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Production Management

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2001-2003: Adventures at Club Muzz

My role at Murray Tregonning & Associates was to be that of National Project Manager, and my duty would be two weeks in Melbourne and two weeks in Sydney in rotation.  While in Sydney I would stay at Murray’s house, known to all the MTA staff as “Club Muzz”  Every employee agreed that working at MTA was a bit like working in the “bar scene” from the first Star Wars movie.   Most people had nicknames – for example, the ex Australian rugby player promoting one of Murray’s sports products was known as “Road-Kill” because he used to be a Wallaby.  The room in which most of the staff worked was known as “NASA” because of the number of laptops on the large central table.  The work was very diverse, and very interesting.  I even found myself operating the tape replay for critical NRL tribunal decisions!  One of the big events each year was “Cracker Night” – New Year’s Eve in Sydney.  MTA was in charge of tying together all the communications for the event production, emergency services, maritime authority and pyrotechnics crew, as well as distributing the music tracks accompanying the fireworks to the PA and the media.  My role was to assist with set-up and pack-down and also to ensure the firework firing codes were reaching the Sydney Harbour Bridge via Telstra land line.  This allowed free entry to all parts of the bridge, so while the overalled tourists clipped to their safety lines were paying for their experience, I was able to freely clamber over the bridge while being paid for the privilege of checking the lines!

I also spent a few of the 9.00 p.m. fireworks on the bridge.  Only the barges on the harbour were used as firing platforms for these early fireworks, so it gave me a last minute chance to check the firing codes “in situ” without being exposed to fireworks on the bridge itself.  Even so, the shells from the barges exploding at just above bridge height were enough to shake the bridge structure, so it was very spectacular.  I also shared some of the tension and excitement of the event that the public never get to see – including the night where, because of the wind, it was touch and go with only minutes to spare as to whether the midnight fireworks would get the go-ahead at all.

After six months in the job it was agreed that I should take over the management of the Melbourne office and, thereafter, I only went to Sydney when my presence was required on some special event.  Murray purchased new flat-screen prompting (Autocue) equipment and it was part of my job to ensure that this became established in the corporate market.  With the help of some excellent operators, we soon did this and had a very large slice of the AGM market to ourselves.  I also became somewhat of a specialist corporate results release teleconference and webcast audio specialist.  I also returned briefly to boom operation on “Neighbours”.  I received a phone call from the head of audio at Global Television in the early hours of one morning asking could I rush over and operate boom because both of the operators were sick.  I had not stood on a boom for ten years, and said so.  Nevertheless, they were desperate and, as Global was our biggest customer, I felt I could not refuse.  It was with some trepidation that I climbed onto the boom but, ten minutes later, it was as if I had never climbed down.  This was the first of many “fill-in” operator days with the highly competent crew and very friendly cast of “Neighbours”.  It also led to occasional stints on the boom of “Rove Live” and its segment “Ten Minutes at Your Place”.  However, after two years at MTA I decided that Murray and I made better friends than business associates, and it was time for a move again.

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Peter checking lines on the Sydney harbour bridge, NYE 2002. Smoke from bushfires shrouds Sydney in the background

 

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On top of the world (well, at least the Sydney Harbour Bridge) on NYE 2002

 

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The bridge explodes at midnight...

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