Background
Three Cities, One Live Event
prefabAUS is Australia’s peak body for prefabricated and offsite construction, bringing together manufacturers, builders, architects, engineers, researchers and government to advance smarter, more sustainable ways of building. Its work spans the same built-environment sector we serve through construction video production in Melbourne, where projects, processes and new ideas need to be communicated clearly.
On 21 August 2026, prefabAUS brought three finalist teams together for the online presentations in the Autodesk Challenge Cup.
Two student teams joined from Perth and one from Sydney, while Damien Crough from prefabAUS, head judge Laurence Robinson and Daniel Noviello from Autodesk hosted from the Broadmeadows campus of Melbourne Polytechnic.
The Autodesk Challenge Cup is a university team competition for students in architecture, engineering and construction management. The 2026 brief, Designing for Country, asked teams to consider how Smart Building housing solutions and Modern Methods of Construction could foster cultural connection.
The challenge
Different Presenters, Different Time Zones, One Public Program
The event needed to feel like one coordinated presentation, even though the people taking part were spread across three cities and two time zones.
The Melbourne hosts had to move between team introductions, presentation decks, video playback and Q&A without losing the pace of the live program. Remote audio, screen sharing and handovers all needed to be tested before the broadcast began.
At the same time, prefabAUS wanted the event to be easy to join. A familiar public platform meant students, AEC professionals and supporters could watch without travelling to a single venue.
The action
One Broadcast Built Around the Three Finalist Teams
Dream Engine’s live streaming production in Melbourne brought multiple cameras, professional audio, live switching and presentation integration into one coordinated program. The finalist presenters joined through Zoom, while viewers watched on YouTube.
Rehearsals and PowerPoint testing took place before the event, giving each team a clear path into the program and allowing remote audio, presentation playback and handovers to be checked.
Western Sydney University
Kinforge
Project: Confluence Living
Curtin University
Stable Sands Studio
Project: Back-to-Back
Curtin University
Horizon Studio
Project: Designing for Country
Audience participation
The Audience Was Part of the Event
The livestream was designed to be more than a one-way broadcast.
YouTube live chat let viewers respond as the presentations unfolded, support the teams and add their own questions.
At the end of the program, viewers were invited to vote in a live poll for the People’s Choice Award. Kinforge from Western Sydney University was later announced as the People’s Choice winner.
The poll gave the online audience a clear role in the event, rather than asking them to watch passively from another city.
The result
Live Access Now, a Useful Recording Afterwards
The final broadcast connected three student teams with the Melbourne hosts and gave a wider audience direct access to the finalist presentations.
Viewers could follow the projects, join the conversation and vote from wherever they were. Nobody needed to bring every presenter, judge and supporter into the same room.
The livestream was also recorded and remains available on the prefabAUS YouTube channel. prefabAUS can share it after the event, while future students can see how the finalist presentations work before deciding whether to enter the competition.
The practical outcome
A Live Event Without the Travel Burden
Livestreaming let prefabAUS run one coordinated event without asking every team, judge and supporter to travel to the same city.
It also left the organisation with a complete recording that can support post-event communication and help future entrants understand the competition.
Planning a Live Event With Remote Presenters?
We can bring studio hosts, remote speakers, presentations, audience interaction and recording together in one organised broadcast.
Ryan Spanger is the founder and managing director of Dream Engine, a Melbourne video production company established in 2002. Over the past two decades, he’s produced hundreds of videos for businesses, government departments, universities and healthcare organisations across Australia. Ryan specialises in helping organisations explain complex ideas through clear, engaging video content, with particular experience in corporate communications, training and education.
