Some briefs you have to think about. This one took about five seconds.
Original Audio is partnering with the SONARR Awards, Australia's first ever awards night celebrating the full audio landscape, and we're providing the soundtrack for the evening as well as the audio branding for the event itself.
An audio agency creating the sound of an audio awards show. If we can't get excited about that, we're in the wrong business.
For as long as I've worked in audio, the industry has been recognised in pieces. Radio had its awards. Podcasting had its own (until 2024). Audiobooks and voice-over mostly got left out altogether. But that's not how audio actually works anymore, the lines between radio, podcast, audiobook and voice have well and truly blurred, and the people making great work move across all of them.
SONARR, short for Sound and Narrative, is the first program to put it all under one roof. Thirty-five categories across podcast, radio, audiobook and voice-over. Independent creators judged on equal footing with the major networks. Dedicated recognition for First Nations, CALD, LGBTQIA+, female, student and indie creators. A $10,000 prize pool split evenly between commercial and indie streams. And AFTRS on board as founding education partner.
Huge credit to founder Pariya Taherzadeh for building something the industry has genuinely never had before. When she told me about the vision, saying yes was the easy part.
Here's the thing about an audio awards night: it has to sound incredible. You can't hand out an award for sound design over a generic stab of stock music. The room will notice. The room is literally full of people who notice.
So we're treating the event the way we'd treat any brand, building a sonic identity for SONARR from the ground up. The moment you walk into Machine Hall, the award stings, the walk-up music, the atmosphere between moments, all of it crafted, all of it distinctly SONARR. Our job is to make the night feel like what it is: the biggest celebration of Australian audio ever staged.
It's the kind of brief we live for at Original Audio. We spend our days helping global brands understand that sound isn't an afterthought, it's identity. Now we get to prove it in front of the one audience that already believes us.
The inaugural SONARR Awards gala is on 15 October 2026 at Machine Hall in Sydney. Submissions are open now at sonarr.au, if you've made great audio this year, whether you're a network or a bedroom producer, get your entry in.
We'll be the ones making the room sound good. Come say hi.
— Aaron, Founder & Creative Director, Original Audio
