but we’ve yet to drop the ball; reliability and consistency are what it’s all about as far as our clients are concerned and that’s what we’ll continue to deliver.