Vivad covers empty seats with 4656 SQM fabric at Australian Open

An enormous project landed in Vivad's lap this weekend, when, due to Victoria's snap lockdown, the large format specialist company was commissioned to cover the empty seats at the Australian Open tournament's stadium, with fabric. Two Vivid teams worked 12-hour shifts to print 4656 square metres of polyester fabric, decorated with the AO logo and trophy artwork, to a stunning result.

Ewen Donaldson, owner, Vivad explained that the project was offered out of the blue on Saturday afternoon; and after some rough calculations and half a dozen telephone calls, was able to confirm that he and his team were good to go.

"We had the stock, we had the ink, we had the team and we had the capability with our Durst Rhotex printing technology," he said, confirming that he was then able to respond to the request with a resounding “Yes, bring it on".

Ewan explained that the 4656 square metre print job was completed using dye sublimation, in the same way that activewear is printed. The ink was heated to 200 degrees celsius (the temperature at which it fixes to the polyester) and each panel was printed 3 metres wide and stitched together to form a total of 18 sections.

 "The total number of linear metres of printing and sewing was 1.5 kilometres, and the print process took a total of 26 hours," he said, confirming that two teams were used, split into two 12-hour shifts to complete the job.

"This was to keep the process of printing, sublimating, trimming and sewing running continuously around the clock. We kept on going until the job was done," he explained. Everything was done at Vivad's Melbourne facility in Campbellfield by the company's amazing team of can-do operators. 

"We are incredibly grateful to Tennis Australia for the opportunity to demonstrate what Australian manufacturing is capable of," added Ewan. "Now we are catching up on some well-deserved sleep!"