Hurrairah bin Sohail speaks with Stephen Ward about how Vega New Zealand delivered the largest and most technically complex AV installation in the country in the shape of the New Zealand International Convention Centre.
When Vega New Zealand was awarded the AV contract for the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC), the space was conceived as the country’s definitive convention venue. The joint venture between the New Zealand government and SkyCity Entertainment Group aimed to put Auckland on the international events map.
Stephen Ward, managing director at Vega New Zealand, puts the scope and ambition of the project in context: “We have people who have been working at Vega for more that 15 years and the pedigree of our projects includes the Ministry of Justice, which we’ve looked after for nearly 20 years, to the Supreme Court of New Zealand. We are used to dealing with acoustics, audio, and AV for theatres and venues. But doing something of this scale and magnitude of what NZICC was trying to accomplish, it was by far the biggest project any of us had undertaken in New Zealand.”
NZICC spreads across 32,500 sq m on five levels above ground and it is stacked vertically rather than sprawled horizontally to fit Auckland’s tight central city footprint. The venue encompasses a 2,852-seat plenary theatre, a 6,637 sq m divisible exhibition hall, the Rouako Room which is an 840-person multipurpose icon space, the Wellesley Gallery entrance foyer, and 33 configurable meeting rooms spanning every floor. The AV system Vega designed, value-engineered, installed, commissioned, and now maintains serves all of it, end to end.
Forged in ambition
When the tender went to market in 2017, what distinguished Vega’s bid, was a willingness to take on the entirety of the project rather than split it across disciplines. Ward explains: “Everyone else went in with different companies. They partnered with companies that did theatres or specialised companies that would be able to handle a particular aspect of the project. We were the only company that went in and confidently claimed that we could do the whole thing, end to end.”
Vega stepped in, proposing a fundamental rearchitecting of the AV backbone. The centrepiece of that redesign was a shift to JBL Professional for loudspeakers, Crestron Control, and Crestron NVX which at the time was brand new. Ward recalls: “NVX hadn’t been released. Our design was built on new SKUs and the bleeding edge of technology.”
The NVX endpoints were deployed across a fibre-optic backbone connected via Cisco Nexus switching frames, creating what is now the largest single Crestron NVX deployment in New Zealand, with over 320 video endpoints distributing content across every level of the building.
In parallel, the original d&b speaker specification for the plenary theatre was replaced with the JBL VTX A series line array ultimately resulting in one of the largest JBL VTX installation in the Asia Pacific region.
Ward says: “The JBL VTX A series was new and JBL got behind it while Crestron wrote letters of support for the solution. It was breaking new ground, swapping out the original design for something that didn’t yet have a track record. Crestron Australia got behind it, extended warranties. It was brand new. We were the first in the world to procure some of the products that have been deployed at NZICC.”
In October 2019, tragedy struck as the NZICC’s roof caught fire and it burned for days. Water used to fight the blaze cascaded through the building causing flooding on the lower floors. The damage was extensive resulting in material being stripped, cabling removed, and all steel inspected for corrosion.
The project, originally scoped at 38 months to 39 months, ultimately took just over a decade from contract award to practical completion in November 2025. Vega re-subcontracted with principal contractor Fletcher Construction in 2019 and stayed the course. Ward says: “The design went through a bunch of revisions but the people that mattered, the people who were on this project from the very beginning they stuck it through. We’ve gone through a lot and it has been really hard but I do believe the end result is something we can all be massively proud of.”
Tech in concert
The NZICC’s control architecture reflects both the ambition of the redesign and the pragmatic creativity of Vega’s programming team. At the macro level, Crestron handles room control across all spaces and its purview includes master volume, source switching, display management, and room presets, all available via 10-in touchpanels or iPads. Crestron Fusion runs in the back-of-house, monitoring device status, flagging faults, and feeding utilisation data through to venue management.
Wayfinding and room booking are tied to a scheduling platform integrated via API with the Vitec/ Exterity IPTV and digital signage infrastructure.
