Technical Design & AV Production is Key to Audience Engagement

This year at The Meetings Show held at Olympia, London we were thrilled to host a campfire talk about the technical design and AV production for conferences and meetings.

At the start of the session led by Visions MD Chris Norman, each of the 8 or so delegates told the group about their role and the events they organise and any problems they encounter with the AV production at their event.

It seemed apparent at the end of these brief introductions that problems with sound levels across different events was a large concern of these organisers whether they held them in small meeting rooms right up to large exhibition venues like Excel and Olympia. Ironically on that day we could hear only too clearly how difficult it was to manage the sound levels in a venue like Olympia, being heard in a small campfire discussion was difficult with other seminars going on as well as the noise from the main exhibition floor.

Directly responding to each of the delegates issues, Chris was able to put across his experiences and best practice recommendations for how best to manage sound levels.

Key takeaway points included:

1. At planning stage ensure to make notes on each meeting, seminar, presentation space to ensure you are considering things that could impact on the sound e.g. adjoining seminar spaces, lack of sound proofing, poor acoustic properties (e.g. vaulted ceiling), a long narrow room and so on.
2. Ensure that whatever AV production company you contract the project to that you have technical conversations from the beginning, don’t let a sales man sell you the dream!!! Ensure they understand the spaces you are working in, what you want to achieve and problems you think you could encounter with the sound levels (or indeed anything else e.g. screen visibility)
3. Ask your AV production company to present different ways of overcoming the sound level issues g. enhanced sound proofing, additional speaker coverage and even headphones to really deliver an uninterrupted sound experience
4. In addition to the above remember to consider anyone that is hard of hearing or maybe speaking a different language, your AV production company had advise on solutions to overcome these issues simply

Steps 1 -3 are also important when considering screen types, projection and size – a long narrow room or pillars within a room can impact significantly on audience viewing ability and indeed any live event streaming or filming you were hoping to conduct.

Are you planning and event where you have concerns about the sound quality? Get in touch with our experienced technical sales team who will be able to propose a seamless but cost effective solution to your problems.