The Scots College Tattoo 2025

Turning a School Oval into a World-Class Outdoor Arena

To mark 125 years of its storied Pipes and Drums program, and the official opening of the new John Cunningham Student Centre, The Scots College in Sydney hosted The Scots College Tattoo 2025, a large-scale outdoor event that paid homage to its Scottish heritage and longstanding performance traditions.

Drawing clear inspiration from the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, the show brought together massed pipe bands, highland dancers, fireworks, cinematic visuals, and broadcast-grade production across a sprawling temporary venue built on the school’s Bellevue Hill campus.

At the heart of the production and working closely with Bandmaster Paul Hughes from Scots was The Media Joint, engaged as principal technical producer. Their end-to-end scope included lighting, audio, video, special FX, staging, power, event communications, and post-show media. The result: in collaboration with Paul, a show that felt more like a stadium spectacular than a school concert with over 500 performers.

Technical Direction and Delivery

From the outset, the vision was clear; create a professional-grade event that showcased the College’s entire student body, from ELC to Year 12, across all campuses, and even alumni. The Media Joint approached this with some key ‘pillars’ they wanted to achieve.

The lighting was a selling point on the tickets for the show, so they needed to deliver. Vivid was mentioned in a number of the early planning meetings. The sound system needed to be able to provide enough punch to the audience, similar to larger festivals. ‘Feeling the audio’ was something they wanted to be able to give the audience. The video needed to have the large sensor look, and be as ‘cinematic’ as possible, ideally also in 4K.

Lets give the kids a go! At the end of the day, it’s a school, and having a project this large gives incredible opportunities for students to get on the tools.

Lighting

Lighting played a critical creative and architectural role, not only illuminating the 60m x 40m parade ground, but also treating the new five storey student centre as a centrepiece canvas.

Partnered with Latarka, the team deployed over 200 fixtures, with key units including:

• Elation Lighting Proteus Radius
• ACME GEIST BSWF hybrids
• Claypaky Mini-B LED wash
• ShowPRO LED Blinder II IP, FusionBAR Q XV, and FusionPAR Q XV
• Four 13m scaff towers provided front and side coverage
• Architectural control integrated via C-Bus/ DALI to DMX using a Visual Productions IO Core

Control was handled via MA Lighting grandMA3 light and compact consoles

Audio

While much of the performance wasn’t amplified (notably the massed pipes), reinforcement was essential for narration, playback, and show cues, particularly the finale. Focused Productions supplied key PA infrastructure.

System overview:

• 13 dB Technologies VIO ground stacks
• + subs for site-wide coverage
• Four Opera 10s for foldback
• Allen & Heath dLive C3500 at FOH
• Three Dante-enabled stage boxes for distributed I/O
• Shure ULXD wireless mics and Sennheiser EW G4 IEMs

All major cues and SFX were timecoded via QLab, tightly syncing music, narration, fireworks, and LX

Video

Video served three roles: real-time IMAG for the 3,000+ attendees, a broadcast-style archive of the event, and interactive live cross moments inside the new student centre.

Capture setup included:

• Four Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2s
• Three URSA w/ 90x box lenses
• An URSA on 12m jib (via Cinemotion)
• Two Pocket Cinema 6K w/ DJI Ronins and Teradek Bolts
• DJI Inspire 3 drone for aerials Mixing and distribution:
• Blackmagic ATEM Constellation 2ME switcher
• 30sqm Lampro LSK 3.9mm LED screen
• Back of house live stream routed via Vivi media players to classrooms that acted as green rooms for the 500+ performers
• 10 Scots students operated cameras and assisted in live switching as part of a mentorship initiative

Staging and Infrastructure

The show was designed with the new student centre as a backdrop, but the school oval lacked any production infrastructure. Clifton Productions provided core engineering and infrastructure, which expanded significantly as ticket demand grew.

Site infrastructure included:

• Tiered grandstands for 2,600 guests
• + 500 school bleacher seats
• Covered 9m FOH tower, four 13m LX/FX towers, and a custom LED screen scaffold
• All structures designed for minimal oval impact
• Powering the event was three diesel gensets to seven 32A 3-phase distros

Special FX

With fireworks a critical creative requirement from Scots, Foti Fireworks provided a custom solution to safely deploy high-impact FX in close proximity to audience, building, and performers.

• FX & atmospheric systems:
• Eight G-Flame units (on 2.5m truss)
• Four pyro launch points
• Finale sequences were fully timecoded with QLab and lighting control

Comms and Control

With over 500 student and professional performers and a large technical crew, site-wide communications were a non- negotiable.

System backbone:

• 30 Riedel Bolero packs, 10 Hytera radios
• Three Riedel Artist SmartPanels
• Gigabit VLAN-separated Dante/IP network running over copper and fibre, extended using the school’s patch infrastructure

Challenges and Logistics

There were tight bump-in windows due to school operations (during the day it still had to operate like a school), and there was no existing infrastructure on the oval. It was also the first time the school had attempted anything on this scale. Being outdoors, wind interference had to be factored into the haze and atmosphere effects. Despite these challenges, the production stayed on schedule and delivered without compromise.

The Result

The Scots College Tattoo 2025 was hailed as a resounding success, with over 3,000 attendees and high praise from the College’s leadership team. Dr. Ian PM Lambert, Principal, said: “The Media Joint’s calm, considered nature under pressure was nothing short of phenomenal.

You truly set the standard for how to manage an event of this magnitude.”

For The Media Joint, this event represents a benchmark in outdoor events and community, driven large-scale production, where storytelling, mentorship, and broadcast-quality technical execution aligned in a single unforgettable night.