Alongside Crestron, Q-SYS handles the audio backbone controlling functions such as background music, paging, room linking, and audio routing across the entire building. Crown DCi and I-Tech HD amplifiers receive Dante signals directly from the Q-SYS network, completing a fully digital audio chain.
Ward explains: “We effectively have a Crestron and a Q-SYS stack. Q-SYS is doing all the audio routing, paging, and background music. Crestron is doing all the heavy lifting with regards to configuration and interoperability along with room and master control. But you can do both and they share responsibilities according to the strengths and capabilities of the systems.”
One of the most technically sophisticated aspects of the wider system is the self-discovery capability built into the mobile lecterns and breakout racks deployed in the exhibition hall and flexible spaces. Each of the 16 portable racks, which can support between two and 15 microphones depending on event requirements, self-identifies against whichever floor box it is plugged into. The room’s touch panel automatically updates to show the rack’s location and its available inputs and outputs. Audio routing, video switching, and RF management for wireless microphones all reconfigure accordingly.
Ward expands: “When you plug Rack 16 into Floor Box 4, the system sees it and knows exactly where it is in terms of the mapping of the space. If you take it away and move it to another room, it disappears from that touchscreen and appears on the other. The programming behind it is quite phenomenal.”
Defining sound
If any single space in the NZICC serves as evidence of the ambition of the project, it is the plenary theatre. Spanning levels five, six, and seven and seating up to 2,852 in full configuration, it is the largest seated theatre in New Zealand. Its design is inherently flexible with retractable frontrow seating allowing the floor to be opened as a flat surface for banquets, dinner events, theatre performances, or dance recitals, while two acoustic walls can be deployed across the centre of the space to divide it into two independent theatres, each seating approximately 1,235. Critically, each half of the divided theatre has its own mixing desk, touch panels, and lighting controls, enabling entirely separate productions to run simultaneously.
The audio system at the heart of the theatre is a JBL VTX A8 series line array. It operates across two primary configurations. Full Performance mode, which treats the space as a single hall, and Dual Conference mode, in which the line arrays are redeployed for the divided theatre layout. During acoustic modelling using JBL’s Venue Synthesis software, the Vega team identified a third operating mode, a Hybrid Conference configuration that can be achieved without re-rigging between certain event types. Ward expresses his pride at the work that Vega has delivered: “The system achieves plus or minus 3dB coverage from front to back, which is phenomenal. You can go anywhere in that space and get the same sound quality. We at Vega are incredibly proud of it. I’ve personally been involved with the projects at Auckland Town Hall with JBL, the AIT Centre with JBL again, and I can say in my opinion this is by far the best JBL system in the country.”
Rigging efficiency was a significant design criterion. The VTX A8 arrays are lightweight and quick to deploy, with laser alignment tools and QR-coded rigging presets via the JBL Array Link app enabling fast changeovers between configurations. Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers and a Soundcraft Vi series digital mixing console complete the production audio chain.
The BSS DSP handles zone configuration and specialist signal processing for the theatre, with Clear-Com FreeSpeak managing intercom across front-of-house and back-of-house positions. Two Stage Management Consoles provide comprehensive paging, cue-light management, and show relay monitoring.
For visuals, five Panasonic 20,000 lumens laser projectors enable a range of configurations. These encompass an ultra-wide blended image, independent screens in the 16:9 position, or additional screens to either side of the stage. The system is also provisioned for external LED walls, AV patch points and backbone infrastructure which are in place to allow touring LED rigs to be integrated directly into the Crestron and Q-SYS network.
Ward acknowledges that the value-engineered acoustic design required a more involved approval process. “The consultant was hesitant to sign it off, as the revisions represented a notable change to the original approach. As a result, we undertook all the EASE modelling ourselves, working with JBL’s supplier, conducting additional testing and tuning, and providing updated data multiple times to verify the system’s performance. It ended up requiring a significant amount of additional work on our part.”
