Once upon a time, Emily, a successful event planner, was planning a corporate sales meeting for a client at a luxurious hotel just outside of Miami, FL. The hybrid event (a mixture of in-person and virtual) was expected to attract over 500 people who would join in person, and another 250 remote attendees.
The two-day meeting was jam packed with breakout sessions and workshops, all of which would need to be live streamed. There were five presenters, all of whom would be presenting remotely. To culminate the sales meeting, a surprise keynote speaker delivered their speech remotely during the closing award ceremony.
Emily and her team had done their due diligence and confirmed with the hotel’s AV department that the hotel would provide all of the AV equipment and staging while a third-party vendor would manage the live stream to the stage planning.
When Emily checked in to the hotel the day before the event, she decided to reach out to the the AV team to ensure everything was ready to go for tomorrow’s event. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get through to anyone so she reached out to the sales manager who she had worked with previously.
As it turned out, the manager of the AV department was out with Covid and his counterpart had called in sick earlier that day. No other employees at the hotel had any knowledge or experience with AV. This was not good, especially considering her event was hours away from starting and none of the AV was setup or tested.
To say Emily was anxious would be a massive understatement. This event would be a complete flop without AV.So what if they booked an A-List celebrity as the keynote speaker if nobody can hear them!
Emily reached out to the third-party who would be responsible for producing and live streaming the meeting, detailing her predicament to them and wondering if they could help with the onsite AV. As it turned out, this third-party vendor was very knowledgeable in AV and even though they weren’t onsite at the time, they were able to walk Emily and her team through the entire AV setup. Everything was back on track and the third-party vendor saved the day and the meeting.
Even though we won’t reveal the name of the client or the hotel hosting the event, the third-party vendor wound up being Vidionix. From that day forward, Emily and her team vowed to never rely solely on a hotel AV team for their events. Instead, they would use Vidionix to handle all of the AV and stage planning from there on out.
Here are some of the ways we help our clients with their AV needs:
Coordinate with Venue’s AV Team
While it may sound simple, AV technology evolves quickly. Hotel AV departments are notorious for charging significantly higher prices to use their equipment, so we act as a liaison between the event planners and the venue’s AV team and we usually end up saving our clients money by preventing them from spending money on technology they don’t need.
Production setup
We meet with our clients several months in advance to discuss the key elements of their event, such as presentations, panel discussions, live streaming, video playback, audience engagement, and lighting requirements. Doing so helps us understand the scale and complexity of their AV needs and helps us develop a technical plan.
AV Equipment Setup
This includes sound, cameras, microphones, projectors, and screens. Ensure that all equipment is in good working order and is set up correctly in the venue.
Ensure Internet Bandwidth is Sufficient
Internet connectivity is critical when it comes to planning large events, but some people don’t realize that the number of people using a wireless access point (AP) at the same time matters because it directly affects the performance and quality of the Wi-Fi connection.
Lighting
Ensure the lighting in the venue is appropriate for both in-person attendees and remote viewers.
