What your AV company needs before planning production.
You do not need to design the sound system or choose a switcher. A strong initial brief explains the event, rooms, presenters, audience and intended result so the production team can recommend the technical scope.
The most useful AV brief combines the current agenda with venue and room information. It can be incomplete, but known assumptions and unanswered questions should be visible. This reduces revisions and helps the production company identify risks early.
Event overview
- Event name, organization and primary objective
- Conference, town hall, summit, awards program, meeting or launch
- In-person, hybrid or fully streamed format
- Event dates and public program hours
- Expected total attendance
- Primary client decision-maker and day-to-day contact
Venue and access
- Venue name and complete address
- Contracted rooms and audience capacity
- Floor plans, ceiling heights and seating layouts
- Loading dock, freight elevator and parking instructions
- Available load-in, rehearsal and strike windows
- Union, house-labor or exclusive-service requirements
- Rigging, power and internet contacts
- Certificate-of-insurance and security requirements
Agenda and room schedule
- Latest agenda, even if marked draft
- Session name, start time, end time and assigned room
- Turnover time between sessions
- Overlapping sessions and shared presenters
- Meals, receptions or room conversions
- Executive rehearsals and technical rehearsal windows
An early agenda marked “subject to change” is more useful than waiting for a final version. The production team can identify simultaneous rooms, tight transitions and missing rehearsal time while the schedule is still flexible.
Stage and presenter formats
- Keynote, panel, fireside chat, lectern or awards format
- Number of speakers on stage at one time
- Presenter movement and audience interaction
- Remote speakers or recorded contributions
- Teleprompter or confidence-monitor needs
- Accessibility, interpretation and caption requirements
Audio
- Expected microphone count by session
- Handheld, lavalier, headset, lectern or table preferences
- Audience questions and microphone runners
- Playback audio, walk-in music and show cues
- Press feeds, interpretation or assistive-listening needs
- Any band, performance or special audio input
Presentation and display content
- Presentation aspect ratio and source
- Who advances slides
- Video playback and embedded audio
- Confidence-monitor content
- LED, projection, television or digital-signage expectations
- Presentation submission deadline and approval process
- Sponsor loops, holding slides and walk-in content
Lighting, stage and scenic
- Stage size, height and furniture
- Lectern, panel chairs, tables and branding
- Scenic references, backdrop or LED-wall content
- Room atmosphere and brand colors
- Camera-lighting requirements
- Walk-on paths, awards positions and audience light
Cameras, recording and streaming
- Which sessions require cameras
- IMAG for in-room screens
- Full-session recording or event highlights
- Live-stream destination and account owner
- Remote presenters and audience interaction
- Captions, graphics and lower thirds
- Program recording and isolated-source requirements
- Final formats, delivery deadlines and publishing platforms
Staffing and responsibility
- Event planner and production lead
- Venue contact and in-house AV contact
- Stage manager and show caller
- Speaker-management contact
- Presentation-content owner
- Streaming-platform administrator
- Person authorized to approve technical or schedule changes
Questions the production company should answer
- What information is still missing?
- Which venue limitations require a site visit or technical conversation?
- What is included in each room?
- How are simultaneous rooms staffed?
- When are presentations due and who checks them?
- What must be rehearsed?
- Which functions have backup paths?
- What does the client, venue and production company each provide?
- What files will be delivered after the event?
“The venue has internet,” “the presenter brings a laptop” and “the session will be recorded” are not complete production plans. Confirm the handoff point, operator, test process, backup and final owner for every critical function.
Send us the available information.
The agenda and venue do not need to be final. LiveFocus can identify the open technical decisions and build the room-by-room approach.
Request a production plan