Engineering flexibility at scale On Level 3, which is the ground floor by access, despite the numbering, the main exhibition hall presented a very different challenge. At up to 6,708 sq m, it can hold 4,500 guests for general admission events. The hall can be divided into three independent zones via an advanced moveable wall system with 15 configurations, each with its own AV provision. The speaker system in the hall is JBL throughout and the speaker units are permanently mounted, down-firing ceiling speakers for public address and background audio. Below them, all other AV infrastructure is portable, anchored in the self-discovering mobile lecterns and breakout racks that allow the hall to reconfigure rapidly between wildly different events.
Ward notes: “Taking into account the events and MICE market in New Zealand, we might have a really small event one week and a massive event the next day. Turnaround times will be really close and the scale of the event might be variable. For example, they could be planning a boat show, wheeling in giant boats, and then follow that up with a small expo next week. The flexibility of the exhibition halls at NZICC is its biggest upside but for us from a technology standpoint it was our biggest challenge.”
Connectivity across the hall runs on a fibre-optic backbone feeding the Cisco Nexus switching layer, with Crestron NVX endpoints enabling video routing to any screen in the hall from any source in the building. Portability is the governing philosophy behind equipment selection. A Soundcraft mixer and stage box, Panasonic HD PTZ cameras, Screen Technics motorised projection screens, and LG 86-in extended widescreen displays can all be repositioned to match whatever floor plan the event requires.
Wellesley Gallery and Rouako Room
The Wellesley Gallery functions as the NZICC’s primary public entrance and a Leyard 2.5mm pixel pitch LED videowall greets visitors. JBL CBT constant-beamwidth column arrays handle audio coverage in the asymmetric space, while a motorised Screen Technics projection screen and Panasonic DLP projector extend presentation capabilities for pre-event gatherings.
The gallery’s AV systems scale to operate independently or integrate fully with adjacent hall and meeting room activity. The Rouako Room sits on Level 5 adjacent to the theatre and operates as a large-scale premium flexible venue in its own right. At 1,140 sq m, it can host 840 guests for a theatre-style event or be divided by removable walls into four or five independent meeting spaces. Four permanently installed Panasonic 20,000 lumens laser projectors cover the full open space, with additional Epson L-series projectors on UltraLift motorised lifts for smaller configurations. QSC and Crestron control the audio distribution and room switching throughout.
Signage and wayfinding Running through the building’s central circulation spine, a continuous run of back-to-back LED banner displays provides real-time wayfinding and event information.
Additional LED screens flank the entrance points to the theatre on each level. Touch-interactive LED panels are positioned at key points throughout the building. All digital signage and IPTV content is managed and distributed via the Vitec Exterity platform, linked to the venue’s scheduling system so that room signage automatically reflects confirmed bookings.
The meeting rooms across Levels 1 to 5, up to 33 simultaneous spaces, each carry a consistent AV provision in the shape of Crestron DM-NVX endpoints and 10-in touchpanels, Epson L-series projectors with Screen Technics motorised screens, Shure wireless microphone systems, and Q-SYS audio distribution.
Barco dual-display support and videoconferencing cameras enable hybrid event capability in larger rooms. All meeting room systems integrate with the wider building network and can receive streamed content from the plenary theatre or exhibition hall directly to any display.
A venue for Auckland
The NZICC opened for a soft launch in late 2025 and officially opened in February 2026, with 23 confirmed international events already in the pipeline through to 2028. Ward expects the venue’s event calendar to fill rapidly: “It’s a destination. A lot of people say to me, I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand. This is that opportunity.”
For Ward and the Vega team, the successful delivery of this project carries a weight that goes beyond professional achievement. The NZICC is a public building, one they can show their families. Ward says: “Our team approached it with a real sense of pride because it’s something they can point to and take their kids to. You can’t often do that with some of the work we do. It’s often behind closed doors. This is something we are proud of and we want to let everyone know that the Vega team did this.”
After a decade of fire, redesign, pandemic, supply-chain disruption, and issues that tested everyone involved, the NZICC stands as testament to what AV integration can accomplish despite the odds.