The 2008 Juno Awards may be just one night in Calgary, but prep on the 800,000-watt live show has been underway since July.

It will take more than 10,000 work-hours for the technical crew to get the show up and running on Sunday, when CTV airs the Canadian music awards for the seventh consecutive year. The show will use more than 400 miles of audio, video and lighting cable — roughly the distance between this year’s venue at Calgary’s Pengrowth Saddledome and last year’s show in Saskatoon.

‘There’s a lot of Calgary in this show,’ says executive producer John Brunton of Toronto’s Insight Productions, who describes the stage design as ‘fossils meet fossil fuels with a badlands vibe.’ This will be Brunton’s 14th Juno Awards.

Fifteen acts will hit the stage, including Calgary-born Feist and Michael Bublé. The diverse lineup should attract a wide audience, remarks Brunton, explaining that last year’s show may have skewed a little young.

‘We’ve got a great timeslot this year and a great rundown, so I think the ratings will rebound,’ he says. Last year ratings dipped to 912,000, compared with 1.7 million in 2006.

CTV will air this year’s show at 8 p.m. Last year, the Junos aired just shy of primetime at 7 p.m., after some scheduling confusion that saw it bumped to make room for a two-hour special of CBS’ The Amazing Race.

Each year, according to Brunton, expectations for the awards show are growing, as Canada continues to produce more international hits such as Feist, Nickelback and Avril Lavigne.

‘We’re expected to be as good as any awards show in the world,’ he says. ‘We have to be as good as the BRIT Awards and the Grammys because our musicians are on those shows.’

Producer Louise Wood and line producer Donna Luke have their work cut out for them, timing the two-hour broadcast down to the second. This includes predicting the time of applause for certain awards and building in ad lib time for the host, comedian Russell Peters.

‘I think Russell Peters has everyone crossing their fingers and a little bit nervous, which is just what you want,’ says Brunton. ‘It’s a white-knuckle ride doing TV like this.’

Also executive producing for Insight is Barbara Bowlby as well as Melanie Berry and Stephen Stohn for the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. The show is produced in association with CARAS and CTV.